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Brooks Harper once said he had a hammer in his hand starting at the age of 10.
Back then, it was to help his father, contractor Ernest Harper, whose company E.B. Harper & Sons built about 100 homes in Marietta.
But through his life, Harper, who passed away Sunday at the age of 79, continued contributing to the city, building a legacy of community service and devotion to his hometown.
"He was just a force there on the west side," said friend David Corbitt, of Parkersburg, who worked with Harper as a member of the Historic Harmar Bridge Company and knew him for 30 years. "He would get stuff done."
Corbitt said he's not sure the Harmar Railroad Bridge would still be open for pedestrians as a link to downtown if not for Harper's enthusiasm and doggedness.
Harper was "a doer," agreed Chuck Swaney, vice president of the Historic Harmar Bridge Company, who said that it will be a struggle to find someone to match Harper's passion for the bridge and the Harmar Village.
"No one's going to step in and do things the way that Brooks did," he said. "It's very shocking. No one's ever ready for this..but he's leaving an amazing legacy of things he's done for the city of Marietta, especially the west side."
For decades, Harper, the long-time president of the bridge company, promoted and pushed through improvement projects, from restoring the railroad bridge-- which the bridge company owns-- to helping improve walkways, beautifying the village and bringing in the railroad cars to Harmar that have housed several businesses.
In 1987 it was submitting a 100-page proposal to The Ohio State University's landscape architecture department to take Marietta on as a project, which it later did. In 2004, it was diving into the restoration of an historic but flood-damaged home on Franklin Street that he would later turn over for nonprofit use. And through the years, Harper was a Maple Street merchant, running Harper's Landing gift shop with his wife of 61 years, Beverly.
Even that venture, Harper told The Marietta Times in 2007, was all about his devotion to the west side of Marietta.
"I don't make my living in this shop," he said. "I've done this for tourism, to help this section of town come back."
Harper had "an insatiable desire to save the west side," said Swaney.
"I think that just came from a love of the area and the people and because of the history," he said. "(Harmar) really is the first Marietta."
It was also home, said Marietta Mayor Joe Matthews, who knew Harper since elementary school and graduated from Marietta High School with him in 1956.
"He grew up on the west side," he said. "At one point when we were kids, he lived on one end of Harmar Street and I was on the other."
The two were "friends forever," Matthews said, even when they ran against each other for mayor in 1991.
"He congratulated me when I won," Matthews said.
Harper previously held that seat, as well as a long-time position as Marietta City Council president. While he gave years of time as a volunteer, including to Safetytown, the Boys and Girls Club and a learning center in Cambridge where he helped dyslexic children learn to read, his career was at Union Carbide and Broughton Dairy. He was also a Navy veteran, father of three, grandfather of seven and great grandfather of six.
Matthews and Harper were both members of Harmar Lodge #390, another organization to which Harper was very devoted, said the mayor.
"Brooks was a different breed," he said. "He was a thinker. Some people will say things off the top of their heads and then wish they hadn't. He would think."
He was also a tinkerer with all things mechanical, said Swaney, collecting dozens of old scales and cash registers.
And he never got tired of turning the railroad bridge by hand when needed to let tall boats through or for the Harmar Days festivities.
"He was like a little kid out there," said Swaney. "He was Huck Finn."
Though he said he loved the bridge and "getting his hands dirty" with all kinds of projects, Harper told The Times in 2014 that his greatest accomplishment was in another area of his life.
"I'm proudest of my family," he said. "I've had a good ride, I'll tell you that."
Services for Brooks Harper
¯ Visitation from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Hadley Funeral Home Reno Chapel, 1021 Pike St., with a Masonic Service at 8 p.m.
¯ Funeral services at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Reno chapel.
¯ In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Historic Harmar Bridge Company, 122 Maple St., Marietta, OH, 45750.