Lester Cline shared joy, no matter the hardships
This 1975 grad ran a nursery business, raised three daughters and was well-known for his kindness as a shopkeeper in Rhodes Tower.
Lester Cline in the 1970s, his college mascot days. He had a rare retinal disease that slowly took his eyesight. (Photo courtesy of Meredith Erb)
Editor’s note: This story is part of a “Proud They’re Ours” series that usually runs only in the print version of Ohio State Alumni Magazine. The series features graduates who’ve accomplished great things or made a significant difference for people, planet, industry or culture. To learn how to receive the print edition, visit this alumni association webpage.
Born: June 15, 1949 |
Died: Aug. 5, 2023
Lester Cline ’75 was a man of many passions, and life’s obstacles never stopped him from pursuing them. He was a well-known figure at the state-owned Rhodes Office Tower in downtown Columbus: the blind shopkeeper with a kind word for every customer. He was also a plant expert, a world traveler, a family man and Brutus Buckeye during his days at Ohio State.
Cline grew up on a dairy farm in Jefferson County, the oldest of eight children. When he tried to join the Navy, doctors discovered a rare retinal disease that gave him night blindness and tunnel vision that would slowly worsen. Undeterred, he enrolled at Ohio State, the first in his family to go to college. “It gave him a place to lead and explore and find himself,” says Meredith Erb, Cline’s oldest daughter, who completed a double major in chemistry and biology in 2006. “He was really ambitious. I think I get my ambition from him, too.”
On campus, Cline worked in student government and, to his delight, as our mascot, back when the Brutus costume was a “big fiberglass nut,” Erb says. After graduating with a horticulture degree, Cline started Gold Coast Nurseries in Columbus and married Kim Weisheimer ’81. She died unexpectedly in 2000, leaving Cline to raise their three daughters. He took the family on epic vacations to places like Paris, Australia and Hawaii, always stopping at local botanical gardens. “He wore his Ohio State hat all over the world,” Erb says.
When his wife died, Cline was well into his second career. Upon becoming legally blind, he shut down his nursery in 1990 and enrolled in a state program helping disabled people open cafes and shops in state office buildings. After a stint in the Ohio Department of Health offices, he became a mainstay at Rhodes.
Desmon Martin, who has worked at Rhodes since 2007, enjoyed Cline so much that he sometimes visited his 18th floor shop on his days off. He remembers Cline’s love for his family, the Buckeyes and his customers—especially the Kona coffee he’d bring back from Hawaii to share. “Lester had been a staple in that building for so long,” Martin says. “It is not the same without him there.”
