A HURSH FAMILY HISTORY GENEROSITY ESTABLISHES $1 MILLION ENDOWMENT
“I am very grateful to have received this scholarship.
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It gives me the opportunity to study at my dream school
Take a look through the archives, and you’ll discover a few common themes running through the history of Mansfield’s Hursh Drug. Like a braid woven through the Hursh family history, Hursh Drug was built on a three-pronged set of traditions: Ohio Northern, pharmacy and philanthropy.
and sets me on a path to my career as a pharmacist,” Rachael says. 2015 Hursh Endowed Scholarship Award recipient.
It started with Arthur J. Hursh, PH G 1895, who, after graduating from Ohio Northern’s fledgling College of pharmacy in 1895, returned to Mansfield, Ohio, and opened the Hursh Drug Store on the corner of Fourth and Diamond Street. It was
Hursh Pharmacy soon after it first opened in the 1800s.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON William’s son Richard H. Hursh, BSPh ’35, joined the family business after graduating from ONU in 1935; he opened Hursh Drug in Bellville, Ohio, in 1937. When When Arthur’s brother William T. his father William died in 1943, Hursh, PH G 1898, graduated from Richard purchased the Mansfield Northern, the pair joined forces Hursh Drug and managed both and the store’s name was changed stores. to Hursh Brothers. William soon took over the store’s operations, In 1955, William Zacharias, BSPh and Arthur gave his brother inter- ’53, joined the Hursh fold; he bought into the business with est in the business in 1902. Richard in 1960. Richard retired And thus, a career was born. in 1979, and Zacharias followed During his nearly half-century as suit in 1985. exactly what you would envision a turn-of-the-century pharmacy to be: glass cases stuffed with bottles and vials of every size and shape, friendly atmosphere, chrome-laden soda fountain, attentive service.
a pharmacist, William became well-known in the Mansfield and surrounding areas through the medicines and ointments that he compounded. Many were patented and sold under his name.
Steven J. Martin, dean of the College of Pharmacy; Robert “Rob” Knowlton, BSPh ’84; Brittany (Barnhisel) Poehler, PharmD ’15; William “Bill” Spurling, PSPh ’79.
By 1922, the company was known as William T. Hursh Drug Store, although William was not the last member of the Hursh family – or the ONU family for that matter – to get involved.
THE AMPUL SPRING 2016
Before he left the business, however, Zacharias sold Hursh Drug to three Northern pharmacy alumni who worked in the store: Wayne Williams, BSPh ’81, Bill Spurling, BSPh ’79, and Rob Knowlton, BSPh ’84. Robert remains the sole owner today; he opened a third Hursh location in Shelby, Ohio, in 2013.