Marie and Hugh Reinhold lived in several northern Indiana towns during his career with the Purdue Extension Service, but settled in Goshen when Hugh retired in 1988. They moved here from West Lafayette to be closer to their children, who live in the northern part of the state.

“I wanted to move closer to my grandchildren,” Marie explained. Because of his involvement and their friends at Lafayette, “Hugh didn’t want to move.”

“It was the best thing we ever did,” Hugh says now. Living in Goshen allowed the grandparents to help their family and “the fishing is better up here,” he joked.

Hugh made many friends working in the Extension Service and one long-time friend is retired Elkhart County Extension agent Leo Seltenright, Goshen.

“Leo has tried to teach me to fish for 50 years,” Hugh said. The two leaders met in Plymouth, he said, and Leo “took me by the hand.”

The pair have fished rivers across the state, in Minnesota and Canada.

“The Cadillac of fishing is on a houseboat,” Hugh suggests.

“While he went fishing, I would take trips to Boston,” Marie explained. She said she has taken a bus to New Hampshire several times and also enjoyed riding the train to the East Coast.

The couple traveled by train once to New Mexico, too, he said. “We always wanted to take the train across southern Canada, but never did,” Hugh said.

Marie explained that spending time with their grandchildren has become one the most important things they have done.

“I want to be the best grandparent I can be,” she said. “I’m glad we had the time to spend with our grandchildren.”

They have 11 grandchildren — seven boys and four girls. Two are married and they have one great-grandson, Kevin Caine.

Hugh explained he grew up in Monterey, one of eight children, and all his siblings are still living.

Marie grew up in Chicago, she explained, the eldest of eight children. She said she took her three brothers everywhere, spending 5 cents to ride the subway to places like the museums.

“We walked to Lake Michigan for recreation. I spent my childhood having lots of experiences, good and not-so-good,” she said. She was on a business track in high school and thought she would work as a secretary. After attending a private girls’ school, her parents sent her to Purdue where she studied home economics.

“I didn’t get along at Purdue,” she said, and she moved to Indiana University to go into education. But IU was too big for her, too, so she returned to Purdue, where she had met Hugh earlier.

They married his senior year, in 1950, and “she put me through English,” he said.

She worked for General Telephone for 85 cents an hour and Hugh worked two jobs, she explained. They did not have a car and lived on the west side of West Lafayette, in a small rental behind Harry’s Chocolate Shop.

“We made it through,” she said of the 1950s. Hugh taught vocational ag and science at Mooresville, then a few years later joined the Purdue Extension Service and worked at Columbia City, Bluffton and then to Porter County for 10 years, where they raised their family.

In their many moves, the family was forced to reach out and make new friends, which they have done in every community they lived.

“We made wonderful friends. Once, we had a 75-year-old neighbor lady who would come over and say ‘Let me take Kevin’” to give the mother a break from her toddler. “To this day, it’s not hard to make friends.

When assigned to Bluffton, Hugh explained, he was responsible for a newpaper column and electronic media, too, so he went to Ball State and earned a master’s degree in journalism.

“It helped me a lot,” he said, but he feels he is still better communicating orally rather than in writing.

Hugh’s last assignment was district director, a job that took the couple back to West Lafayette.

“I was district supervisor for an area of 17 counties for 17 years,” Hugh explained. “I had to go to 17 county fairs in two weeks. I was on the road all the time.”

They raised two sons, Mark and Kevin, and a daughter, Rachelle Sattler. Kevin died about 10 years ago in an electrical accident as he worked as a lineman for a utility company.

“I would have been a librarian. I read a lot. I love books,” Marie said.

The couple makes frequent trips to the Goshen library, getting new reading material.

“She has me hooked on (John) Grisham,” Hugh said.

After spending 20 years at their West Pike Street home, the couple moved this month to an apartment at Waterford Crossing.

“It was the best move. Our house was so big,” Hugh explained. “I always wanted to live on a lake. Now I have this pond. They say there are fish in it.”

“Everyone is so friendly,” Marie said of their new community. They knew several residents before they moved here, including retired banker Larry McAdam and former Pike Street neighbor Lloyd Stump, who now lives next door.

“We’re slowly getting acquainted,” Marie said.

Hugh is a long-time member of Kiwanis, belonging to clubs at each town they lived in.

“And I’m still active in the Ag Society,” he said, after serving the past 10 years as chairman of the banquet committee.

He was recently replaced by Gary Whirledge, he said.

The annual banquet is set for Sept. 1 at the Elkhart County Community Center at the fairgrounds. The guest speaker will be Tricia Sloma of NewsCenter 16, he said.

Hugh went on to say they like reading The News and take if for the local news coverage. He said they read the obituaries regularly, too.

“I appreciate the coverage of the Extension office and of the 4-H fair, too,” he said.