Shorty grew up in Baltimore but spent a good portion of his life and every summer in Ocean City, Md., where his family had a house at the corner of Fifth Street and the Boardwalk. He spent some time working as a mate on a fishing boat, and was even in town during the 1933 storm that formed the Ocean City Inlet. He and his family had to spend two days in the lobby of the Atlantic Hotel in Berlin.

In Baltimore, Shorty won two national championships in 1937 and 1938 as a member of his high school’s ice hockey league, only to move on to figure skating. After joining the Baltimore Figure Skating Club, Shorty was one of the first people to ever develop an ice-skating act on stilts. During one of the club’s annual fundraising events, he was spotted by comedian skater Eric Waite who invited Shorty to join him in his show in Chicago. There he was spotted once again, this time by Norwegian figure skating champion Sonja Henie, who signed him to a three-year contract.

It was during his time on the road with Henie that Shorty and the rest of the men in the show knew they were up for the draft. Understanding that deployment was inevitable 16 men from the show joined the all volunteer National Ski Patrol and after two years of training in Colorado Springs they were sent to Italy. “My first night’s sleep was with my back to the Tower of Pisa,” Shorty recalled.

Shorty was with the 10th Mountain Division when they spent a day and a half climbing up the back of the Apennine Mountains to sneak up on the Germans camped at the top. “I think I walked up every mountain and hill in Italy,” said Shorty. They successfully opened every mountain in the northern part of Italy. The 1972 film, “They Climbed to Conquer” was based on this interesting wartime story.

After spending nine months in Italy, Shorty, is happy to report that most of the men in his division returned uninjured, and he is still in touch with many of them today. He was in the Brenner Pass headed to Austria when the war ended. A book published this year, “Marylanders in WW2” devoted several pages to Shorty’s achievements.

As the only man in the world who could jump on ice while wearing stilts, after the war Shorty was offered a role in a Pete Smith Specialties movie “Ice Aces.” It was because of this film that the world renowned Ice Capades offered him a long-term contract. He toured all over the United States and Canada for the next seven years. It was here he would meet his future wife, Glory.

Glory, who grew up in Long Island, joined an ice skating company and traveled through Latin America for two years before joining the Ice Capades. She met Shorty when the two were touring in Canada, and they skated in shows together in the United States. Eventually, Glory found out that her bad heart couldn’t take much more skating. Back in Baltimore she was one of the first people to receive a heart valve replacement at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

After 14 years on the road Shorty opened a homeowners service in Baltimore, which did everything from plumbing to mowing lawns 24 hours a day, even “if you wanted your goldfish fed at midnight,” said Shorty. Practically everyone in the area subscribed to their services and at their peak they were mowing 300 to 400 lawns each week.

As successful as the business was, Shorty felt it was “terrible confining” and he longed for the Eastern Shore. On his 50th birthday, Shorty gave the business to his son and nephew and moved to Sussex Shores.

In 1969, shortly after their retirement, Glory and Shorty built a home in the Virgin Islands. However, when the “Eastern Shoreman in him got the best of him,” the couple returned to Sussex County. “St. Thomas is a fine place to visit,” Shorty explained, but “there’s nothing to do.” They returned once again to Sussex County to settle in the house they built on the ocean front property they had had the opportunity to purchase after the storm of 1962.

Between acts on the road. Shorty developed a talent for woodworking. “All my life I fiddled,” he said. Once Shorty and Glory had settled in their home at the beach, Shorty made a workshop in his basement. Between his woodworking skills and Glory’s artistic and designing skills the shop grew so big they moved it to a separate building where it remains today.

Shorty likes to show off. He does not brag about his adventures in the Apennine Mountains or his time as the only ice skater to have skated on 5-foot stilts, although he could obtain an engaged audience rather effortlessly. However, his eyes will light up when he starts playing with the carousel that sits in the front of the store. Shorty who did all of the wiring himself for the 734 separate lights is proud claim that it runs just like an actual carousel. Glory painted every detail of the 36 animals. It is well worth a trip to Shorty’s Woodcrafts just to see it in action and to see Shorty demonstrate the Amazing Marble Machine, a giant homemade contraption that moves 300 marbles through 11 different tracks.

The walls of Shorty’s workshop are clad in pictures of celebrities, such as Elizabeth Taylor, Dick Button, Robert Young and lifetime friend Paul Castle, whom he is still in touch with today. Shorty boasts that he even taught Sabu the jungle boy how to skate.

“Not everybody can do want they want to do all of their lives.” Shorty is happy in his workshop where he spends just about everyday with Glory, his two devoted employees and his dog, JP (or “Just Plain mutt”) also known as a “Sussex County Short Hair,” Shorty said.

September 21, 2004