CLEARFIELD – The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission approved 35 historical marker applications across the state in 17 counties with Clearfield County receiving two of them.
The Clearfield County markers will honor honor Arnold Nawrocki and A.W. Tozer
The PHMC historic marker program started in 1946 and annually accepts nominations from the entire state from non-profit organizations to commemorate individuals, event or buildings (preferring individuals).
The Clearfield Heritage Foundation applied last November for the annual selection. The applications are sent to a 12-panel board selected by the PHMC including historians, college professor, and public officials to review. The nomination must be of nationwide significance not just someone known to the area, meaning people across the United States (and sometimes other countries) would know of the person, or know of their accomplishments (not necessary the name of the person).
The two newest additions mark the third and fourth state historic markers for the Clearfield Heritage Foundation. Others include Gov. Bigler in 2004, Zenas Leonard in 2005.
Terry Malloy, president of CHF, said finally earning markers that were denied in the past is a good feeling.
“It is always good to have a marker approved, there is a lot of time in the application<” Malloy said. “We (CHF) have to believe the nomination is worthy to put all the time and work into the application, then to have it denied is a disappointment. In the past we had Tozer and Leonard marker denied, it makes us try harder and spend more time for the next application.”
The Rev. Dr. Aiden Wilson Tozer was a nationally known theologian, educator, lecturer and author was born in Clearfield County in 1897. He has been applauded by contemporary Evangelicals as “one of the greatest Christian writers of the 20th century.”
While working for Clearfield Cheese Company on Meadow Street in Curwensville, Nawrocki invented the first commercially successful process for individually wrapped cheese slices.
Nawrocki’s application was completed by his son David Nawrocki, who is a 1967 Curwensville High School Graduate and now is a professor of finance at Villanova University. Malloy, completed the Tozer application.
The cost of the markers is approx. $1,500 to $2,000 each. The CHF has applied for a grant to fund 50 percent of the project cost, the remaining funding will be needed in donations, which are still being accepted.
The Tozer marker will be installed along U.S. Route 219 at the entrance of Mahaffey Camp (Tozer went to Mahaffey Camp as a youth and later preached there in the 1940s and 1950s).
The Nawrocki marker, pending state Department of Transportation approval, will be in front of CSB/Northwest Savings Bank on state Route 879 (State Street) in downtown Curwensville.
The dedication date for the A.W. Tozer marker is set for July 25 during the annual Mahaffey Camp Christian Retreat.
Nawrocki is tentatively set for July 18 during Curwensville Days.
Malloy noted that this year’s application was the second for Tozer as the 2006 application was denied. The PHMC has a three-strike rule, meaning any nomination has three attempts for approval and then can no longer be nominated.