From: bigmongo1963@biteme.com   
      
   https://chroniclet.com/news/416566/neil-zurcher-lorain-county-native-   
   author-host-of-one-tank-trips-dies-at-89/   
      
   Neil Zurcher, Lorain County native, author, host of 'One Tank Trips' dies   
   at 89   
      
   Author, journalist, TV host and Lorain County native Neil Zurcher, famous   
   for his decades of "One Tank Trips" segments on Cleveland TV, has died.   
      
   Zurcher was 89. WJW-TV Fox 8 in Cleveland, his former employer, announced   
   his death on Wednesday.   
      
   A Henrietta Township native and U.S. Marine Corps veteran, Zurcher's   
   journalism career started with writing and taking photos for the Oberlin   
   News-Tribune newspaper starting in the mid-1950s.   
      
   He got his start in radio at WEOL 930 AM in Elyria, owned by The   
   Chronicle-Telegram's parent company Lorain County Printing & Publishing   
   and was news director there until moving over to television.   
      
   Zurcher started working part-time at WJW-TV in Cleveland in 1962, and   
   moved up to full-time in 1967. He interviewed the Rev. Martin Luther King   
   Jr. and also covered Vietnam War protests in the late 1960s.   
      
   His "One Tank Trips" segment was a hit for more than 20 years. In it,   
   Zurcher would travel to destinations or sights in the area you could reach   
   without having to stop for gas and discuss them on air.   
      
   "His trademark 'One Tank Trips' were started during the gas shortage in   
   the 1970s and the segment continues on decades later," Fox 8 wrote on its   
   website. The segment continues to be on the air to this day with different   
   hosts.   
      
   Zurcher only wrote about places that he personally visited, he told The   
   Chronicle in 2006.   
      
   Then there were the multiple cars that Zurcher used in photos and   
   promotional materials for "One Tank Trips," starting first with a 1948   
   Chevrolet convertible that later was replaced with a 1940 Bantam American   
   Roadster.   
      
   Those cars have a Lorain County connection, too: Both were owned by Bill   
   and Bonnie Cutcher of Brownhelm, who "were nice enough to allow us to use   
   the cars on the series," Zurcher once wrote on his blog.   
      
   Bonnie and Bill Cutcher's grandson Ian Cutcher said Zurcher twice   
   interviewed his grandparents on TV. They owned the former Cutcher's   
   Brownhelm Store at the southwest corner of North Ridge and Baumhart roads   
   from 1969 to 1999, which was known locally as "the Brownhelm Mall."   
      
   Ian's dad Glen Cutcher said Zurcher would often stop in the store on his   
   way home to Henrietta from work.   
      
   "My dad collected antique cars and as Neil was starting the show, they   
   just got talking about it," he said. "He would borrow the cars once or   
   twice a year, take pictures, and they edited that into each week's show."   
      
   Ian Cutcher said Zurcher also was kind enough to take his grandparents on   
   a tour of Fox 8's Cleveland studios. They got to sit behind the news desk   
   and met local TV news personalities including Dick Goddard, Robin Swoboda,   
   Tim Taylor and the late Casey Coleman — all of whom signed a photo for the   
   couple, Ian Cutcher said.   
      
   Zurcher "was just a real nice guy," he said.   
      
   Zurcher's most-famous ride probably was the 1959 Nash Metropolitan   
   convertible he bought and showed on TV and in car shows. It later was put   
   on display at the Canton Classic Car Museum in Canton.   
      
   Zurcher retired from WJW twice, he told The Chronicle for a story in 2016.   
   The first time was in 2004, but he returned to TV in 2012 to tell more   
   "One Tank Trip" stories on the "New Day Cleveland" program before retiring   
   again in 2016.   
      
   Even after his retirement, Zurcher made the rounds of community groups,   
   libraries and historical societies throughout the region discussing his   
   travels, telling stories and talking about his books.   
      
   Most recently a Bay Village resident, he authored books including "Ohio   
   Road Trips," "Ohio Oddities," "Strange Tales From Ohio," "Ten Ohio   
   Disasters," "The Best of One Tank Trips" and the memoir "Tales from the   
   Road," many with Gray & Company Publishers in Cleveland.   
      
   Founder and owner David Gray said Thursday he was "very close" with   
   Zurcher.   
      
   He said "One Tank Trips" started at the suggestion of former WJW-TV news   
   director Virgil Dominic after the 1979 oil crisis created by the Iranian   
   Revolution.   
      
   Gray and Zurcher started working together in the mid-1990s on a "One Tank   
   Trips" book, which led to a yearslong working relationship and friendship.   
      
   Gray said an acquaintance recommended he do a book with Zurcher, so Gray   
   went to meet him at the Cleveland Auto Show at the IX Center. This was the   
   1990s, when TV was much bigger, and Fox 8 was a co-sponsor of the event.   
      
   Gray said he saw "an enormous line of people waiting to see Neil" and his   
   red-and-white 1959 Nash Metropolitan.   
      
   "Neil was a TV star, but he didn't know it, and neither did the station I   
   think at the time," Gray said. There were other anchors and personalities   
   there, but "this line was for Neil and his car," he said.   
      
   Zurcher's appeal was that he was a normal guy, Gray said. His books "sold   
   like crazy. ... The books just poured out of him."   
      
   The whole time, the boy from Henrietta Township who used to look out on   
   the highway from Elyria to Milan and wonder where all the people were   
   driving to and from was "super modest and unassuming," Gray said.   
      
   Zurcher "wanted to know what was out there," and later estimated he had   
   logged 1 million miles across just Ohio in his trips for television, Gray   
   said.   
      
   Zurcher knew everyone and everything, in particular about the history of   
   Ohio, and his "Ten Ohio Disasters" book didn't need to cite sources:   
   Zurcher had covered many of them for print, TV or radio. And if he hadn't   
   covered them, he did the research himself, Gray said.   
      
   His best story, Gray said, can be found on the Gray & Company Publishers   
   website. It's called "I Met the Future King of England in a Cleveland   
   Bathroom," and tells the tale of Zurcher meeting then-prince, now-King   
   Charles III in a Cleveland Clinic restroom during a royal visit in 1977.   
      
   "And that is sort of a typical Neil story. He's the kind of person to whom   
   things just happened, over and over again," Gray said. "He was a wonderful   
   guy. He's an A-list person to work with and as a friend. I miss him   
   already and a lot of people are going to miss him."   
      
   Zurcher over the years won numerous awards and accolades, including an   
   Emmy and was a member of both the Ohio Broadcasters Hall of Fame and   
   Cleveland Press Club Hall of Fame.   
      
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