Passersby call it the fish house. Colorful fish carvings, extending as long as eight feet, dance across the front of the summer cottage in northern Michigan. Artfully painted and masterfully crafted, the fish exemplify just a few of Jerry Rumler’s woodworks.
Jerry began carving almost 30 years ago. When he and his wife LeAnne expected their first child, LeAnne started going to bed early, forcing Jerry to seek a hobby. He heard about a duck carving class at his alma mater, Michigan State University, and decided to attend.
“I was bored and somebody had told me about it. It was about a half hour drive at the time so I just went,” Jerry said.
“He does pins, he does ducks, he does Santas, and the wine corks with carved people on top of them,” LeAnne said.
Despite his talents, Jerry does not sell his work. He shares an Etsy page with his daughter, but LeAnne said it takes the fun out of it for him to sell. So he gives it all away.
“People would pay a fortune for those fish,” said Jerry’s sister-in-law Mary Jane Rumler, head teacher of Mary Randall preschool on campus.
Several years ago, LeAnne entered one of Jerry’s carvings into the Hillsdale County Fair competition. He won “best in class” from the fair and earned a dollar prize. Through the years, people around Hillsdale have started to discover and recognize Jerry’s pieces.
“He just carries them around with him. Anyone that’s interested, he just gives them out. He donates his work to a lot of the local raffles. People around Hillsdale would recognize his name for sure,” Mary Jane said.
After learning how to make ducks, he moved into the world of Santa Clauses, and anything else. Eventually, this led to canoes, tables, and—most importantly—chairs.
“He’s probably done 100 chairs over the years for different people. Most of them are specialized for whoever asks for them, or whoever he decides needs a chair,” LeAnne said.
Jerry created one of his favorite chairs out of a pile of old wooden baseball bats.
“Most of them were broken. I had to get the pine tar off. I tried to scrape them and that didn’t work. I ended up getting some bug and tar remover, scraped ’em, and put them all together,” Jerry said.
Another favorite was a chair for his niece’s wedding. Inspired by the northern Michigan wedding, Jerry formed the back of the chair outlining the Great Lakes, and all of the guests signed the chair, forming a magnificent wedding gift. Other notable chairs include a Winston Churchill chair designed for President Larry Arnn and a Hillsdale Charger chair for Head Football Coach Keith Otterbein. Both LeAnne and Mary Jane agreed that their own Adirondack chairs are some of their favorite pieces from Jerry.
“He puts a personal touch on them,” Mary Jane said.
Chairs are not the only pieces Jerry personalizes. Because Mary Jane always walks around without shoes, Jerry made her a Santa Claus with bare feet.
“He has a great sense of humor. And anybody that knows him can tell it,” Mary Jane said.
One day, Jerry’s brother Steve, husband of Mary Jane, accidentally cut the Adirondack chair Jerry had given him with a saw. Jerry played furious at the little dent in the arm of the chair. The next time Jerry created a piece for Steve and Mary Jane, he added a dent to the arm so it would be “already ruined.”
To balance his playfulness, Jerry also creates sentimental pieces. He fashioned a Spartan cane for a friend after a stroke, and built a set of Christmas boxes for each of his children who, to this day, insist that he fill the little boxes with gifts when they come home for the holidays.
“He does so much with his pieces other than what you see. He puts his heart into it. His heart, and his personality, and his fun-loving, and his sense of humor, and sentiment as well,” Mary Jane said.
His generosity stretches beyond gift-giving, however. He shares his time as well. With each of Mary Jane’s children as well as with his own, Jerry helped pick out a fish to paint, instructing each child on blending and shading techniques.
Mary Jane and Steve now own their own cottage, just down the road from the Fish House. Jerry made a fish with wine corks on it for Mary Jane, and the three fish of their children decorate the remainder of the cabin’s front. They call it fish house number two.