Maynard Ralph Sembower

Maynard Ralph Sembower. December 24, 1908 - September 16, 2009. , Maynard R. Sembower watched the construction of the Western Maryland Railway, rode it as a child and an adult, saw it through its final days of passenger and freight traffic and was delighted to see its right-of-way reborn as a rail-trail., He was proud that the first segment of the new bike trail in Somerset County started in his beloved Rockwood on 24 April, 1993 and extended seven and a half miles down to the Pinkerton Low Bridge. And what is now the Great Allegheny Passage was only five houses away from his home., "That gave him the opportunity to talk to the workmen and monitor the progress of the trail,' said Hank Parke, acting president of the Somerset County Rails to Trails Association. 'When local residents and visitors had questions about it, Maynard had the answers.', After his wife, Edna, died in 1992, Maynard, a tall, friendly man with a warm smile and a firm handshake, directed his attention to the new trail., He asked Parke for printed information about it and gave it to visitors., He referred them to local businesses when they asked about lodging and restaurants. When bicyclists asked about T-shirts, Parke got them and Maynard sold them -- first from the trunk of his car, then from a card table and finally from a small wooden building that he and his son- in-law, Roger Romesburg, designed. The building was dedicated the "Stembower Visitor Center" in 2006., He was a terrific ambassador for Rockwood and the Great Allegheny Passage. Bicyclists came to Rockwood just to see him and shake his hand., Maynard, a retired law-enforcement officer for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, died Sept. 16 of congestive heart failure at the Hospice House in Somerset. He was 100., Maynard's daughter and only child, Carol Sembower Romesburg, remembers her father as "Pap," a man devoted to his family, his town and the trail. "The trail was his life for the last 17 years of his life.", Trail visitors from around the world will remember their stop in Rockwood, and meeting "The Ambassador" and enjoying his gracious hospitality., Maynard passed away September 2009. From all, Thank You Maynard., Excerpt from article by Larry Walsh, former recreational bicyclist columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Saturday, September 19, 2009. , Edited and published with the permission of the author., (Photo Captions): , Maynard, at 100 years, always ready with a smile and willing to help, talking to visitors on the GAP, August 26th, 2009., "Rockwood - Building A Future On A Proud Past" 2008, Diane Adams painted Rockwood resident Maynard Sembower at the age of ninety-nine, into this mural facing the trail. Adams presented Maynard as a RR conductor. Hence, his image welcomed visitors as a trail 'ambassador' and personalized the town's history. Also included was the last Western Maryland locomotive to pass through Rockwood and pictures of the regional economic heritage., In 2019 the mural was razed when the building owner closed the business.