Our Honoree was born May 27, 1914 at Alexander, Upshur County, West Virginia. He is the son of Raymond O. and Mollie Teets Zirkel. When he was a small boy his family moved to Harrison County. Oren was the eldest of the Zirkle children, which consisted of six boys and two girls. At the age of thirteen, Mr. Zirkle went to work in the mines with his father. He signed up with the CCC in 1934 and was sent to Richmond, Virginia for his first assignment. Later, he was transferred to Camp Harrison, the home of the West Virginia State CCC Museum in the historic Quiet Dell Grade School in Harrison County. Oren often talked about his times serving in the CCC proudly. One of his jobs was to driving a truck for his sergeant. They would travel to Clarksburg to the warehouse in Glen Elk for produce and other supplies. While in the CCC, Zirkle enjoyed playing the sport he loved, baseball. He made lifelong friends with other CCC Boys at Camp Harrison, in particular, Sandy DeMark and Sam Mayle. Oren would send his pay check and laundry home to his mother. She would do the laundry, cash the checks, and put five dollars in with his cleaned clothes to send back to him.
Hall of Famer Zirkle enjoyed attending a number of CCC reunions at Richwood, West Virginia, and museum association functions at Quiet Dell when he was able to attend. He loved to reminisce about the old days in the CCC with fellow CCC members. And, he was very excited to hear from Dr. Robert Anderson that the association was planning to build replica CCC barracks at the museum site in Harrison County, West Virginia.
Winter 1935 at Camp Harrison
Attending West Virginia CCC Museum Association Fall Jubilee 2005