Adam J. and Arthur Tight, Victims of the 1929 Cleveland Clinic Disaster

The 1929 OBITUARY NOTEBOOK, housed in the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library, contains three pages of articles reporting on the deaths of Adam J. Tight, a well known Sandusky contractor, and his son Arthur Tight. The father and son both died as a result of of being overcome by poisonous fumes after a series of explosions which swept through the Cleveland Clinic. The explosions began in the X-Ray department. A total of 123 individuals died and 92 people were injured in the Cleveland Clinic disaster.

On Wednesday, May 15, 1929, Arthur Tight went to the Cleveland Clinic for an examination, and his father Adam accompanied him. Both men died shortly after the explosion in the X-Ray Department, which was followed by fire. Carl Sartor of the Frey Funeral Home brought back the remains of Adam Tight, while Ed Andres from the Charles J. Andres Sons Funeral Home brought back the body of Arthur Tight. Mrs. Tight was devastated by the news of the death of both her husband and son.

Members of the Elks Lodge and the Knights of Columbus paid their respects to the Tight family on Sunday. Funeral services for Adam and Arthur Tight took place on Monday, May 20. Arthur's funeral services were conducted first at the family residence on Carr Street, and then a high mass was held at St. Mary's Catholic Church, with the Rev. Father W. C. Zierolf as celebrant. Adam Tight's funeral services were held on Monday afternoon at the family home, with Lutheran pastor Rev. Theodore Stellhorn officiating.

Besides the widow, Mrs. Catherine Tight, Adam Tight was survived by a son Alvin, and a daughter Mrs. Eugene Thomas. Alvin Tight, a college student at the time of his father and brother's deaths, later become a successful physician in Sandusky. Adam J. Tight and Arthur Tight were buried in St. Mary's Cemetery, along with Mrs. Catherine Tight, who passed away in 1962.