How ROHO got its company name

Q: I enjoyed your paper’s recent piece on ROHO, the Belleville company that sells wheelchair cushions the world over. But there’s one question your story didn’t answer: Why did they call the company ROHO?

A: In 1957, Robert H. Graebe Sr. was an electrical engineer at McDonnell Douglas. But while working on a hospital project to develop blood analysis equipment, he made a troubling discovery.

In that hospital, he found patients being treated for skin ulcers that had developed simply because other health conditions forced those patients to sit most or all of the time. Disturbed by the idea that the mere act of sitting could lead to hospitalization, Graebe became determined to find a solution.

For most of the next two decades, the East St. Louis native spent much of his free time in his basement trying to invent a new, pressure-free surface that could reduce or eliminate the development of bed sores for those who had to spend their lives in wheelchairs or in bed.

“First, I couldn’t figure out the concept,” he told the News-Democrat in 1990. “I eventually got it. Then I couldn’t figure out how to build it.”

But even while he was still perfecting the product that would become an international best-seller, he incorporated ROHO in 1973.

His name is Robert Henry, but, according to our 1990 story, he told us he signed documents “R.H. Graebe” and the periods were like little zeros. So, he combined the R and H and turned the periods into big O’s. The result: ROHO. He launched the company in East St. Louis before moving it to its first Belleville home near Florida and East B in 1982. He is now 86 and living in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., with his wife, Norma.

Q: Someone told me that we don’t have to file our income tax this year until April 18. Is that true? Why?

A: You can thank the combination of a historic act and a modern tradition for your extra three-day reprieve from fulfilling your filing duties this year.

On April 16, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Compensated Emancipation Act, which released certain people from being held to service or labor in the District of Columbia. The act freed approximately 3,100 enslaved people nine months before Lincoln signed the much more famous Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that an estimated 3 million Southern slaves were free as of New Year’s Day, 1863.

Nevertheless, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams decided the lesser-known law was cause for celebration, too, so on Jan. 4, 2005, he signed legislation that made Emancipation Day an annual holiday for D.C. workers every April 16. Of course, when it falls on Saturday or Sunday, it becomes a three-day holiday. Because it’s on Saturday this year, D.C. — including the Internal Revenue Service — will shut down on April 15, giving you three more days to procrastinate.

Q: What has happened to Kay Quinn on KSDK-TV Channel 5? She isn’t on anymore. I have switched to Channel 4 because I don’t like 5 anymore.

A: Looks like you’ll just have to switch back if Kay is the missing piece in your KSDK puzzle. If you go to her Facebook page, you’ll see that one of her many fans gave her a virtual bouquet of flowers to welcome her back to the Channel 5 anchor desk earlier this week.

As I noted in February, the Emmy-award winning reporter and anchor, who has been with KSDK since 1989, began an indefinite medical leave of absence in late January. Finally, after more than two months of well wishes from viewers, she tweeted early Monday afternoon with obvious glee, “Back at work anchoring ‘First at 4’! See you in two hours!”

According to her KSDK website page, you can find the “devoted mother, wife and animal-lover” holding down the fort again at 4 and 6 p.m. daily.

Q: I have three or four hearing aids that still work and would like to give them to somebody rather than just throwing them away. Any ideas?

A: I’m sure members of the Greenville Lions Club would love to hear from you.

As part of its mission, Lions Clubs International has made preventing blindness and deafness two of its central projects. For nearly a century, the group says, it has saved the sight of more than 15 million children around the world through screenings, glasses and treatment. It says it has provided 8 million cataract surgeries, built 315 eye hospitals and trained more than 650,000 eyecare professionals. At my Schnucks on North Belt West, there is a depository for used eyeglasses.

The same is true for hearing with hearing impairment awareness programs, hearing screenings, camps for the deaf and hearing impaired — and hearing aid recycling programs. If you don’t know any Lions members (Michael Lawler is the current president), you’ll find them meeting at 11:30 a.m. every second and fourth Wednesday at the Adam Brothers Cafe, 110 S. Second St. in Greenville. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind you interrupting their lunch for a moment or two.

Bargain on brains: Seems most everyone but me knew that brain sandwiches are still a hot item on the menu at VFW Post 7980 in Millstadt. One caller said her 92-year-old sister-in-law thinks they’re the best. And, even better, you don’t have to pay St. Louis prices or waste the gas. They’re only $3.75 on your choice of bread from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, Commander Mick Cohagan told me.

Today’s trivia

At what university do male students need a doctor’s note to grow a beard?

Answer to Friday’s trivia: He may have been dead for 3,200 years, but when the deteriorating mummy of Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II needed to be flown to Paris in 1974 for examination, it was given a passport just as any tourist would have needed. His occupation? “King (deceased).” During the exam, scientists found battle wounds, old fractures, arthritis and poor circulation in the Egyptian ruler, who is thought to have lived 90 years from about 1303 to 1213 B.C. Today he’s back in Cairo’s Egyptian Museum.

This story was originally published April 8, 2016 at 8:13 AM with the headline "How ROHO got its company name."