National Wood Carvers Association
PO Box 43218 Cincinnati, Ohio 45243
Phone (513) 561-7045
Email nwca@chipchats.org

President Charles Sapp resides in St. Charles, Missouri with his wife, Dale. They have 3 children and 3 grandchildren. He is a graduate of the University of Kansas in Aerospace Engineering and was employed at McDonnell Douglas / Boeing for over 40 years as an engineer in Structural Dynamics and Loads.

Charles serves on many community boards and commissions and was councilman in the city of Bridgeton, Missouri for 8 years.

With over 20 years of carving and turning experience, Charles is a member of the St. Charles Area Woodcarvers, the National Woodcarvers Association, the Woodturners of St. Louis, and the American Association of Woodturners. He has trained with local and professional carvers and has taught beginning and advanced adult education carving classes in the City of St. Charles School District, St. Peters Art Center, and the St. Charles Community College.

Charles was elected as President in January 2024.

Vice President Patrick Wentzel, lives in Parkersburg, WV. Married to Brenda for 49 years, they have twin daughters and three grandsons.  Patrick retired from General Electric Plastics/SABIC Innovative Plastics after 41 years as an Industrial Hygiene Specialist.

 Patrick has been a member of the National Wood Carvers Association for nearly 40 years. Currently he is serving as National Carousel Association President.  Patrick is the co-founder of the Carousel Modelers and Miniatures Association.  He is the secretary-treasurer for Geppetto Woodcarvers, Parkersburg, WV and is a 45-year member of the Circus Model Builders organization.

 He has taught woodcarving locally and shares his love of woodcarving at every opportunity.  Patrick’s specialty is carving circus and carousel miniatures.  His longtime passion is restoring and completing his one inch to the foot scale hand carved miniature circus parade. Patrick is also an avid photographer and cyclist. 

Pat was elected Vice President in January 2024.

Director S. Garth Burgon's first experience carving was a neckerchief slide he made in Boy Scouts.  He liked the scouts and advanced to the rank of Eagle. 

Garth attended Brigham Young University and graduated in business management, with a concentration in finance.  His miners are economics, accounting and statistics.  He started work at Ford Motor Co. and retired after 31 years, at age 55, from a planning and development group in the World Headquarters.  After retirement he took a contract at a large Federal University in China and taught basic business and international business classes.

He has maintained a home in Michigan for the past 56 years.  After retirement he bought a home in Mesa, AZ, in a resort park, where he spends the winters.

When he retired his wife was an avid wood carver and he took up carving to spend more time with her.  After 46 years she passed away and he remarried.  His current wife has also become a wood carver with him.  He’s been carving for the past 27 years and still really enjoys it.  He has made up blanks and has taught carving classes at varies places over the past few years.  Three of his projects have been published in Woodcarving Illustrated.

He served as a director of his local area Economic Development Corporation for over 10 years.  In his church work he has also served in many local and area leadership positions over the years.

Director W. Todd Martin lives in Fort Wayne, IN, and is professor of English at Huntington University where he has taught since 1999. Until he began carving, most of his time when he wasn’t in the classroom was spent doing scholarly research on a variety of twentieth century British and American authors, publishing numerous academic articles and editing several books. As part of his professional life, he served as the Secretary of the Katherine Mansfield Society, an international organization dedicated to the works of the New Zealand author, and he served as the president of the organization for three years. Once he caught the carving bug, he began looking for ways to marry his newfound passion (obsession?) with his professional skills, so he sought out opportunities to write for Chip Chats and Woodcarving Illustrated. He is currently working on a book on the Caricature Carvers of America.

 Todd began carving in 2021, after having a chat with one of his colleagues about how he might fill his time after he retires—still in the distant future. He grew up near the coast of North Carolina and had always admired the rustic carvings of sea captains and fishermen in the gifts shops, so he carved his first 15-minute wizard, which took three hours. But he loved it. He looked for every opportunity to learn, and discovered the CCA seminar in Converse, IN, where he was introduced to the wonderful people of the Eastern Woodland Carving Club; he is now a member of the club and serves as the Secretary on the Board of Directors.

 Having developed a thick skin from accumulating rejection letters in the academic world but understanding that perseverance pays off, he began entering his carvings into local competitions and submitting articles to different publications. He would encourage all other carvers to do the same. Too many carvers feel their work isn’t good enough, but even if you don’t succeed the first time, you meet some great people and get valuable feedback.

Barry Bowers, Director, resides in Great Bend, KS with his wife Monica.  He is a graduate of Sterling College, a licensed CPA in the state of Kansas and the managing partner of Spectrum CPA Partners LLC.  He has been involved in numerous not-for-profit organizations as an officer and board member. 

Barry started wood carving about 30 years ago at the urging of a friend and has not stopped since.  He is active in the Golden Belt Wood Carvers in Great Bend, KS and a member of the Oklahoma City Woodcarvers Club.  He has taken numerous classes over the years and tried various styles of wood carving, but caricature style has turned into his primary preference.

Barry was appointed as Director in September 2023.  

Cathy Frye has been the Secretary/Treasurer of NWCA since 1995.  She is responsible for the bookkeeping, payroll, withholding, tax returns, bulk mailings, and other associated administrative requirements. 

Cathy maintains the mailing list by processing current renewals, former member renewals, new members, and changes of address.

Cathy has a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Business Administration from Ohio State University. Her interests include watching and playing tennis (singles & doubles), cheering on THE OSU Buckeyes, and seasonal income tax preparation.  Cathy is married with 3 grown children, one granddaughter and resides in Madeira OH.

She began in 1969, along with her parents, Ed (deceased) & Lisa Gallenstein and her siblings. They collated, saddle stitched (stapled), trimmed, bundled, sacked, and hauled hundreds of thousands of CHIP CHATS Magazines to the bulk mailing center in Cincinnati, OH. 

The mailing process has evolved over the years.  Publishing starting with hand making plates for a Graphotype Stamping Machine; then graduating to an electric stamping machine. When membership grew to 22,000 the system was computerized.  Mailing labels have evolved from printing addresses on an Avery label to the ink jetting process used today. 

Julie Potluri first started working with Chip Chats Magazine as a kid, collating the pages by hand, along with her siblings, in the basement of their Cincinnati home. She also helped by saddle stitching the collated pages together and stuffing magazines into manila envelopes.

During her time at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, Julie edited an environmental education newsletter.  She became a science teacher, and did that for a decade, spending her summer months in the early 1990s helping compose Chip Chats, which had been moved out of her parents’ house and was now in a nearby office.

These summer stints with Chip Chats evolved into a year-round job as assistant editor. When her father, Ed Gallenstein, passed away in 2015, she took over for him as editor. The office closed, and the all the desktop publishing equipment was moved to her basement in Madeira, Ohio, which is where she works today.  Julie also serves as a Director.

Donna Thomas, Director, calls Nevada, Missouri home.  She has three adult children, 6 grandchildren, and two “greats”.  And one terribly spoiled Coton puppy.  She is a graduate of Friends University with a Master’s in Organizational Management.  Fifty years of work experience includes administrative positions at chamber of commerce, economic development, Regional Hospital, Community Action Agency, community college branch campus, etc.  

She has served on many local, regional, and state boards and advisories, including the local board of education for 12 years.  In 1988, she became the first female member of the Nevada Rotary club and is still active with her home club.  Donna is currently secretary of the club and been awarded their Citizen of the Year status and is a Paul Harris Fellow.  She also serves as sexton and secretary/treasurer of a rural cemetery, so her volunteer efforts are quite varied.

 Donna started carving in 1988 when a carving club was formed in Nevada.  She remains affiliated with clubs in Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas (and Nebraska) and has had carvings in their competitions.  A member of Missouri Artisans Assoc (Best of Missouri Hands), she has also been a Super Moderator for the WCI Forum since 2002.  A proud member of NWCA since 1989, she primarily enjoys bird carving, as well as Santas and realistic animals.  She has been a guest woodcarver at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri since 2019 and was named their Outstanding Wood Carver of the Year in 2021.  

Donna was appointed director in June 2022.

Keith Shumaker, Director, has worked in IS for his entire career, serving in many technical, business, and managerial roles.  Currently, he is employed by the J.M. Smucker Co as a Supply Chain Architect.  He is a former Jaycee and has served as a Director of Lay Ministry on his Church Council.

Keith is currently the President of the Wilderness Center Woodcarvers in Wilmot, Ohio (https://wcwoodcarvers.com/) and has been for the past 5 years.   He has built partnerships between his club and local businesses so that the club can promote the art of woodcarving to the public.  He teaches carving classes at these businesses as well as soap carving at various elementary schools.  Keith is also a long-time musician and has played in many concert, jazz, Dixieland, and Big Bands.

Keith was appointed as Director in December 2023.

Tim Crawford, Director, started carving as a Boy Scout and made it to the ranks of Eagle Scout.  He spent 36 years as an agent with Nationwide Insurance Company, and for 30 years was an elected political officeholder, most of that time serving as County Commissioner for Summit County in Ohio. 

Tim and his wife Debbie have 4 grown children, and eight grandchildren.  Tim has served and chaired many charitable boards and commissions, both 501 and Fraternal. 

Crawford’s enjoyment of woodcarving has spurred him to do many shows and host educational opportunities for carvers.  In 1995, the Crawford family hosted a carving show to draw interest from area woodcarvers, and started the Woodbee Woodcarving Club in Norton, Ohio.   Tim’s Woodbee Woodcarvers’ group has an annual project that raises funds for the club to have well-known carvers in to teach the local club members.  Tim also teaches all types of carvings to groups in the club facility in Norton, OH

Tim is the Past President of the NWCA , glad to be part of the organization, and asks for your help to grow the organization.