Hair never stops growing, barbering is recession and time proof, so you will always be in demand! So was the lesson learned when an Arthur Mowery started a Barbershop in 1923 making this year the 100th Anniversary of that business startup.

How his barbershop became Shorty’s can be left to the imagination, but he always stood tall in his position cutting the hair of thousands who walked in during his years as a barber.

Having barbered in three different locations, he built the New Boston shop in the in the early 50’s where it is currently under the ownership of Drew Rucker.

This writer, my brother Greg Rucker and Drew all went to Shorty’s with Greg and I well remembering many things about our good experiences while being there with the original Shorty. We all three remember having our hair cut by his predecessor Jerry Dodds who purchased the shop in 1963. Some say Jerry Dodds may have been shorter than Shorty Mowery.

The most recent owner Drew Rucker who at six foot and five inches tall gave a new look to the stature associated with Shorty’s! When I asked Drew if customers ever call him Shorty he said “yes, all the time.” Though many of us who have always known him still call him Drew.

Drew had originally accepted a football scholarship to Olivet Nazarene University in Illinois. However Drew had observed that the Barber business had run in the family with a great Uncle Brigner who had owned a barber business in the location where the Kiwanis Apartment playground is located today. He spent many years in his career here as a barber.

So Drew with an entrepreneurial interest and a desire to be his own boss headed to Barber College in Columbus Ohio.

Not many are aware though that it takes a lot of time and effort for a barber once successful, to be the first stop shop in the field of haircuts. But even more important is that a barber must maintain a friendly disposition at all times in serving their own clients.

Drew came along out of Barber College going to work with Shorty’s purchasing the New Boston shop in 2007 with now nearly twenty years in business. Drew cut his own son’s hair for the first time when he was four months old.

Several of the most nostalgic haircuts in his career have been getting to cut the hair of the original Jerry Dodd’s son (also Jerry Dodds) and Andrew Mowery, the great- great, grandson of Arthur Mowery, son of Eric and Christene Mowery.

Drew is married to Starla Rucker and they are the parents of two children. Their oldest daughter Reagan Lane is a Junior at Wheelersburg High School where she has participated in musicals and track.

Their son Raleigh Jackson Rucker (Jackson) is in the eighth grade at Wheelersburg and participates in baseball and football. He is named after his great-grandfather, who was captured on Wake Island after a gallant sixteen day battle following Pearl Harbor. President Roosevelt said it bought a giant time to catch it’s breath and following the war, the Japanese Commander called it the most embarrassing victory of the war. In this, Jackson is proud of his namesake.

It is with this in mind Drew has anticipated recognizing Veterans who frequent his shop!

Being in a community for over a century is a landmark most businesses never reach. Drew has carried the torch across the one hundred year mark and will continue to touch the lives of those who walk into his barbershop.

It is not known whether cake will come into the scene during this 100th Anniversary Celebration but the spirit of this business and it’s generations of founders is in great hands with a modern day Shorty, “Drew Rucker!”

Shorty’s Barbershop is located along Route 139 at 1506 Harrisonville Avenue, New Boston Ohio.