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Spring Grove Cemetery is the second-largest cemetery in the United States and was the birthplace of the landscape lawn plan of design.

Want to know any other facts about the 163-year-old cemetery?

Ask Phil Nuxhall, the eldest son of the late former Cincinnati Reds pitcher and radio announcer Joe Nuxhall.

He knows just about everything there is to know about the Cincinnati cemetery.

"One of my main goals is preserving history, preserving art, preserving landscape. I don't believe in letting all this stuff just wither away," he said.

Nuxhall is contracted through the Heritage Foundation to be the cemetery's historian and tour coordinator. To preserve the cemetery's beauty, he's been working on a book, "Beauty in the Grove: The History, Art, Architecture, and Landscape of Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum," which is set to be released in the spring.

"We have little precious things in Spring Grove that through age are eroding and you'll come back in 20 years and not be able to read the epitaph or be able to see the carving of the angel, and I want to get that saved," he said.

Nuxhall was a speech and language pathologist for the Hamilton County Board of Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities before retiring several years ago after 30 years.

As he approached retirement, he started working out by walking and, living in Clifton at the time, walking in Spring Grove seemed natural.

Then he noticed famous Cincinnati names — Longworth, McAlpin, Hoyt.

He eventually volunteered for the Save Our Sculptures project to help identify significant pieces of art work around Cincinnati.

But after the two-year project was over, and finding more than 600 pieces of "significant" art work in Spring Grove, he wanted more.

Since the cemetery did not have a historian, he proposed the idea and was eventually contracted to be the historian and tour coordinator.

This desire to be a preservationist was instilled in his family roots.

"I know that my grandparents were very appreciative of historic cemeteries," Nuxhall said. "I was brought up with the mentality that cemeteries are beautiful places to go to and you can learn about history at cemeteries and artwork."

Nuxhall's dad grew up living next to Greenwood Cemetery, and his aunt Pat Nuxhall and uncle Don and aunt Myra Nuxhall lived next to cemeteries.

"I was exposed to history a lot. Dad was very good about taking Kim and I to historic places," Nuxhall said. "The seed was planted in the back of my head and I enjoyed it, but I didn't know to what extent I could fully enjoy it."

Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5112 or mpitman@coxohio.com.