Robert J. Davis, Jr., Class of 1945, was nominated to the Alumni Hall of Fame by his sister-in-law, Rose Marie Davis. During his childhood he was employed in and around Minerva as a milkman for the Lippincott Dairy, a delivery and stock boy for Brown's Grocery, a YMCA counselor, a custodian at R. C. Smith's Dry Goods, a laborer at Good Roads Machinery, and a postman.
After graduating from Minerva High School, he attended The Ohio State University where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Personnel Management. In 1972 he received a Master’s of Arts degree in Urban Studies from Akron University.
During World War II, Davis served in the U. S. Navy aboard the U.S.S. Mercer APB 39-Hospital Corps.
From 1949 to 1951, he was employed by the Minerva Wax Paper Company as assistant to the vice president of operations. In 1951, he went to the Ford Motor Company Forge Plant in Canton where he stayed until 1992. There he was Manager of Human Resources, and as such he had many different titles and jobs: Employment Interviewer; Suggestion Coordinator; Training Coordinator; Supervisor of Personnel Services; Labor Relations; Hourly Personnel; Salaried Personnel; and when Ford left Canton in 1988, he was named Coordinator of the Reemployment Assistance Center.
Davis has an extensive history of community service. He has served as deacon at Christ United Presbyterian Church and as an elder at Northminster Presbyterian. He was appointed and served four years on the Presbyterian Synod of Ohio Personnel Committee. Besides being on the board of directors of the United Way of Central Stark County, he served on the budget committee and as a campaign worker. From 1956 to 1962 he was on the board of directors of the Community Rehabilitation Clinic at Aultman Hospital. Davis has served six years on the Stark County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities and currently is an advisor on the Personnel Committee. He was a member of the Canton Toastmaster’s Club, and the president and founder of the Ford Toastmaster’s Club. He was a member of the North Canton Rotary and served on the United Cerebral Palsy Board. He was elected for two years as President of the North Canton Clearmont Elementary School's PTA. In 1959 he was elected President of the Canton Jaycees and served his term into 1960. At that time he was elected Chairman of the Canton Jaycees Board of Directors. During his presidency the Canton Jaycees received the Henry Giessenbrier Award as the Most Outstanding Jaycee chapter in Division IV in the state of Ohio. In 1960 Davis was inducted into the Jaycees International organization as a Lifetime Senator. In 1964 he received the "Town Crier's Bell" when he was elected Ford Citizen of the Year, awarded for outstanding service to the community.
Following his retirement from Ford in January 1992, he was elected president of the Ford Salaried Retirees Luncheon Club, and in 1999 he was appointed to the Hartville Meadows Human Rights Committee as a parent/guardian advocate. Davis is currently serving as treasurer of the Hartville Homes Inc. Foundation, a not-for-profit organization, providing housing and total care for the Mental Retarded and Developmental Disabled.
In May 1950 Davis married Wanda Park. They are now the parents of four daughters: Wendy, Heidi, Gigi, and Polly Anna, and they enjoy spoiling six granddaughters and one grandson.
Joseph C. Deck, Class of 1954, was nominated by Jay Clark. Deck was born in Canton, but grew up in Minerva. Two early developmental milestones stand out in his recollections. The first is that his grandfather, a baseball fanatic, sparked his interest in the baseball rivalry between the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Red Sox. Ted Williams was the Star of the Red Sox then, and Deck worshipped him. He dates his abiding interest in Massachusetts to those early baseball memories. The second developmental milestone was a "fantastic" high school mathematics teacher, Miss Wachtel. She had, very, very high expectations for all of her students. He learned more in that class than any other.
Deck began college at Duquesne University as a pre-med student. Between his junior and senior years, he worked for Gulf Research. During that summer he was accepted at St. Louis University Medical School. After a year and a half of medical school, he really thought he could make more of a contribution in science than in medicine. Since he did not have an undergraduate degree, he returned to Duquesne University and graduated in 1960 with a double major in biology and chemistry.
He attended graduate school as a part-time student at the University of Pittsburgh and then to the University of Illinois where he completed his Ph.D. He accepted a teaching offer from the University of Louisville where later became the assistant dean of health professions, followed by two years as dean.
He was then offered a position at the University of Massachusetts, which he considered the best in New England. He was recently named Interim Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Prior to this selection he had been dean of the College of Arts and Sciences since 1988.
He and his wife, Jo, are the parents of four children. They live near the university. Joe said, "I am not too far from Boston, near all kinds of really great things. One could not have a better combination of events, with all of your life coming together and realizing everything for which you had ever hoped.”
Among his many grants and awards are a $400,000 total in grants; and the Eastman Kodak Award for the Outstanding Chemistry Graduate Student, University of Illinois in1965; the Excellence in Teaching Award, School of Chemical Sciences, University of Illinois, 1979; and, in 1986, the University of Louisville Outstanding Performance Award for effectiveness in behalf of Affirmative Action.
Doris I. Lutes Dennis, Class of 1935, was nominated by Lois Kimble, a 1930 graduate of MHS. After high school graduation, Dennis attended Kent State University, Indiana University and Sierra College along with military training at Hunter College. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Education and a Master’s Degree in Educational Administration from the University of Southern California.
After teaching two and one-half-years, she joined the U. S. Marine Corps and was in the first class of women Marines. Dennis became a supervisor of aviation stock control in El Centro, California. She remained in that position until her discharge from the Marines in 1945. The following day she was hired as a civil service employee to do the same job she had done in the Marines. She married a fellow Marine, and they had one son.
Dennis retired from teaching in 1983, having taught in California for 33 years. Since her retirement, she has volunteered her time as an assistant leader in the Boy Scouts, Sunday School teacher and superintendent, library aid, Welcome Wagon, secretary of Widowed Parents Services, secretary and treasurer of a church group, president of AARP in Auburn, California, as well as working in many other organizations. In addition to all of her community activities, she had returned to school to engage in self-growth classes and Bible study.
Dr. Charles Dominick, Class of 1961, was chosen as a member of the Minerva High School Alumni Hall of Fame in 1988 by the Minerva High School Advisory Board. Dr. Dominick was cited for distinguishing himself in the field of education. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1965 from The College of Wooster, a Master's degree in 1969 from The Ohio State University, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1987 from The University of Michigan.
He has held the following positions: Admissions Counselor at Davis and Elkins College in Elkins, West Virginia, and at Mount Union College; Assistant Dean of Admissions and Director of the Commission on Mission and Priorities at Wittenburg University; Admissions Assistant and Research Associate, Project CHOICE at The University of Michigan; Associate Director of University Advancement, Assistant to the President, and Vice President for Institutional Relations of Wittenburg University.
Dominick is affiliated with the American Association for Higher Learning, Association for the Study of Higher Education, Phi Alpha Theta, Pi Sigma Alpha, Young Men's Literary Society, and many other professional and academic organizations. He has also made many presentations and had many articles published in the NACAC Journal.
In his acceptance speech he said, "I am grateful for this award . . . I have to say one thing first. I have never been anything but proud for having departed on my career from Minerva High School. This is where it all began, and I'm grateful for that."
He was accompanied to Minerva by his wife Nancy. The couple has a 14-year-old, Tim. They left the morning after the ceremony for Springfield where Dominick is Vice President of Institutional Relations at Wittenburg University. Dr. Dominick is the son of Dorothy and Joseph Dominick at 409 Stadium Street, Minerva.
Ellen L. Donaldson Brown, class of 1963, was nominated by her cousin, James Donaldson, also of the class of 1963. A native of New Franklin, she attended school there, then attended Minerva High School where she sang in Leonard Welch's Choirs and played piano with the Stage Band.
She began her formal piano lessons with Beth Hoobler Bates of Minerva at age 7, then at age 13 transferred her classical music studies to Mount Union College, where she studied piano, music theory, and pipe organ with Fred Williams and Arthur Lindstrom. Her first choral experiences were in her mother's choir at St. John's Lutheran Church in New Franklin. Her career as a church organist began as a teenager, and later advanced to studies in organ, choral conducting and arranging with David N. Johnson at Arizona State University. In 1967 she received the Bachelor of Music Education degree from Mount Union; in 1974 the Master’s of Music degree from Arizona State University; and in 1992 the Arizona Community College Lifetime Teaching Certificate.
Brown is an exceptionally versatile director, teacher, pianist, organist, accompanist, and arranger with an enthusiastic outgoing personality. In his nominating letter Donaldson wrote, "Ellen is a person of exemplary character and talent. She has a passion for life and is loved and respected by all who know her."
Brown's life has been a happy collection of musical activities. She says that no life is truly complete without an art with which to express oneself--and she's chosen the Art of Music! She was a choral arranger, accompanist, music theory assistant and college chapel organist while a student at Mount Union College. She was an elementary music teacher for Lorain City Schools from 1968 to 1971. She was and a pianist and singer with Glenn Brown's Jazz Ambassador Band from 1984 to the present. While teaching in Lorain, she and Glenn played with a Puerto Rican Band and presented 17 two-piano jazz concerts for the Lorain City Elementary Schools. From 1996 to 2001 she was a concert organist for the American Guild of Organist annual scholarship benefit marathon, and entertainer for Fiesta Bowl Events at the Arizona Biltmore and the Phoenician Resorts from 1995 until the present; and worked as a freelance accompanist and arranger for the McGuire Sisters Singing Trio and New York City Opera stars Robert Hale and Richard McKee. Brown has been pianist for various shows including My Fair Lady, Oklahoma, Guys and Dolls, The Fantastiks, and West Side Story. Concerts with her husband Glenn as a two-piano jazz team have included being the opening act for The Mills Brothers at the Chandler Center for the Arts. Her work as a church musician has included playing and/or directing at The Christian Church in Lorain, Ohio; St. Peter Lutheran in Mesa, Arizona; The First Church of God in Phoenix, Arizona; Beautiful Savior Lutheran in Tempe, Arizona; and the United Methodist Church of Paradise Valley, Arizona. In addition she has served as accompanist to the Desert Foothills Chorale, the Phoenix College Chamber Singers, and the Phoenix Police Department Honor Chorus, which included performances in Washington D.C.
An adjunct faculty member at Phoenix College since 1999, she has taught piano, organ, music theory, and aural perception. She is also accompanist for the Phoenix College Concert Choir and the McConnell Singers Women's Chorus, with whom she tours annually. She is a member and past dean of the Central Arizona Chapter of The American Guild of Organists and has been a featured presenter in two Pipe Organ Encounters, and AGO national educational project promoting the pipe organ to teenagers.
In 1971 she assisted her husband establishing his business, Glenn Brown Piano Rebuilding, and for many years has been an active member of the business. The Browns live in Tempe, Arizona, and are the proud parents of two adult sons, Aaron and Matthew.
James A. Donaldson, Class of 1963, was nominated by Dr. Robert Hines. Mr. Donaldson is a native of New Franklin where he attended school in grades one through seven and then came to Minerva. His home is presently in Naples, Florida.
Upon graduating from Minerva High School, Donaldson entered the United States Air Force. He did his basic training in San Antonio, Texas, followed by various specialty training schools in Mississippi and Texas. He completed a two-year tour in Misawa, Japan, and a one-year tour in Samsoon, Turkey. His position was in Security Service working under the National Security Administration. He was honorably discharged with the rank of Staff Sergeant on December 7, 1966.
In January 1967, he began employment at Timken Roller Bearing in Canton as a time clerk on the night shift while working for William Powell during the daytime at Clearview Golf Course doing general labor and grounds keeping. In the spring of 1967, he moved to Chicago to attend DeVry Institute of Technology. He obtained a part-time position at the Chicago Board of Trade as a runner on the trading floor to the Archer Daniels Midland Corporation. His position soon became full time, and he began to attend DePaul University.
In 1971, Donaldson left Archer Daniels Midland to open the commercial commodity department for Kohlmeyer & Co. During this time, he also began trading and filling orders as a broker in the soybean oil pit. A year later, he joined the Kelly Grain Co., and was named a partner within a year. Upon incorporation of the firm, he became executive vice president and secretary. He remained in those positions until the sold the firm in 1986, but continued to trade for himself in the ensuing years.
He was elected to the Board of Directors of the Chicago Board of Trade in 2004. While on the board, it went from a member-owned institution to a for-profit entity and went public with their IPO in October of 2006. They then merged with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange creating the CME Group, the world’s largest futures exchange. Donaldson now sits on the newly formed Board of Directors of the CME Group and has recently been slated for another three-year term.
Among his memberships and affiliations are The Union League Club of Chicago; Pelican Isle Yacht Club of Naples, Florida; Naples Grand Golf Club; Youche Country Club of Crown Point, Indiana; The Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago; and the First Presbyterian Church of Naples, Florida.