GALION — Fond memories of past good times were shared during the Galion Alumni Association’s Hall of Fame banquet.
The induction ceremony was conducted on Saturday, Oct. 16 as part of the annual Connections Weekend. Seven new members were welcomed into the Galion Alumni Hall of Fame. They are Martha Belle Boyd, Class of 1916 (posthumously); Chet Foraker, Class of 1954; Dr. Gerald “Gene” Bosler, Class of 1961; Max Ness, Class of 1961; Mary Court, Class of 1962 (posthumously); Lupe Campo, Class of 1973; and Debra Garverick, Esq., Class of 1976.
Martha Belle Boyd opened a youth center in Galion in 1943 and the facility served thousands of youth annually through the early 1970s. Boyd was described as “an ever-present, positive influence” in the lives of Galion’s children. She retired from public service in 1980 and passed away in 1984. Boyd’s grandson, Steve Kump, accepted her induction into the hall of fame on her behalf.
Chet Foraker and his family moved to Galion when he was a freshman in high school. He said the relocation of the family to Galion was “divinely directed” and changed his life forever.
“It’s a tremendous honor to be here,” Foraker said during his acceptance speech. “Galion changed my life. And I mean that sincerely. If you knew my history then you would know, it was in Galion where some hurts were healed and some things happened and it was the result of being in a community that was different than what my family had ever been in — and that was Galion. It might be hard to conceive that, that a community could bring healing to families, but the very thing that we’ve been talking about — the character, the caring, the loving, the non-judgmentalness — that was Galion.”
Foraker went on to become an educator and coach at the high school and collegiate levels and was a founding member of Mount Vernon Nazarene University.
Dr. Gerald “Gene” Bosler studied physics at Miami University of Ohio, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He then went on to work for the Atomic Energy Commission, earning a doctorate in nuclear engineering. He worked at Los Alamos in New Mexico from 1972 to 2001 and then went to work at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria. While with the IAEA, he was part of a team that was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 for their efforts to utilize nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
Max Ness devoted his life to working in education as a teacher, administrator, and coach. He was honored in 2016 by the Ohio High School Athletic Association as the recipient of its Naismith Meritorious Service Award. He also worked for The Ohio State University, serving in various capacities at the Schottenstein Center and Ohio Stadium. During his career, he has also served as a commissioner for two high school athletics conferences, the Mid-State League and the Lake Erie League.
Mary Court, who passed away in 2016, was an outstanding educator and — when she and her husband moved back to Galion — served for more than 20 years as the children’s librarian at the Galion Public Library, where she left an indelible mark on the children of the community. Devoted to the education of children, Court was well known for passing along her passion for reading and history to children with whom she worked. Outside of her work in education and the Galion Public Library, Court was a tireless community volunteer, serving on the board of the (then) Galion Historical Society and devoting countless hours to the First United Church of Christ in Galion. Court’s husband, Doug, accepted her induction into the hall of fame on her behalf.
Lupe Campo has been associated with Galion City Schools since the age of 7 when he became a student at North Elementary School. In the ensuing 60-plus years, he has become a household name in the Galion area and quite possibly the No. 1 Tigers fan of all time. Campo joined the district staff upon graduating from Galion High School and spent the next 30 years as a custodian at GHS. An avid supporter of all things orange and blue, Campo has been a tireless member of the Galion Boosters Club and has managed the concession stands at football, basketball, and volleyball games over the years. His son, Scott, noted while introducing his father that Campo makes the best popcorn of any high school concession stand in the area. During his induction speech, Campo joked that he was asked to bring popcorn to the ceremony, but just didn’t have time to do it.
Debra Garverick, Esq., returned to Galion to work with her father in the family legal practice and has been an integral part of the community since. Volunteerism has been the hallmark of her career in her hometown. She has served on the boards of numerous organizations, including the Galion Community Foundation, Humane Society Serving Crawford County, Crawford County Bar Association, St. Paul United Methodist Church, and the Galion Port Authority. As the final inductee to be honored, Garverick issued an encouragement and a challenge with her parting words.
“A lot of what I was recognized for was volunteering and charitable work, and I certainly just want to encourage everybody to do that,” Garverick said. “Find a cause that you are interested in or invested in. Please volunteer. Please join an organization. Join a club. We don’t have many people doing that these days and I think we have much better and more compassionate adults when we do those things. I think it really only take two things to be a volunteer. One is a desire to help. The second, I think, is an either/or.
“In addition to the desire to help, you either need the ability to say ‘yes’ — meaning you’re going to make time for it and dedicate yourself to it a little bit — or, in the alternative, the inability to say ‘no,’ because you get calls from friends, sometimes from family, and they want you to be on a committee with them, a board with them, and it’s difficult to say no.”
Connections Weekend 2022 has already been scheduled for Oct. 13-15, 2022. For information about the Galion Alumni Association and the Galion Alumni Hall of Fame, go to its website www.galionalumni.com.
