Jake Fugate (football), Antone Truss (track) and Greg Felder Jr. (basketball) join earlier scholarship-winners Erika Chick (swimming), Elizabeth Malone (swimming) and Jacob Trumbull (soccer).

Even though there was only one YSHS varsity football game this year,  Fugate managed to score a spot on the Wilmington College team. Fugate played hard when he had the chance and never gave up, according to his junior high and high school coach, Craig McCann

“He’s gonna do great,” said Coach McCann. “He’s always been a beast and played with reckless abandon.”

Truss, a high jumper who narrowly missed a state appearance last year, will also play at Wilmington College. Last week Truss secured his spot in regionals in the 100- and 200-meter dash and the long jump, where he was the district champion.

Felder Jr., a district-15 all-star selected to the Metro Buckeye Conference’s first team will play at Clark State University next year.

Previously, Chick signed with Cornell University, Malone with St. Bonaventure University and Trumbull with Centre College.

Read the full story in next week’s News.

Just yesterday, Zan and I were at the Wright Patterson Base Exchange when we passed a demonstration booth for the Vitamix blender. I had heard of this blender from my Aunt Teri. She and her husband own a family farm in upstate New York, and they use the Vitamix to process butter and grind flours. Aunt Teri highly recommended it to me several years back and it’s remained on my Christmas wish list since. Here finally was my chance to see it in action. The demonstrator soon materialized and happily set about feeding us. He started off with a strawberry banana smoothie and then made a magnificent sorbet out of avocado, spinach, lime, and agave, a honey-like nectar. My daughter—suspicious of green food—gamely tried the sorbet after I assured her that it tasted like watermelon. She agreed to take an Elmo taste—a medium sized bite on the center of her tongue—after which she asked for her very own sample and found a comfortable corner to sit and enjoy the sorbet at leisure. She wasn’t the only one sold on its goodness. Somewhere between the soup tortilla, cashew ice cream, and rice flour demos, I decided to take a blender home. (Note to husband: Strike bar blender from Christmas list.)

In removing the blender from its packaging, I was inordinately pleased to find a notice boasting its Cleveland, Ohio origin. I was raised in one of the seats of American manufacturing and intimately know the importance of manufacturing to the local economy. So it was good to find myself supporting the home team. Founded in 1921 by William G. Barnard “the Father of the Infomercial”, the Vitamix Corporation‘s vision is admirable and true in its execution: to bring vitality to people’s lives and remove boundaries between homemade and professional food preparation. As the first week approaches of my family’s produce pickup from Smaller Footprint Farm, the ability to make salsas, soups, sorbets, and smoothies fresh and quickly will be much appreciated.

Zan was ready to stay up all night making smoothies. She combed our strawberry plants for berries to add to blender and carted ice cubes from the kitchen refrigerator to make her first sorbet as I cleaned the pitcher. Berries being short, we made a rhubarb mint sorbet instead. The rhubarb came from the garden of our friend Carol. Her generosity included a starter plug that’s been added to my own garden (Note: Continue to water new plantings; the weather’s been dry.). Our homemade sorbet was a brilliant green due to the fresh cut collard green that I snuck in at the end. Early arrivals to today’s farmers market may find local strawberries in season. If I hurry, maybe I can surprise Zan with the fixings for strawberry banana smoothie, then she can treat the family by whipping it up. If you hear a whirring sound coming from our kitchen, that will be her.

The forum segment of the Council meeting will contain some short presentations of various aspects of local art, including a presentation by Jerome Borchers, the president of the Yellow Springs Arts Council Board of Trustees, who will give an overview of the history of the arts in the village. There will be time for questions and comments from villagers.

The forum was sparked by a controversy earlier this spring over local arts policy, during which several Village employees felt uncomfortable with the Women’s Voices Out Loud art exhibit that hung in the second floor hallway of the Village building, which contained several paintings of nudes. While none of the paintings were removed during the show, the event became controversial. Soon after, Village Council members discussed the need for community input regarding a potential arts policy for Village buildings.

Junior distance runner Alexandria Brown smashed the Yellow Springs High School record of 5:30.21 when she won the conference championship race in the 1600-meter run at last Saturday’s Metro Buckeye Conference Track & Field Championships. Brown finished in 5:23.59.

But despite Brown’s victories the Bulldogs came up a few points shy of the title, tying Dayton Christian for second place with 79 points. Meanwhile Emmanuel Christian pulled out the win in the last couple of events to win with 98. The Bulldogs finished ahead of Troy Christian, Xenia Christian, Middletown Christian and the Miami Valley School.

Joining Brown on the all-conference first team with wins in their events were Angela Allen in the discus and the 4×800-meter relay team. Allen won the discus on her first toss of the competition when the platter soared 93 feet and 7 inches. With Brown anchoring, the 4×800-meter relay squad of Lois Miller, Riki Kida and Nikki Worsham easily captured the conference title in 11:40.55.

“All four of our relay teams did well,” Coach Vince Peters said. “The 4×100 and 4×200 squads each had their season-best performances and placed second overall. The 4×400 squad also had their fastest time of the year while finishing fourth.”

Running on the second-place 4×100-meter relay team was AnnDee Pettiford, Kennedy Harshaw, Rachele Orme and Angela Allen. Camara Cross teamed with Harshaw, Ormer and Allen on the runner up 4×200-meter relay squad.

Third-place results went to Miller in the 3200-meter run and Harshaw in the shot put. Those earning fourth-place finishes were Pettiford in the long jump, and Brown in the 800-meter run. Fifth-place finishes went to Miller in the 1600-meter run, Harshaw in the long jump and Taylor Beck in the shot put. Finishing in sixth were Christina Brewer in the 800-meter run, Kida in the 3200-meter run and Pettiford in the 100-meter dash.

Truss sets MBC record, boys 4th

The YSHS boys track team came in fourth place in the MBC championships last week on the back of first-place finishes by senior Antone Truss, whose performance made the record books.

Truss won the competition and put up a new league record by clearing 6´7˝ in the high jump. That jump also tied the YSHS school record, set by Steve Nelson in 1977 and matched by Aaron Lucas in 1991. Truss also won the long jump with a leap of 19´11˝ and came in third in the 100-meter race in a time of 11.74.

Overall the team came in with 54 points, behind league winner Troy Christian.

The 4×400-meter relay team of Cameron Henderson, Bryce White, Cameron Miles and Truss also got bronze with their performance. Sixth-place finishes were recorded by Nick Whalen in both shot put and discus, Dylan Boczar in both the 110- and 300-meter hurdles, Connor Gravely-Novello in the 3200-meter run and by the 4×1600-meter relay team of Henrik Korsch, Levi Perry, Max Mullin and Miles.

Great efforts were also displayed by Kalonji Cross, Devon Lewis, and Nkosi Ngqakayi, according to Coach John Gudgel.

McKinney boys win conference

The McKinney boys track and field team got revenge on the team that eked out a victory ahead of them at the McKinney Invitational a few weeks ago. At the Metro Buckeye Conference championships, held at YSHS, the Bulldogs bested Emmanuel Christian to take the league title. The girls team placed third.

“Today everyone fought with Bulldog pride and gave their very best, fighting for every point,” said Coach Isabelle Dierauer. “We are very proud of our teams.”

Oluka Okia made the record books for the second time this year by tying the high jump record of 5´4˝ set by AJ Wagner and winning the competition. Earlier in the year, Okia broke the McKinney pole vault record, an event which Okia also won at the MBC meet by clearing 7´6˝. He also placed third in the long lump with a leap of 15´5˝.

The Yellow Springs jump team performed well. In the high jump Kaner Butler crossed 4´10˝ and placed fourth. Gabe Trillana came in second in the long jump with a leap of 6´. Kaliyah Fulton crossed 5´ to place second in the pole vault and got fourth with a height of 3´10˝ in the high jump. Rhona Marion placed third in the girls’ long jump with a leap of 13´3˝.

The throwers delivered as well. Joe Plumer had an awesome day despite his injured foot. He threw the discuss 90´1˝ and improved his personal best in the shot put by three feet throwing 35´2˝ and winning both events. However the big surprise of the day was Dee Johnson, who placed sixth in the shot put with 22´8˝ and fourth in the discuss with a toss of 76´5˝.

The distance runners once more proved that they belong among the best in the conference. CJ Johnson (first in 5:18.83) and Levi Brown (second in 5:45.07) totally controlled the 1600-meter run. In the 800-meter run Johnson ran a 2:26.86, placing third and Brown came in sixth in a time of 2:43.27. In the 4×400-meter relay, Johnson and Brown ran together with Cameron Haught and Hayden Orme and secured the conference win in a dramatic race, placing second in a time of 4:32.15. Charlotte Walkey placed third in the 1600-meter with a time of 5:57.36 and finished the 800-meter run in a new personal best of 2:41.05 good for second place.

The McKinney hurdle crew added some points for their team as well. In the 200-meter girls hurdle race once more Julian Roberts and Olivia Brintlinger-Conn were running together in the fast heat. Roberts second in 33.10 and Brintlinger-Conn came next in third, with 33.22. In the boys race, Duard Headly placed fourth in 33.81. Other hurdle finalists were Butler (third place), Marion (third place) and Brintlinger-Conn (fourth place).

Sprinter talent Roberts took advantage of the warm weather and shaved about a second off her personal best so far and placed fourth in the 200-meter in a time of 29.01. The boys 4×100-meter relay team (Headly, Johnson, Trilliana and Haught) placed third in 1:00.11. The girls (Allison, Skinner, Worsham and Creighton) fought with heart and overcame a dropped baton, placing fourth in the 4×100-meter in 1:08.36. The boys 4×200-meter crew (Haugth, Buttler, Sherwood and Perry) ran with a 1:55.16, a season-best time, and came in second. The girls 4×200-meter relay (Allison, Creighton, Worsham and Creighton) placed fourth in a time of 2:15.41.

“I’ve been looking for reasons to be grumpy, but I just can’t,” she said. “I love my job!”

Dakota loved her job before WYSO made its big move across the street last Tuesday from the Sontag-Fels building owned by Antioch College to the ground floor of the Kettering building, which was vacated over the winter when the university administrative staff moved across town to the Creative Memories building. But with a $1 million renovation for new studios and expanded office space and $126,000 in broadcasting equipment upgrades, the job of growing the 91.3 FM public radio station just got a whole lot easier. “This was really a momentous move,” Dakota said last week. “That the university recognized and valued what we do here at this community radio station — it makes me want to cry. I feel so lucky.”

WYSO has moved just three times since its first broadcast as an Antioch College radio station in 1958, when it was housed in the northeast corner of the student union. The station moved to the Fels building in 1995, and went from being a mostly Yellow Springs station to its current capacity serving a nine-county area and broadcasting not just national programs but local news, commentary and DJed programs. But operating from the basement of the aging and largely vacant Fels building was a challenge, WYSO Station Manager Neenah Ellis said. The building, vacated by Antioch University Midwest (then called Antioch McGregor) in 2007, has long had plumbing and HVAC issues, which caused secondary problems such as mold and temperature fluctuations. In addition, the old production and sound recording space was limited.

The remodeled space in the southwest corner of the Kettering building offers three times the production space, including a new master studio and one for backup, three production booths and a live performance space with ample room for an audience. The recent investment also includes a new transmitter to pump up the station’s signal from 37,000 watts to 50,000 watts, which while it won’t increase the broadcast area, will improve the quality of the signal, especially at the fringe of the coverage area. The station also got a new satellite dish for better reception of syndicated programs and other equipment to facilitate the production process. The rest of the ground floor allows for expanded office spaces for WYSO’s eight full-time and three part-time staff members and dozens of volunteers. Last week WYSO staff members Sarah Buckingham and Juliet Fromholt were helping to move boxes of CDs into the new music library and digitizing room, where the station will eventually open its archives to the public.

Overall, Ellis said in an interview last week, the move will accommodate growth for the station, especially in the area of local programming, which listeners around the Miami Valley have said they want more of in their local station.

“To me it’s not an either/or — I think we can do both [national and local programming] and do both very well,” Ellis said. “WYSO has an incredible tradition here since it started, of telling local stories,” and along with some grant funding, the station plans to use the new studio “to help us step up to the next level with more community programming and training.”

Currently WYSO has 12 locally produced shows, including news director Emily McCord’s “Politics Ohio,” “The Book Nook with Vick Mickunas,” music programs such as “Kaleidoscope” with Fromholt and “Midnight Ramble” with Tom Duffy, and commentary such as “Filmically Perfect” with Dakota, J. Todd Anderson and George Willeman. And the station is positioning itself to do more. Last year WYSO launched Community Voices to train people at the studio with the writing, editing, recording and announcing skills needed to produce a radio program. Over the winter WYSO received a $100,000 Localore project grant to partner with local media producers Steve Bognar and Julia Reichert to cover the post-recession stories of the people of Dayton. And this year the station is working with Antioch University to create a pilot for an online media production course for its students.

“The idea is, who doesn’t need some kind of media training these days? No matter what you’re doing, you need to understand this vocabulary and the potential of using these tools,” Ellis said. “We’re starting with radio because that’s what we know…but the long-range goal is to become a media training center.”

The reason for training more people in production is to get those who live in the community to tell the stories of that community. They are the ones who know it best, and listeners like hearing from them, Ellis believes.

“People like hearing the local voices, and they’re very, very unhappy about taking local stuff off the air,” Ellis said. “So now we have the staff and the space, and we’re trying to grow the resources” to achieve that goal.

While the university, which owns WYSO, covered the cost of the move and some of the equipment upgrades (which the station did not have to ask its listeners to support), the station will need to cover an increase in annual operating costs in the new space, which are expected to reach between $70,000 and $100,000, part of which will be borne by the university that still uses the upper floors for records storage. The bulk of the cost will need to come from station revenues, Ellis said. Those revenues are currently looking positive, with membership on the rise and audience numbers growing modestly in all age groups.

“We’re not making a huge budgetary leap, but we’re assuming more of the basic operating costs of the building,” she said.

With Congress threatening to cut the public broadcasting funds that support WYSO, the station must be prepared to replace lost revenue, Ellis said. The station has raised $400,000 in local, state and federal grants since Ellis joined the station in 2009, and this summer WYSO hired development director Luke Dennis to help leverage more support. The station launched a fundraising feasibility study this spring and hopes to know more by June about how much it could raise, given the station’s reach.

For now, the move has been a big shot in the arm toward growing capacity. At noon on Tuesday last week, the station organized a parade across the street with Dakota, who was on the air when the station’s signal switched from the old building to the new one.

“For us it was a momentous occasion and a big milestone — it’s something we’re all going to remember,” Ellis said. “To me it’s like a page turned in the history of WYSO. We’ve got the infrastructure now, and from here it’s about making progress and training people.”

With a larger than expected pool of 3,100 applicants, prospective students have been captivated partly by the full tuition fellowships the college is offering to its first four classes, Mesquita said.

“But at the end of the day they’re choosing Antioch — they’re choosing to engage in the community we’re creating here,” he said.

None of the names will be released until the roster is complete, but according to Mesquita, the students hail from all corners of the U.S., from Maine to south Texas to Washington state, while 28 percent reside in Ohio and one is from Yellow Springs. The class includes one student who recently immigrated from Africa and several who were trained at preparatory schools in New England, while 30 percent of the students are multicultural (compared to last year’s 20 percent) and 71 percent are female (last year 60 percent were female). And many chose Antioch over a broad range of other schools, including Amherst, Barnard, Oberlin, Emory University, McAllister, Evergreen and University of Texas, Austin.

According to Louise Smith, dean of community life, what called to a lot of the students was the experiential learning that Antioch creates through its co-op term, interdisciplinary global seminars, project-based curriculum and the hands-on farm-to-kitchen cooperative dining program.

“I think what really speaks to students is that they’re not sequestered in the classroom all the time and they’re getting that built-in co-curricular piece, because that’s how they get prepared for the world,” Smith said.

“It’s true, that has become the gold standard of value ­— it’s not only what are students are doing in school but what will they do after they graduate,” Mesquita said. “We’re already able to provide evidence that students are getting jobs and doing something meaningful with their lives, and we’re doing it in a way that’s affordable.”

Six new faculty hired

In order to accommodate what will soon be a campus of about 100 students with both classes combined, this spring the college appointed six tenure-track faculty members and Coretta Scott King Center director Derrick Weston (whose story the News reported last week). The move brings the total number of tenure-track faculty to 12, which will allow the college to establish concentrations or majors in 11 fields, in addition to providing language courses, which currently include Japanese, French and Spanish, according to Vice President for Academic Affairs Hassan Rahmanian.

In the sciences, the college hired assistant professor of biomedical sciences Savitha Krishna, a published researcher who taught most recently at Wilberforce University and served as adjunct faculty at the college over the winter; associate professor of environmental science Linda Fuselier, who taught in the biosciences and directed the women’s and gender studies program at Minnesota State University-Moorhead and also has research published in many refereed journals; and assistant professor of psychology Michelle Clonch, who, along with publishing research, practiced as a mental health counselor before becoming director of the Women’s Center and Women’s Programs at Western Carolina University.

In other departments, the college has also hired Rick Kraince as associate professor of cooperative education. Kraince has published research on socio-political movements around the world and most recently served as a tenure track faculty member and as the academic coordinator for the Center for Asian and African Studies at El Colegio de México in Mexico City. Serving as assistant professor of history will be Kevin McGruder, who currently teaches history and African-American studies and is a scholar in residence at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at Lehman College (CUNY). He has also worked in the advocacy field and published scholarly work on sexuality in black culture. Finally, wrestler and filmmaker Charles Fairbanks, a former Guggenheim Fellow who has worked with filmmaker Werner Herzog and taught at Universidad de Ciencias y Artes at Tuxtla, has been hired as assistant professor of media arts.

In the world of higher education, doubling the faculty in a year is basically unthinkable, Rahmanian said, but it was necessary to serve the students with a spectrum of disciplines and scholars who are able teach the higher level courses that the first class of students will need by next year. The current faculty members took a strong leadership role in searching for and naming the new faculty, and the college will soon look to hire two more full-time faculty members in the fields of political economy, part of which Rahmanian is currently covering, and the performing arts, some of which Louise Smith has taught.

“It was a big commitment on our part and a stressful role for the existing faculty to take on and lead these searches,” Rahmanian said. “And it’s a big accomplishment to have found high quality faculty who all bring a balance of scholarship and teaching experience.”

A new place to live, learn, eat

Most of the teaching will still be held in McGregor Hall, along with faculty offices. But a new group of students needs a whole new place to live, which is why North Hall, the brick dorm on the horse shoe just north of Kelly Hall, has undergone many months of intense reconstruction this spring, including a boring machine that is digging 25 600-foot holes for the building’s new geothermal heating system.

The new main dining hall will be located on the ground floor of North, while Birch Hall kitchen may become a fully cooperative kitchen with a second kitchen staff. While North is big enough for housing needs, college leaders are still looking for a larger meeting/gathering space on campus for students.

While the current students were given the option to take the fall term as a co-op term, many have chosen to use it as a study term in order to stay on campus to usher in the new group of students. That has been a blessing to the community life staff, and a testament to the ownership students feel about their role in co-creating the renewed college, Smith said.

“We’re hoping to craft a residential environment with more opportunities for students to integrate their experiences of learning and community,” Smith said. “Our aim is to create a cohesive, intentional, compassionate, respectful community…that’s what we’re hoping for.”

“In my opinion we get a pretty good bang for our buck,” he said in an interview last month.

Since 2005 the Yellow Springs Police Department has been a member of the Task Force to help pursue crime that stems from outside the village. Participating agencies include Xenia Police Division, Beavercreek, Fairborn, Yellow Springs and Sugarcreek Township police departments, the Greene County Sheriff and the Greene County Prosecutor. Cedarville Police, Wright State University and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation also provide support to the force. Each member agency pays an annual fee and provides staff to the Task Force. In return, the Task Force provides tactical and investigative officer training and distributes to each agency the criminal assets, both liquid and property, seized throughout the year.

The local department has typically provided one full-time officer who works exclusively on task force investigations. And last year, while other departments were cutting their staffing to the task force, the local department increased its support by providing an additional part-time officer one day per week to the force. According to Scott, the monetary cost to the Village is $46,000 per year in salaries for its Task Force officers and a $10,500 participation fee. The Village also loses at least one officer from the local force.

But the local department also benefits on several fronts, Scott believes. Since 2007, Yellow Springs police have taken in $229,000 in distributed assets from the Task Force (including about $30,000 last year), including several vehicles and flat screen televisions, which the department uses and redistributes to local youth and social service agencies, Scott said. The Task Force provides specialized training to local officers in areas such as how to respond to and decontaminate a methamphetamine production lab, monitoring device installation, tactical shooting, and entry and rescue techniques. The Task Force also provides officer assistance for incidents such as the bank robbery attempt at WesBanco in March. And, according to Task Force Director Bruce May, by supporting the Task Force, the village also helps to fight the root cause of drug-related crime in the region, which reduces its effect in Yellow Springs.

According to the most recent Task Force Review of 2011, the only arrest in Yellow Springs last year occurred in March at the Springs Motel, where the force caught two men from California and Montana who had brought hundreds of pounds of marijuana to Greene County over the past several years. Through an undercover drug purchase, the force arrested the suspects and recovered 20 pounds of marijuana and $20,000 in cash.

While the activity in the village last year was minimal, according to the 2011 Review, the Task Force as a whole issued 60 search warrants in Greene County and 29 in other jurisdictions, which resulted in 265 felony indictments against over 70 mostly male defendants. The charges included trafficking in crack cocaine, heroin, marijuana and pharmaceutical drugs and drug-related crime, including homicides, assaults, theft and crimes against the elderly. The Task Force seized over $935,000 in drugs last year, and had a 100 percent conviction rate.

Of note in 2011 was a rise in the number of meth labs operating in Greene County. According to May, new techniques increased the portability of the drug labs, which were found in farm fields, houses and vehicles all across the county. The Task Force discovered 11 labs last year, close to the highest year ever with 12 in 2005, and this year the force has already infiltrated eight drug labs around the county, May said.

Typically each participating agency has provided one to two officers to the force; however, last year staff shrank from 11 officers in 2009 to about six officers, due to budget cuts of most of the participating agencies, according to the review. And the local department too will continue to assess its ability to participate at the current level, Scott said. Presently the Yellow Springs department manages to cover its local shifts with a total of six full-time officers and one soon to be hired, another six part-time officers, 8 full and part-time dispatchers and a budget of $1.2 million. “We will continue to evaluate whether we can afford to lose an officer there [at the Task Force] while maintaining the manpower we need here,” Scott said.

Rita Colbert

Rita Colbert, resident of Yellow Springs since 1950, died on May 6 at the age of 85 in Milwaukee, Wis.

Rita was born in Newark, N.J. on June 28, 1926. She was a graduate of Antioch College and a successful businesswoman. While working as an importer, she became an expert on ethnographic and pre-Colombian art. She was also a long-standing member of the Shakespeare Club and the Glen Helen Association, or GHA, spending many hours as a volunteer in the GHA Nature Shop.

Rita was the cherished wife for 64 years of the late Charles Colbert, the beloved mother of Kim Colbert, the late Shelley Colbert, Michele (José Junquera) Colbert, the late Cary Colbert, and Tod (Susie) Colbert. She is survived by her loving grandchildren Benjamin and Spencer Beggs, Max and Zachary Junquera and Lauren Colbert.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Glen Helen Association

Harriet was born June 19, 1922 in Avoca, Pa., and moved to Ohio in 1948, where her husband Francis was employed at National Cash Register for 33 years.

Harriet was a founding member of Mary, Help of Christians Catholic Church, Altar Rosary Society and Daughters of Isabella since 1954. She loved to entertain people at weddings and parties singing “Second Hand Rose.” She was a world traveler, and attended Oktoberfest in Germany, kissed the Blarney Stone in Ireland, saw the Pope in Rome, and rode a gondola in Venice. In Greece, she saw the Olympic torch and the first stadium, where the bleachers were made of stone.

She was preceded in death by her husband in 1980, by her parents, Patrick and Anna (Reap) Burns, by brothers Gervase and Patrick and by sisters Mary White and Kaye Zimmer. She is survived by five children, Billy of Prague, Czech Republic, Patti Moran Gorman (Chuck) of Buckeye Lake, Ohio, Kathy McAnally (Garry) of Newark, Ohio, Kevin (Rose Ann) of Yellow Springs and Mary Kaye Hertz Ittner (Dave) from Westerville, Ohio. Also surviving are 10 grandchildren, Meggin, Melanne, Bryan (Elizabeth), Morgan, Shannon, Caitlin, Alana, Lauren, Stephanie (Jason) and Jim, five great-grandchildren, Esperanza, Bryan, Ireland, Maeve and Valentina, four sisters-in-law, Harriet Burns, Sara McNulty, Evelyn Heiser and Mary Ellen Moran and two very special friends, Jo Middleton of Xenia and Jule Callahan of Wyoming, Pa.

The family received friends on Wednesday, May 16, at Belton-Stroup Funeral Home in Fairborn. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Thursday May 17 at 11:30 a.m. at the Mary, Help of Christians Catholic Church, located at 954 N. Maple Avenue in Fairborn, with Father Charles Lang as celebrant. Interment will follow in the Fairfield Cemetery. Condolences may be made to the family at www.beltonstroup.com.