At this year’s 94th annual Cardington-Lincoln Alumni Association Banquet, four alumni will be inducted into the Alumni Hall of Fame as its 22nd class, and one citizen will become an honorary alumnus.
The first inductee is Marilyn (Hert) Spires-Pierotti, a graduate of Cardington High School in 1952, who achieved her bachelor’s degree in education from Otterbein University in 1956. It was important for her to come back and teach at her alma mater, where she spent 25 years educating students at Cardington-Lincoln Junior High and High School in the subjects of English, reading and home economics.
Spires-Pierotti’s well-known role at Cardington-Lincoln Local Schools was being the drama club director; a post she held for 10 years and supported the group as an assistant director for over another decade. Her students would offer sneak previews of the year’s performance to groups such as the Cardington Senior Citizens Club to advertise the upcoming show. She was a former member and president of Cardington Athletic Boosters. Her community activism came through the Cardington First United Methodist Church, Morrow County Retired Teachers Association, and the Ladies Auxiliary of the American Legion Post #97 in Cardington. She delivered Meals on Wheels for Seniors on Center and was a tutor for Cardington-Lincoln Elementary School under the Ohio Reads program. She was nominated by Sarah (Wigton) Hickman, Tracy (Longstreth) Willamson and Quinn Maceyko.
Graduating from Cardington High School in 1959, Dr. John L. Patterson graduated from Dartmouth College with a bachelor’s degree in engineering in 1963. He attained his medical doctorate in 1970 from the University of Rochester’s School of Medicine. After completing his residency in Louisiana, Patterson arrived back in New Hampshire to operate his own surgery practice for close to three decades before ending his career with a brief stint as a staff surgeon at a branch of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Hospital via retirement in 2005. Patterson had been an assistant medical examiner for the state of New Hampshire and served on the board of directors at a local hospital and visiting nurse association. His civic involvement includes sitting on the Planning Board of Peterborough, New Hampshire, chairing the town’s conservation commission, and he was elected to their charter commission. His classmate, Bob Davis, nominated him for the Alumni Hall of Fame.
Lori (Shaffer) Cardiff was a member of Cardington-Lincoln High School’s Class of 1982 and received her bachelor’s degree in education from the Ohio State University in 1986. She became a teacher at Cardington-Lincoln Elementary School upon college graduation and taught first and second grades for 19 years. Additionally, she spent several seasons assisting with the high school’s softball and volleyball programs. Remembered by her former students as impactful, Cardiff was forced to medically retire in 2004. She has spent her retirement tutoring young minds and, in the past, volunteering for Christmas in Cardington by hosting a reading activity in the log cabin located in the American Legion Park. Cardiff was nominated by John Cardiff, Lindsey Mathews, Khyla Jones and Maceyko.
The final Alumni Hall of Fame inductee is Robert W. Akron, a 1930 graduate of Cardington High School. Elected by his peers to be their senior class president, he assisted in the founding of the Cardington-Lincoln Alumni Association by helping to coordinate the organization’s first banquet in 1930. Akron was a charter member of the Cardington Rotary Club that was founded in 1938 and honored with the Paul Harris Fellowship in 1989. He served on Cardington’s Village Council and was mayor of Cardington.
During his time as mayor, he was president of the Board of Trustees for the Ohio Small City Mayors Association. Akron established the first bowling alley in the village in 1941 and was located in the spot of today’s Bunker’s Mill Winery. Later on, he would own and operate Akron’s Flower Shop in the downtown area. He was elected by the local businesspeople to hold the post of president of the Cardington CIC.
Serving in the United States Armed Forces during WWII, Akron came home to be active in the American Legion Post #97 of Cardington, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #8054 of Mount Gilead, and served on Morrow County’s Draft Board during the Vietnam War. He spearheaded the campaign to raise money for the construction of the Cardington Swimming Pool alongside a group of volunteers which would form the first swimming pool board with Akron being elected as co-chairman. He also was a member of the Morrow County American Cancer Society Board. He was nominated by Maceyko.
The honorary alumnus being recognized at this year’s banquet will be Col. Chuck Jones, OSHP. Jones served Cardington-Lincoln Local Schools as a member of its board of education for 12 years and as president for a handful of those. During his time on the school board, his leadership was able to navigate the school district through two financial crises and stabilize the staffing of the buildings to meet the students’ needs. Jones was also the first African-American to be elected to the Cardington-Lincoln Board of Education. He was active in the school community as a volunteer coach with both youth and junior high sports along with being a volunteer for the athletic department announcing contests and operating the scoreboard for games.
Vocationally, Jones has been in law enforcement for his entire career. He has been a trooper for the Ohio State Highway Patrol since 1994 and currently is the superintendent of OSHP, rising through ranks of sergeant, lieutenant, staff lieutenant, captain, major and lieutenant colonel. Maceyko nominated Jones for the recognition.
The 94th annual Alumni Banquet at Cardington-Lincoln High School is scheduled for Saturday, May 25, with doors opening at 3 p.m., dinner being served at 5 p.m., and the program beginning at 6 p.m. Reservations are being accepted by either calling or texting Darlene (Ebert) Wallace at 740-751-3525 or Maceyko at 419-834-3272.
Quinn Maceyko is a correspondent for the Morrow County Sentinel.
