Three Cardington-Lincoln High School graduates will be inducted into the school’s Alumni Hall of Fame during the 88th alumni association meeting and party on May 25.
Inducted will be Dale Beam, Rev. Jim Couts and Greg Perry.
Dale Beam, Class of 1976, currently a Narcotic Detection K9 Officer at John Glen Columbus International Airport. His career includes being a teacher of award winning Karate classes from 1979-80 and again to 1990.
During his law enforcement career, he has held the positions of auxiliary with the Cardington Police, Morrow County Deputy Sheriff, Delaware County Deputy Sheriff, Investigator for the Morrow County Prosecutor’s office and his current position.
His awards include 1993 Mothers Against Drunk Drivers; 2016 Law Enforcement Night at the Columbus Crew Soccer Game he was honored for K-9 Narcotic money seizures of over a million dollars with a K-9 Zeus. He is a bronze and silver medal winner at the Police and Fire K-9 competition with K-9 Zeus and 2017 Columbus Airport Officer of the Year.
Rev. Jim Couts, a 1961 graduate, received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Capital University in 1965 and earned his Divinity Degree from the university seminary in 1969. He spent 28 years in the clergy and founded St. Mark’s Community Health Center in Columbus, co-founded Operation Feed in Columbus and helped expand urban ministries with Lutheran Social Services of Central Ohio and established four food pantries, five neighborhood programs for the elderly and numerous inner-city projects.
He also directed the cooperating Neighborhood project that helped lead Columbus public Schools to a peaceful desegregation.
Later, he was executive director of Community 20/20 in Marietta and served on the boards of the Ohio United Way, United Way of Marietta and the Ohio Early Child Care Initiatives. The Appalachian Network, comprised of 29 counties in southeastern Ohio, served 23 of those counties with 500,000 meals a year.
Rev. Couts was presented with a certificate recognizing this honor and a deck chair engraved with his name and in 2008 he received the Alumni Distinguished Service Award from Capital University.
Following retirement as a minister, he founded the Appalachian Nutrition Network that became the largest rural feeding program in the United States and the founded Jubilee Garden which helped people grow organic food and heal the planet, his final noble mission, Rev. Couts passed away in 2017.
Greg Perry, a 1988 C-LHS graduate, attended Bowling Green State University obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in Physics and a minor in Mathematics. He later earned a degree in law from the Dayton University School of Law. Since 1992 he has served Marion and Morrow Counties in the areas of law and criminal justice.
His major accomplishments include professor of Criminal Justice at Marion Technical College, Ohio Peace Officer Commander and Instructor, Marion Law Enforcement Academy; Adjunct/guest instructor-0hio Peace Officer Academy, London; Firearms Instructor, Morrow County Sheriff’s Office; Proprietor/Instructor- GA
Perry Training Co. LLC; first assistant prosecuting attorney, Marion; Deputy Sheriff/Detective Morrow County Sheriff’s Department; Senior Assistant Attorney General, Ohio Attorney General’s Office; Marion Technical College Criminal Justice Instructor of the Year (four times) and Buckeye State Sheriff’s Association Citation twice.
Conducting the Hall of Fame induction will be Gary Ebert, president of the Cardington-Lincoln High School Alumni Association.
