1970s
Leona W. Farris, MA ’70, Copley, OH, was honored by the Stow-Munroe Falls City School District, which declared Jan. 25, 2021, Leona W. Farris Day in honor of the matriarch of one of the first Black families to live in Stow, Ohio. A plaque displaying the proclamation was hung at the entrance of Stow-Munroe Falls High School, and a duplicate plaque was presented to Laura Farris-Daugherty, who accepted it for her mom (age 103), whom she calls “The Petite Wonder.”
Leona Farris and her husband, physician Melvin Farris, moved to Stow in 1954, and their children were the first Black children to attend the Stow schools. Farris was involved with her husband’s work in the Summit County Medical Auxiliary, volunteered with the PTA, and in the 1960s, helped stop the local Girl Scout group’s use of minstrel shows for fundraising activities.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in home economics from The Ohio State University, where she joined a successful effort to integrate the dormitories. After earning a master’s degree from Kent State, in 1969 she became the first Black woman to teach as an assistant professor at The University of Akron. The university established a Leona W. Farris Scholarship in 1987, and she retired from there in 1988.
Farris was also involved with the NAACP, United Way, the Western Reserve Girl Scout Council, American Field Service and she has been a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority for 82 years. (Vice President Kamala Harris is a sorority sister.)
The city of Stow honored Farris by renaming Silver Springs Lodge as Leona Farris Lodge.
Michael Chanak Jr., BS ’71, Cincinnati, wrote, “The last film I was in for P&G, They Will See You: LGBTQ+ Visibility in Advertising, by Brent Miller, Otto Bell and Jordan Shavarebi (Great Big Story), has been nominated by GLAAD [an American nongovernmental media monitoring organization] for the 32nd Annual GLAAD Media Awards in the category of Outstanding Online Journalism—Video or Multimedia."
Barbara Brothers, PhD ’73, Youngstown, OH, who had a distinguished 40-year career as a faculty member and administrator at Youngstown State University, has endowed a scholarship for Black graduates of Youngstown City School District. The Dr. Barbara Brothers Scholarship in Education will assist Black students majoring in education at YSU. Brothers expects that these students will return to the school district one day to inspire the next generation of educators.
Brothers began her career at Youngstown State as an adjunct instructor in 1960. She held various roles and spearheaded initiatives across campus, including state and federal grants for working with public schools. After serving as the acting graduate dean in 1993, she became the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (now the Beeghly College of Liberal Arts, Social Sciences and Education). In 2001, Brothers retired from Youngstown State. In 2015, she received the university’s Heritage Award for professional accomplishments and community service.
She remains active in civic causes and serves on the boards of YWCA Mahoning Valley, Youngstown Rotary, League of Women Voters of Greater Youngstown, WYSU, Youngstown Garden Club, Lit Youngstown and the American Association of University Women.
Nick Saban Jr., BS ’73, MEd ’75, Tuscaloosa, AL, recently was named to the board of the National Coalition of Minority Football Coaches, which aims to promote and produce qualified minority coaches at every level of football. Saban—who played defensive back at Kent State for coaching legend Don James and joined the staff at Kent State as a graduate assistant in 1973 while his wife, Terry, finished her degree—has been head football coach at the University of Alabama since 2007.
After leading Alabama to a 52-24 decision over Ohio State in the College Football Playoff National Championship on Jan. 11, 2021 in Miami, Saban owns the record for most national championships by a head coach in college football history. The first coach to win a national title in three different decades, he has won seven national titles (the first at LSU in 2003, with the other six at Alabama), nine SEC titles and has the third-best winning percentage among active coaches.
He and his wife, who married while in college, will celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2021. Together they’ve raised and donated more than $9 million to hundreds of organizations through their nonprofit, Nick’s Kids.
Mike Wilt, BS ’73, St. Helena Island, SC, wrote: “From January to June 1973, I participated in the 1973 Spring Semester on the United Nations System program, sponsored by the Center for International and Comparative Programs. It included trips and studies in Washington, DC; New York, NY; Geneva, Switzerland; and United Nations offices and sites throughout Europe. It was truly a great experience in my life. Before long it will be the 50th anniversary of this trip, and I would love to locate the participants to reconnect and see what has transpired in all those years since then. I have everyone’s name but I have lost track of their whereabouts. If you are one of the 18 participants from Kent State and/or know of the location of the other participant from Heidelberg University in Ohio, please contact me at mwilt08@gmail.com.”
Fred Jermyn, BS ’74, San Diego, wrote, “On Aug. 14, 2020, Brian Grubich [former athletics leadership annual giving officer and former assistant director of The Golden Flashes Club] announced via email the Kent State Men’s Soccer All-Decade Teams for the 1960s and 1970s. These two teams are the first selections by the school for any of their sports over the years.
“Voting was conducted by the men’s soccer alumni last spring, since there are no personnel currently at the university who had knowledge of the performances of participants in the program, which concluded at the end of the fall 1980 season. The individuals selected had received the most votes as tabulated by the school. No one could cast a vote for themselves, there was only one ballot that could be submitted by each voter, and there was no outside influence for weighing votes.
“The intent of the university for recognizing all-decade teams is a tremendous honor for the Kent State Men’s Soccer program and its participants.” Click here for a list of the best players and coach from each decade.
David C. Lange, BA ’75, Malvern, OH, was inducted into the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame in October 2020, in recognition for outstanding service to the community, state and nation after military service. A Navy veteran (on active duty from 1968 until 1971) and accomplished journalist, Lange has written extensively on topics such as Agent Orange and post-traumatic stress in military veterans and is the author of a coming-of-age memoir, Virginity Lost in Vietnam (Act 3 Publishing, 2018).
During his journalism career, he worked at four newspapers in Northeast Ohio and served as editor at the Geauga Times Leader. He helped found a Western Reserve Chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America in 1988, which is no longer active, and now is a member of the New Philadelphia chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion. He is on the board of the Carroll County Veterans Club.
Tom R. Halfhill, BS ’77, Burlingame, CA, has retired after 43 years as a journalist and technology analyst. Most recently he was a senior analyst at Microprocessor Report. Halfhill started at the Lorain Journal in 1977 and began covering technology in 1982. He launched five computer magazines and a technology newsletter, and he was a senior editor at Byte Magazine. He was a co-author, contributor or editor of more than 20 books on computers, the Civil War and crime. He also worked for British tech company ARC Cores. In retirement, he has joined the Microprocessor Report Editorial Board.