=During 2023 football 
season, KLYC pulled Linfield Sports Network internet audio stream and simulcasted Wildcat games. KLYC
is a community partner of Linfield Athletics. The Maxwell Field jumbo
scoreboard KLYC animated banner (click on video above) and KLYC ad (see below) in the Linfield home game
printed programs are part of the sponsorship package.=
By Starla Pointer,
McMinnville N-R/News-Register, May 16, 2023
Stan
Primozich, last year’s McMinnville Man of the Year, prepared to honor this
year’s winner, Gene Zinda, at the Distinguished Service Awards banquet
Wednesday night.
He
lifted a thick sheaf of paper, indicating how many pages would be needed to
list all of Zinda’s contributions over the last 60-plus years.
“Gene
has given so much to this community and to all of us,” Primozich said.
The
same could be said of all the winners honored at the DSA event: Junior Citizen
Deven Paolo; Outstanding Farmers Marv and Georgia Bernards; and Outstanding
Educator Kindra Butler; and Marianne Mills, Woman of the Year.
Woman
of the Year was the final award presented at the banquet, hosted by the
McMinnville City Club. Chelsey Nichol of the City Club summed up the evening by
saying, “I’m thankful to live in a world with Marianne Mills in it … in a town
with all our winners in it.”
The
2022 McMinnville Distinguished Service Awards event followed a tradition
started by the McMinnville Jaycees in the mid-1950s.
After
the Jaycees chapter closed, the DSA program was continued by a committee of
previous winners, then by the Odd Fellows. This was the McMinnville City Club’s
first year as host.
The
evening’s keynote speaker, Dr. Scott Gibson, discussed the role volunteerism
plays in building relationships and community.
Working
together sparks understanding among people, he said. They may have different
political or religious views, for instance, but they are working on a common
goal.
We
need to be open to diverse viewpoints, Gibson said. That will help counteract
the polarization and separation that currently exists in this country.
Anger,
lies, greed and the media try to divide us, he said; we need to combat that
with community, service and friendship.
“We
need to get together and listen to each other again,” he said. “Start by recognizing
the good in people, even if they’re different from us.”
A
longtime member of the McMinnville Lions Club, Gibson called for
“re-energizing” clubs and organizations that perform community service. “Make
service cool again,” he said. “Do something worthwhile while enjoying the
company of others.”
The
DSA winners did that, he said, and others should follow their lead.
Gibson
prepared written remarks prior to the banquet, but almost lost them when a
spill at his banquet table threatened to tear the printed pages to smithereens.
His
notes saved, he opened with a joke about the growing presence of artificial
intelligence. “I’m the last human speaker before ChatGPT takes over,” he
quipped, adding — presumably joking — that computers may even someday take over
his job as a physician who performs cancer screenings.
During
the awards presentation, Primozich listed many of Zinda’s history of
accomplishments: managing Skyline Manufacturing; founding the Rotary art and
wine auction that supported scholarships and Rotary Nature Park; serving on the
McMinnville Water & Light Commission for 15 years and on other boards such
as the McMinnville Downtown Association.
He
also led the Linfield Partners in Progress campaign; expanded the St. Vincent
de Paul food pantry while president of that organization; and started a program
to provide shoes for children at his Windemere real estate office.
The
Man of the Year award came as a “total surprise,” Zinda said.
He
said local residents had inspired him when he came to McMinnville in 1959. “I
learned to give back to the community,” he said.
Woman
of the Year Mills also has a long list of accomplishments in McMinnville, said
Ronni Lacroute, the 2022 winner who presented this year’s award.
A
1972 Linfield graduate, Mills is a longtime educator who started her career at
Amity High School and retired from Mac High after serving as one of the first
female Oregon high school athletic directors. She went on to work for
McMinnville Habitat for Humanity for six years, three as director.
After
retiring from public schools, Mills also supervised student teachers at
Linfield for 10 years and taught pickleball classes. She served on the
McMinnville Public Library Foundation Board and First Baptist Church board,
volunteered at Memorial Elementary School, where her granddaughters go to
school, helped with elections, and other community committees.
As
a P.E. teacher and coach in the 1970s, Mills worked with some of the first
competitive high school sports for girls. “Girls didn’t have access to high-level
coaching then,” Lacroute said. “Marianne committed to providing that for them.”
She
was inducted into the Amity Athletic Hall of Fame in 2016 for those efforts.
As
a counselor, tennis coach and AD at Mac High, Mills was “a leader in a field
where women haven’t always had a role,” Lacroute said.
Mills
said helping girls achieve on the athletic field was very important to her. “It
was so rewarding seeing them have opportunities.”
She
noted how she has kept in touch with many of her former students and players.
“I like people. I valued relationships,” she said. “I think that shines through
in everything I’ve done.”
Friends
were among people who congratulated her after she was surprised to learn she’d
been named Woman of the Year.
A
member of a family with deep ties to McMinnville, Mills grew up in Waldport and
came to Yamhill County for college. She said she’s glad she stayed in the area.
“This
has been a great place to call home. So many opportunities,” she said in her
acceptance speech.
“To
live a rich life, you need to be involved with others,” she said. “I have been
richly blessed to be a member of this community.”
Paolo,
honored as Junior Citizen, has been active in McMinnville, especially in
supporting young people learning about careers in the trades, since he and his
brother, Keath, started Solid Form Fabrication. They host interns and
contribute to Mac High’s career tech programs.
Deven
Paolo also spearheaded the creation of a foundation that provides scholarships
to students who plan to study trades. The goal is for it to give out $20,000
annually.
“College
is not for all, and high schools didn’t have shop classes anymore,” he said of
how he became interested in helping students.
He’s
pleased by the results, he said. “The impact you see … it’s always cool to see
success stories.”
He
recalled his own inspirations for career and community service, including Larry
Judd, who taught drafting and woodshop at Yamhill Carlton High School, and
Coach Dean Heuberger.
In
accepting the DSA honor, Paolo also thanked his family for its support: father
Murray Paolo, who also set an example; his brother and business partner, Keath;
and especially his wife, Randi, and children Kasen, a high school junior, and
Ellia, a freshman.
Young
Educator of the Year Butler is in her fourth year of teaching kindergarten at
Wascher Elementary School in Lafayette.
She
always knew she wanted to be a teacher, she said. Working at the Bear Hugs
preschool as a McMinnville High School student only strengthened her resolve.
“I’m
big on relationships and connections,” she said. “I love to build relationships
with students, and every day I see I’m making a difference in their lives.”
The
Bernards, Farmers of the Year, own and run Bernards Farm west of McMinnville.
They took over the family farm and Wallace Berry Farm in January 2022.
They
grow crops that they sell at farmers markets, supply to restaurants and offer
at a farmstand in the vintage barn on their property on Highway 18.
Bernards
Farm has been selling at the McMinnville Farmers Market for 22 years. Marv
serves on the MDA’s market committee.
He
joked that his role on the farm is “playing in the dirt.” His wife does all the
rest, he said.
The
role women play in farming is too often forgotten, Marv Bernards said. His
mother, Chris, “built Bernards Farm,” which started by selling corn, then added
bedding plants and hanging baskets. Now Georgia “keeps the engines of the farm
running,” he said.
Both
he and his wife said they are honored to be recognized — and honored to be part
of the McMinnville community.
……………..
FRONT PAGE PHOTO - N-R May 16, 2023, print edition: Marianne Mills walks through the crowd of supporters at the Distinguished Service Awards event May 10 to receive her Woman of the Year award. Mills has been a teacher, coach, athletic director, supervisor of student teachers and director of McMinnville Habitat for Humanity, to name just a few of her accomplishments. (Photo by Rachel Thompson/McMinnville N-R/News-Register
Linfielder Odis Avritt graduated in 1963 from Portland’s
Cleveland (Commerce) High School. For Cleveland he competed in football,
wrestling and track & field. He was inducted into the PIL/Portland Interscholastic
League Hall of Fame in 2008.
Odis, Linfield Class of 1968, was profiled the PIL/Portland
Interscholastic League Hall of Fame website “Members of the Month” feature. The
profile which follows was written by Dick Baltus, Wilson High School, Portland,
Class of 1973). Slight edits by
Wildcatville.
High School Honors: Football letter winner; 1st Team
All-PIL; 2nd Team All-State; Wrestling letter winner; Track and Field letter
winner
College Honors: Football four-year letter winner at Linfield
College; 1st Team All-Conference; 1st Team All-Northwest; 1st Team All-West
Coast; Honorable Mention Little All-American
A person can find almost anything on the World Wide Web these days. Photos of dogs, cats and grandchildren. Close-ups of half-eaten cheeseburgers. Tips for cleaning potatoes in a dishwasher (don’t laugh, it worked). Selfies. Lots of selfies. So…many…selfies.
And, if a person digs deep enough, they can
find Odis Avritt (Cleveland 1963) claiming his 15 seconds of fame
in a home video promoting his “famous” chili during a Linfield College tailgate
party. See video: https://youtu.be/yjiC9jQq-Ng
So what if the video has only
been viewed by 106 people (107 now). And who cares if it’s only eight seconds
long, meaning Odis left seven seconds of stardom on the table. Presumably next
to the cheese and onions.
If Odis and his chili needed some
fame they got a small dose of it then, and he’s about to get served up some
more. But odds are Odis doesn’t need any more of it. He isn’t the kind of guy
who sought any in the first place, though he definitely got his share of
acclaim. At Cleveland. At Linfield College. In his long and successful career
in sales and marketing.
Odis competed in four sports in
high school, though he gave up baseball after one year and didn’t wrestle for
much longer. “It didn’t work for me; I don’t know what it was,” says Odis,
before proceeding to give us a pretty good idea what it was. “My coach, Don
York, would always match me with the best wrestler on the team. This guy was a
senior and I was a sophomore and he always tied me up in knots. I didn’t like
that.”
What Odis gained from giving up
baseball and wrestling was a greater focus on his two best sports, football and
track and field. He responded by excelling in both.
But before he did, he was a kid
who grew up playing sports in the streets of S.E. Portland’s Hosford Abernethy
neighborhood. After his father died when Odis was very young, he was raised by
his mother, Elizabeth Washington, whose own story is worthy of being told. Odis
provides a brief excerpt from it:
“She was a very interesting
woman. She started out in nursing, at the bottom rung of the profession. She
wound up getting her LPN (licensed practical nurse certification) from Clark
College in Vancouver, then her RN. Years later, she earned her bachelor’s
degree from the U of O Nursing School. She wound up working 35 years as a nurse
and was the first woman of color to be appointed chairperson of the Oregon
State Nurses Association.”
Even with the steady and positive
presence of his mother, who is “still doing well” at age 95, Odis says he
missed out on the benefits of having a father in his life. “Without having a
father involved, attending my games and things like that, I just went out and
played,” he says. “I didn’t really know anything about the things I could do to
improve.”
Odis was fortunate to have some
good friends to help fill that void, including classmate and fellow PIL Hall of
Fame inductee, Dennis Patera, and his older brother, Norm. “I’d work out with
Norm at the Cleveland track, and others would come over and we’d play flag
football,” Odis says. “He was very much a mentor who encouraged me to keep
playing. It was pretty important to have a person do that for me.”
By the time Odis was a sophomore
at Cleveland, he was already making a name for himself in football and track.
He’d started running track to help improve his speed for football and
ultimately became one of the top sprinters in the PIL.
While the Cleveland football team
had “a tough time” during his tenure, Odis had no trouble making enough of an
impression on his own, as a running back, linebacker and cornerback, to be
named 1st Team All-City and 2nd Team All-State in 1962. He also earned a spot
on the 1963 Metro Shrine football team.
In one memorable game that Odis
considers his best high school performance, he ran for one score and returned
an interception for a second in Cleveland’s upset win over Madison.
Odis had long dreamed of playing
football at the University of Oregon and was disappointed the Ducks never
called while he was racking up high school honors. Washington, Washington
State, Idaho and other schools did, but the interest wasn’t mutual. “I wanted
to play winning football since I hadn’t done it since grade school,” Odis says.
One Saturday in 1962 Odis found
himself in front of a TV watching an NAIA bowl game pitting Linfield against
Pittsburg State. By game’s end, he’d become intrigued by the notion of being a
Wildcat and reached out to one of Cleveland’s assistant coaches to learn more
about the private school with the long history of winning football. After hearing
his coach sing Linfield’s praises, Odis learned Wildcat coach Paul Durham,
coincidentally, was going to be speaking at Cleveland’s senior year sports
banquet (Odis wouldn’t learn until many years later that Durham had taught at
Cleveland before taking the Linfield job).
The two were introduced at the
banquet and by fall Odis was competing for the Wildcats in football and, the
next spring, running track where, as a freshman, he would set the 100-yard
school record of 9.7 seconds. “My teammate broke it a year later,” he says,
just a touch ruefully.
In football, Odis excelled as a
running back and catching passes out of the backfield. His honors included 1st
Team All-Conference, All-Northwest and All-West Coast teams and honorable
mention Little All-American. He was inducted into the Linfield Hall of Fame as
a member of the second Wildcat team to compete for a national championship.
As a senior, Odis won the
Wildcat’s Most Inspirational Player award, an early indication of the
leadership skills that would help him achieve great success in the business
world. After serving as an Army clerk in Viet Nam, landed a sales and marketing
job with a paper distribution company before moving onto jobs with
Weyerhaeuser, Kimberly-Clark and Grays Harbor paper companies. While at
Weyerhaeuser, he earned one company-wide Salesman of the Year award and was
Mill Representative of the Year multiple times.
“All through school, chemistry
was the worst subject I could think of,” he says. “I never thought I’d be
working in a related business.”
By the time Odis retired in 2018,
he had left the paper business but, from the sounds of his retirement schedule,
he forgot to leave the working world. He moved back to a neighborhood in the
Cleveland High district and for more than 20 years has been active in the
school’s alumni association, serving two terms as president, taking charge of a
golf tournament and helping lead fund-raising efforts among his many
contributions.
Odis and his wife, Alicia, share
children from previous marriages. That includes a son, Taylor Avritt, Linfield
Classs of 2011, who followed him onto the Linfield gridiron.
“The most fun I ever had at
Linfield was going back to watch my son play,” he says. “That was in the early
2000s and was the impetus that brought a bunch of my former teammates together
again to tailgate and watch the team play.”
Odis is also an avid golfer and
serves on the PIL Hall of Fame Selection Committee, helping pick men and women
who, like him, have distinguished themselves in high school athletics and,
often, beyond.
“Being inducted was one of the
greatest things that ever happened to me,” says the 2008 inductee. “I never
really thought something like that would happen. My wife and mom and kids all
attended the ceremony with me. It was great to be back in contact with athletes
I’d grown up with or who competed before me — people I might only have had a
little knowledge of before. So to be able to meet them and, in some instances,
develop lasting relationships with them has been great.”
No doubt those people would say
the same thing about Odis. Especially if they’re fans of chili.
#
Photos: Odis Avritt
and Taylor Avritt (both photos from Linfield Athletics) as Linfield football
players. Video (by Wildcatville): Odis Avritt
Oregonian – April 23, 1944 – Instructor Flies During Furlough
The Torch – 1946 – Eastern Oregon State College yearbook –Ted Wilson, a graduating (bachelor of science degree) senior
Oregonian – May 25,
1950 – Prep Patter
Oregonian – Feb. 5,
1961 – Northwest Notes
Oregonian – April 17,
1977 – Perry’s Basketball Camp
Oregonian – April
13, 1982 – 20 years at Linfield, Ex-coach misses competition
Levi Sieg hired as Linfield men's basketball coach
4/19/2023
from Linfield Sports Info
Sieg spent 15 years as a member of the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps coaching staff, rising from assistant coach to associate head coach during his tenure. At CMS, he helped lead the Stags to seven Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships, the most recent in 2018.
"We are very excited to have Coach Sieg joining us," said Killgore. "He has a wonderful Division III coaching and playing background that will be fantastic here at Linfield. He is pumped to take a great program and make it even better."
A native of Monmouth, Oregon, Sieg returns to the Willamette Valley after residing in Southern California for nearly 30 years.
First of all, I would like to thank athletic director Dr. Garry Killgore, President Dr. Miles Davis and the entire search committee for selecting me to lead the Linfield University men's basketball program," said Sieg. "I couldn't be more excited, thankful and humbled to be joining the Linfield University family and serve as head men's basketball coach."
Seig attended Claremont McKenna College and played four seasons of basketball, graduating in 2000 with a bachelor's degree in economics.
Sieg has taught economics and government at Claremont High School for 20 years. During the 2003-04 school year, he served as assistant boys basketball coach at CHS before being promoted to head coach in 2004. He led the Wolfpack to the CIF Southern Section Playoffs each year. Sieg joined the CMS coaching staff in time for the 2007-08 academic year.
"Coaching basketball is not just a job for me, it's a passion and a way of life," he said. "I look forward to building the Wildcat basketball program and helping our student-athletes succeed both on and off the court. Our goal is to compete for conference championships every year."
Levi and his wife Natalie are raising three sons: Mason, Clayton and Nash.
Amazing life: McMinnville's John Klaus, 1909-2010
John Klaus, 100-years-old, died Jan. 2, 2010, at Willamette Valley Medical Center in McMinnville with his devoted son and family at his side.
John was born August 25, 1909, in Bison, Kansas, to Henry and Margaret Klaus. Henry and Margaret were of German heritage and moved to Russia for free land. After unrest in Russia, they moved to a German community in La Crosse, Kansas.
John's older sister Ann died at age 17, his brother at 8, and his mother died when he was 10 years old, most likely from the flu of 1918. Younger brothers Henry and Seighardt and sister Alma survived to old age. They were sharecroppers and John spoke only German when he started school. John was proud that he never missed a day of school through his final year of 8th grade.
In 1925 John's father Henry sold all of their possessions including the dog, but not the family Bible and loaded everyone into a Model T. With John driving for the first time, they made their way toward relatives in the Portland, Oregon area. John recalled driving all day one day without seeing another car.
The family had supported themselves doing various jobs and farming, but all of that ended when milk and egg prices took a free fall in 1929. The depression caused John to join the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1934 in Colorado. He learned to be a heavy equipment operator and a Roosevelt Democrat. He met Helen Carr, a waitress working at the David Havin Resort in Colorado, and they were married on October 6, 1940. Their marriage lasted 50 years until Helen's death.
With the outbreak of World War Two, John moved to Anchorage, Alaska to construct an airfield. At the end of the war, John, Helen, and 6 month old son Dean traveled to Seattle, Portland, and south to McMinnville. John stopped at Bill Steel's service station and inquired about work. He was told that Compton's was hiring, and so he decided to stay. For the next 50 years they lived in the same house on South Davis Street that he bought the week he arrived for cash, quite an accomplishment for a man who had lost everything in 1934.
In the following years he worked for Wally Wright Paving and Weyerhaeuser in Molalla. In 1953 he decided that he wanted to be home during construction season, so he borrowed enough money from his sister to purchase a truck from Vinton and Larson's. In 1962, with advice from Linfield track coach Hal Smith, John mixed asphalt with tire recap buffing and produced a running surface that is still used today. By 1967 John had invented and constructed a machine that applied the material to mile running tracks throughout the Northwest, including the University of Washington and most of the High Schools as far away as British Columbia.
In 1974 he sold the business to Atlas Surfaces of Lake Oswego and went back to his shop to invent and construct the equipment that processed rubber into mats by applying heat. After many failures, including one in his wife's kitchen, he achieved success. He later sold the business that become R&B Rubber, McMinnville's 5th largest employer.
Upon retirement he continued to develop his ideas. From the environment (he dumped his garbage once a year, everything else was recycled) to health (unpasteurized goat's milk and filberts) to new power sources (harnessing wave energy) were either near genius or just ahead of their time. He had unlimited patience with mechanical things, to try and fail and try again.
John and Helen were life long members of First Presbyterian Church, and they were proud of their many friends in the church. John was also a strong supporter of Friends of Yamhill County. His 100 years of life are a testament to his belief in all things in moderation; and his ability to provide for his family, even after his death, is a testament to his Kansas Depression era youth.
John was preceded in death by his wife Helen, his brothers and sisters, and his special Grandson Dustin. His survived by his son Dean, daughter in law Debbie, grandchildren Danielle Bailey (John), Dyreka Wood (Kevin), Dormilee Kiger (Dylan) and Dorian, and three great grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held Saturday, January 9, 2009 at 1:00 pm at the Chapel of Macy and Son. Memorials may be given to McMinnville Wildlife Rehabilitation c/o Macy and Son Funeral Directors.
:::::::::::::::
John Klaus, pioneer in track & field ovals
By Scott Phoenix, USA Track & Field Newsletter, Nov. 8, 2019
The next Olympics returns to the site of the last Olympics to be contested on a cinder track. Amidst the red splashings in the rain and reddish dust on socks in the dry, nobody in 1964 had any idea what was to come in the world of tracks.
Fifty-five years before, 1909, a baby was born who was destined to become a giant in the world of track surfaces. Due to circumstances of his birth, he only made it through the 8th grade, working this labor job and that, but after the Depression hit and Franklin D. Roosevelt came to be President, the Civilian Conservation Corps was formed and this youth had a ticket out of abject poverty.
Assigned to work in Alaska during WW2, he came after its end to Portland and then McMinnville, where opportunities looked good, and that is how John Klaus came to be an Oregonian.
Eventually he started an equipment business near Linfield College Memorial Stadium/Maxsell Field, which included a modest, 2-man paving effort. About 1963 the then Linfield track coach, Hal Smith, wanted to know if Klaus could produce a softer surface for jumping events, a challenge Klaus accepted. He had equipment to use, but no material to put in it.
He came upon the idea of using what were called buffings, scrapings off the treads of bias-ply tires so that retread surfaces could be applied. Klaus's idea was to combine these bufferings with roofing asphalt, and he used a device of his own making, a 1’x2’ box into which the mixture could be poured so that propane–fueled burners could heat the ingredients and apply them to the ground as the box was dragged along. At first Klaus drove to Portland to bring back 55-gallon containers of bufferings, but as the business expanded, he switched to dumpster loads.
His first track was laid in 1967 in Estacada. For an entire track, a much larger heated screed was needed, so Klaus came up with something six feet wide that could be pulled behind a specially-geared truck to keep the speed at 1 mph. Carrying 1,000 gallons of asphalt and bufferings, the truck made one swath of the track, a day-long operation, then would be driven to Gresham for another load of asphalt to repeat the process three more times.
Klaus improved and improved again his process over the years and eventually put in as many as 14 tracks a year. They included a high school on Vancouver Island, the College of Redwoods, and even the University of Washington! No less a person than Univesity of Oregon men's track & field coach Bill Bowerman commented that Klaus’s track was the fastest of its time. The contract for the Estacada job was $10,000 or about $77,000 in 2019. Klaus basically kept the price for each one at that.
Klaus eventually sold his business to Atlas Tracks of Lake Oswego and turned his attention to making compressed rubber mats that are found in weight rooms and horse stalls everywhere.
Upon the death of his father, Dean Klaus made certain that the Klaus business property that was sold to Linfield bore a plaque in honor of his dad’s contributions to the betterment of track participants everywhere.
(See two photos of plaque posted here, taken by Mac News on 4/18/2023)
(Plaque located on edge of parking lot on SE Chandler Avenue. Locate plaque with GPS coordinates: 45°12'02.5"N 123°11'46.3"W)
(Submitted by Scott Phoenix, Certification Chair for the Oregon Association based upon information provided by Dean Klaus, Oct. 29, 2019)
::::
RB Rubber's parent
company sells to Arsenal Capital Partners
By Molly Walker, McMinnville N-R./News-Register, Dec. 28, 2012
Arsenal Capital Partners purchases home-grown company
Harold M. Stuhl Jr., chief operations officer for the rubber group of Dash Multi-Corp, expects it will be business as usual at RB Rubber Products in McMinnville, following the sale of its parent company, Dash Multi-Corp, to Arsenal Capital Partners. The transaction is anticipated to close by the end of December.
Arsenal is a private equity firm investing in middle-market industrial and healthcare companies. In addition to the rubber recycling through its local operation and a tire recycler in Portland, Dash Multi-Corp manufactures formulated polyurethane, vinyl plastisol and specialty coatings through MarChem, its plastics and chemicals business, and is reportedly generating over $100 million in total revenue.
Marvin Wool, Dash’s founder and president, is 84 and was desiring to sell, Stuhl said. The McMinnville operation for RB Rubber employs over 100.
“Arsenal Capital wants to grow the business, make them more successful and is willing to invest accordingly,” said Stuhl. “I’m very excited about this.”
The core business for RB Rubber includes manufacturing tiles from recycled rubber as matting for horse stalls, playground safety tiles and athletic flooring.
The business has been truly homegrown. It started when John Klaus of McMinnville saw old tires as a wasted resource. Crushing the tires into powder, he invented the product that provided RB Rubber’s foundation.
Initially, Klaus marketed products as a track and field surface through his business, J.K. Asphalt Paving. He sold that part of the business to Atlas Track and continued to develop other products from powdered rubber. But a fire prevented Klaus from getting that business really going.
Ron Bogh, who had graduated from McMinnville High School, purchased the operation from Klaus in 1985 and used his initials for the name RB Rubber. At first, he was a one-person business.
He expanded the company to 30 employees by 1990.
Bogh took the business public in 1995 to raise money for an expansion and it subsequently purchased a Portland tire recycler in 1998. Six-months later, Dash, a St. Louis, Mo.-based company, made an offer and Bogh sold his controlling interests. By that time, there were 72 employees.
In 2003, Dash, which was wholly owned by Wool and his family, made a deal to purchase the remaining shares and the company returned to private ownership.
The acquisition of Dash is one of several made by Arsenal during 2012.
“Dash operates in several exciting sectors and our plan is to invest in the business and identify strategic acquisitions to expand its core capabilities and provide more solutions to customers,” said Tim Zappala, a partner at Arsenal who is the co-head for the firm’s specialty industrials group.
Henrik Voldbaek now serves as the general manager for the McMinnville operation.
What do Penney Pease and Margaret Wiggum have in common?
=Penelope "Penny" Pease, Linfield Class of 1969, hometown Othello, Adams County, Wash., was Linfield College Spring Festival Queen in 1969. She is shown in a photo in the 1969 Linfield Oak Leaves yearbook Spring supplement being crowed in Linfield's Riley Gym by Gary Puckett of Gary Puckett & the Union Gap American pop group.
The April 11, 1969, Oregon Journal of Portland, says Penny was queen of the 66th annual Spring Festival. at Linfield. In reality, what was Linfield May Day ran from its beginning in 1904 until its 65th, in 1968, when Sandra Adams was the last Linfield May Queen. The "Spring Festival" was an attempt to extend the former Linfield May Days’ life. In the March 6, 1970, the Oregonian reported tight money and apathy killed off the Spring Festival. “The Linfield Student Senate voted to abandon the celebration because of lack of funds and student interest.”
Sources: Memory; Oak Leaves; Oregon Journal, May 20, 1967, and April 11, 1969; Oregonian March 6, 1970, and Oct. 4, 1987.
By Kevin Bennett, Newark, Ohio,
Advocate, Sept. 18, 2020
With
the eagerly awaited advent of another football season, it is worthwhile to note
that what has become today’s National Football League (NFL) was “born” in Ohio
100 years ago this fall.
=
On
Oct. 3, 1920 a crowd of around 5,000 witnessed two professional teams compete
in Dayton, Ohio, in what has been designated as the first game of the NFL.
One
of the players competing that day was Granville resident and Denison University
alumnus Wilkie Osgood Moody.
The son of missionaries
Long
overshadowed by the accomplishments of his wife, noted journalist and author,
Minnie Hite Moody, Wilkie Moody led an extraordinary life.
Born
in 1897 to missionary parents at Irabo, Belgian Congo, he and his parents
barely survived the attack of a cannibal tribe when he was but 6 months old.
Obviously
concerned with the safety of their child and resolutely focused on their
mission work, Moody’s parents consigned him to the care of grandparents in
Canada. Over the remainder of his childhood, Moody and his sister Grace were
largely raised by relatives and family friends, sometimes apart.
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On
the average, the Moody children saw their parents every five years. His
parent’s single- minded dedication to missionary work spanned over 50 years and
earned them personal recognition by King Leopold of Belgium. His mother,
Elizabeth Wilkie Moody, died and was buried at her mission in the Congo in
1938.
Wilkie
was afforded excellent educational opportunities, attending the Grand Island
(Neb) Academy and the Colby (NH) Academy. He attended Linfield College in
McMinnville, Oregon before transferring to Denison University for his sophomore
year in 1915.
It
appears that he had never played organized football until encouraged by
legendary Denison coach Walter Livingston to try out for the team for the 1916
season.
At
5-foot-seven, 185 pounds, Moody was hardly an imposing physical presence, yet
his agility and toughness earned him a starter’s role as both a guard on the
offensive line and a defensive back.
Football standout at Denison University
Wilkie
Moody’s gridiron accomplishments helped the 1916 Denison squad to a standout
season in which they were Ohio Conference champions.
During
this period Denison football competed at a higher level and routinely played
against such giants as Ohio State, Miami and Cincinnati to name a few. As such,
there was considerable fan interest in the local area and it was rare game in
which Deeds Field was not packed with spectators.
Among
the admiring fans in the stands that year was Miss Minnie Hite of Granville,
who lived with her grandmother and mother at nearby Tannery Hill.
Although she was several years younger than Moody, they began seeing each other
socially after the season.
Soldier in World War I
Unfortunately,
the events of nations often times interfere with personal lives and the looming
involvement of the United States in World War I did so with Wilkie Moody and
Minnie Hite. In early 1917 he enlisted in the Ohio National Guard as a Private,
quickly rising to the rank of Sergeant in several months.
His
military duties being full time, he was absent for considerable periods for
training and was forced to suspend his attendance at Denison. In July 1918 he
was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Army While feverishly working to
prepare his unit for war, Moody found time to have recently graduated Granville
High School student Miss Minnie Hite travel by train to Fort Jackson, South
Carolina.
In
early September 1918 they were wed at the Post Chapel. After the briefest of
honeymoons, the new Mrs. Moody returned to her family home in Granville while
Lt. Moody resumed his military duties.
He
remained on active duty until discharged in late July 1919. Wilkie Moody
returned to his home in Granville and re-enrolled at Denison in early 1920 to
complete his degree requirements.
Signs with pro football
His
resumption of studies at Denison did not include a return to the football team.
With the birth of his first child in December 1919, Moody was faced with the
financial responsibilities of supporting his family. Instead of college ball,
he decided to use his gridiron talents in the newly emerging professional
arena. He signed a contract with the nearby Columbus Panhandles.
This
team was one of the charter members of the American Professional Football
Association, consisting of teams in 14 different cities.
This
league which was initially headed by the legendary Jim Thorpe and was the
forerunner of the NFL, changing the league name in 1922. As noted, the first
game of the league was played on Oct. 3, 1920 with the Columbus team playing
the host Dayton Triangles and losing a 14-0 decision. The site is now marked by
an Ohio Historical marker denoting it as the first football contest in the NFL.
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Wilkie
Moody started the game, playing both offense and defense. Primarily a lineman
on offense, he also played wingback, carrying the ball twice, netting 7 yards.
Moody
played the entire 1920 season with the Columbus Panhandles although they did
not enjoy the level of success he experienced at Denison, finishing 13 out of
the 14 teams in the league.
Recruited
primarily from local men employed at the shops and rail yards of the
Pennsylvania Railroad, the team found it hard to compete against those teams
recruiting and signing top college players. Unlike the lucrative pro contracts
of today, Moody played under an incentive contract: $100 for each win, $75 for
each tie, and $50 for each loss. Equipment rental fees were deducted from each
paycheck.
Graduating
from Denison in 1921 with a degree in physical education, Wilkie Moody signed
with the Dayton Triangles for the 1921 season. At Dayton, he joined another
noted Denison alumni, George Roudebush, who played an instrumental role in
introducing the forward pass into the college game.
After
a one year hiatus from the professional game, Moody re-signed with the Columbus
team (now the Tigers) for the 1924 and 1925 seasons. Now 28, Moody quit the NFL
for good after the 1925 season and took a position as the football coach and
instructor at Warren High School in Ohio.
The
next year he coached at Clarion State College in Pennsylvania. Following his
stint there, he took his family to Atlanta, Georgia where he served until the
1960’s as an instructor, coach and athletic director in the city high schools.
It
was also there that his wife Minnie’s career as a journalist and author
flourished.
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Later Years
After
his retirement, the “Coach” and Minnie returned to live at the family home at
Tannery Hill, adjacent to the Granville Golf Course.
An
avid golfer, he was content to let Minnie absorb public attention as a noted
columnist with the Newark Advocate while he enjoyed retirement. Wilkie O. Moody
passed on Feb. 22, 1976 and is buried along with Minnie in the peaceful and
rolling Welsh Hills cemetery outside Granville.
Self-effacing,
he appears to have made little mention of his professional football career or
his involvement in the historic first NFL game. This hopefully will shed a long
overdue spotlight on the life of this remarkable educator, coach, soldier and
athlete.
Kevin
Bennett is a noted local historian and Granville Township Trustee.
