KENT STATE UNIVERSITY |Trumbull Campus

Fourteen people received awards during the first Founders Day held at the Champion campus on Friday.

Founders awards

James F. Brown: Tribune Chronicle editor from 1976 to 1981. He became a sports reporter for The Tribune in 1939 and was named city editor in 1948. He retired in January 1982. He served in leadership positions at the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library, American Red Cross, Kent Trumbull Advisory Board, Children’s Rehabilitation Center, Rebecca Williams Center and Warren Redevelopment and Planning Corp.

Margaret Dennison: As she became angered by Ohio’s attitude toward schools, she decided to run for the General Assembly. She served from 1962 to 1968 as a representative for the 55th District. She also served as a Trumbull County commissioner from 1979 to 1984. At the Legislature, Dennison played a key role in the life of Kent Trumbull. She co-sponsored legislation granting the Warren Academic Center branch campus status as well as the bill that conveyed the county home property to KSU. She was also instrumental in restoring the $1.8 million for Trumbull that had been promised by the Ohio Board of Regents and was almost eliminated in 1968.

Paul E. Martin: Students at Kent Trumbull have been beneficiaries of the Paul E. Martin Scholarship Fund. He graduated from Akron State University and served in the Army during World War II. In 1958 he established the Martin Chevrolet dealership. In addition to several automotive professional associations, Martin served on the Kent Trumbull Advisory Board, Hiram College Board, Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber of Commerce, YMCA and St. Joseph Hospital Foundation.

Dr. Irving and Hazel Oehler: Although they were not born in Trumbull County, they got involved in community organizations, especially on the Kent Trumbull Advisory Board. A graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Dr. Oehler was chief executive officer of American Welding and served as its chairmen until 1975. While at American Welding, he encouraged many of his employees to take classes at Kent Trumbull. A Swarthmore College alumna, Mrs. Oehler was the first woman president of the Trumbull County Community Chest. She was also a board member of the Warren YWCA, Girl Scouts, Warren Civic Music Association and Red Cross.

Clydus F. Sells: As chairman of the Warren Area College Committee in 1962, Sells was destined to become the first president of the Kent Trumbull Advisory Board in 1970. He brought together community leaders to share his vision to develop the Kent State Trumbull campus. In recognition of his efforts to lay the groundwork for the campus, he received a Distinguished Service Award from KSU President Robert White at Kent’s March 1970 graduation ceremony. He spent 42 years with Republic Steel Corp., retiring in 1968 as superintendent of industrial relations. He was active in the United Way, Warren Rotary, Children’s Rehabilitation Center and Trumbull Council on Alcoholism. In conjunction with Kent Trumbull’s 30th anniversary in 1984, he created the Clydus Sells Scholarship endowment.

Distinguished Alumni awards

Michael Beers: After receiving his bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1999 at the Kent campus, Beers accepted a position with Morgan Stanley in Columbus. He holds the position of vice president of wealth adviser and manages a team of three financial advisers and one assistant. He sits on the board of the New Albany Lacrosse Association and coaches the youth team.

E. Jeanne Bryner: She first took classes at Trumbull campus in 1976 as a nontraditional student in the Forum Health Trumbull Memorial Hospital nursing program. She completed an associate degree in 1990 and a bachelor’s degree in English in 1996 from the honors college. In 1991, Bryner won KSU’s Stan and Tom Wick Undergraduate Poetry Scholarship, which allowed her to attend the Bisbee Poetry Festival. When she returned, she wrote a collection of poems that turned into Blind Horse, which was published in 1999. She also wrote Breathless, which won the 1995 Wick Poetry Chapbook Competition. She was one of 10 students nationally to earn the Bucknell Writing Fellowship in 1992 and was awarded an Ohio Arts Council Artist Fellowship in 1997.

Richard Alden Emerson: As a charter member of Kent Trumbull’s Independent Black Minority Coalition, Emerson also paved the way as the first and youngest black to serve as a Trumbull County Common Pleas Court bailiff. He has served 38 years with the Howland Township Police Department as detective, juvenile officer, sergeant and shift commander. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1976 and an associate degree in art in 1995. His activities have included boards of the Trumbull County NAACP, Warren-Trumbull Urban League, Howland Fraternal Order of Police and Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association. He’s a member of the Warren Civic Music Association and King Solomon Lodge No. 87.

Gary Soukenik: He received his business degree from Kent in 1976. He has been with Seven Seventeen Credit Union for 30 years and at the helm since 1980. Seven Seventeen has become the third-largest credit union in Ohio, growing from $35 million to nearly $700 million in assets with 80,000 members, 10 branches and 256 employees. Soukenik was instrumental in getting Seven Seventeen to be a liaison for the National Endowment for Financial Education in local high schools and initiating the BALANCE Financial Fitness Program for financial counseling services to members. He is a director of the Ohio Credit Union League and a member of the National Association of State Credit Union Supervisors.

Gordon B. Wean: He is the third generation of the Wean family and serves as chairman of the Raymond John Wean Foundation. He was instrumental in the Wean Foundation’s strategic planning initiatives in 2006 that led to a new focus to commit all of its competitive grant-making to help residents in the Mahoning Valley. For many years, the Wean Foundation has supported academic scholarships for Kent Trumbull students who have financial need. After attending KSU’s Trumbull campus, he received a bachelor of arts degree from Yale University and his law degree from The Ohio State University College of Law.

Campus faculty and staff awards

Professor Harbans B. Mathur of Howland, college of technology, deans award, distinguished service; Professor Anthony C. Zampino of Newton Falls, college of technology, distinguished faculty service; Marie DaBelko, Cortland, work-force development and continuing studies, distinguished administrator service; Kenneth McElravy of Newton Falls, manufacturing lab tech; distinguished support staff service.