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Warren woman, Alliance man earn caregiver awards
STAFF REPORT
YOUNGSTOWN
Penny Pearce of Warren, recognized for her “dedication and compassion” in caring for her elderly mother, and Russell “Duke” Iden of Alliance will be inducted into the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame.
Penny and 11 other Ohioans will be honored next Monday at the 17th annual Elder Caregiver Awards by the Ohio Department of Aging and members of the Ohio General Assembly in Columbus.
During the same ceremonies, between 1 and 3:30 p.m. at the Capitol Theatre, Iden and 12 other “exceptional older Ohioans” will be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Penny cared for her mother, Ada, for more than five years until she died in January. After two strokes, Ada was partially paralyzed and unable to walk, cook, clean or care for herself and had difficulty speaking.
In addition, Penny took full responsibility for her mother’s personal care, meals, distribution of her medication and transporting her.
Until Penny left her job to care for her mother, her twin, Peggy, stayed with their mother after her overnight shift from the time Penny left for work until Ada’s paid caregiver arrived. When Penny needed to go grocery shopping or run errands, another family member would come over and sit with Ada.
“Family members and informal caregivers are the backbone of our long-term care system, providing 80 percent of all home care nationally. In Ohio, informal caregivers annually provide care valued at $14.2 billion,” said Barbara E. Riley, director of the Ohio Department of Aging.
Likewise, those inducted into the Senior Citizens Hall of Fame embody the productivity and enjoyment that should be a part of every person’s older years, Riley said.
“Thanks to Mr. Iden’s experience and generosity, many of his friends and neighbors enjoy a higher quality of life,” she said.
Iden is an accomplished pilot, master cabinet maker and machinist, bricklayer, meteorologist, dead- reckoning navigator and minor-court judge.
He got his first airplane in 1932 and taught himself how to fly.
He was the 35th employee hired at Taylorcraft Aviation, which built small, single-engine airplanes.
During World War II, Iden taught fighter pilots at Harman Training Center in Texas as a civilian instructor (a diagnosis of arthritis when he was young prevented him from doing so as a soldier).
He is a life member and current treasurer of the OX-5 Aviation Pioneers, an organization for pilots who flew before 1940. He earned the Ohio Wing President’s Award for his efforts and accomplishments while serving as the group’s president and was recognized for contributions to the growth of aviation by the Experimental Aircraft Association, Youngstown Chapter 531.
Iden developed a system of nutrition and therapy for a friend with Alzheimer’s disease and hires workers to care for her in his home.
He uses profits from the stock market to help his assistant earn a living and help a friend keep her home, shares the crops from his garden with his neighbors and teaches many about gardening.
He helped to build the Lions Club concession trailer, which raises money every year to buy service animals for the blind. The Lions Club has awarded him the Melvin Jones Fellow Humanitarian Service Award and the Lionism Constant and Dedicated Service Award.