Beeghlys, Davises honored with Legacy Award

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The Mill Creek Park Foundation will honor Nancy and Bruce Beeghly as well as D.D. and Velma Davis and The Davis Foundation at the Volney Rogers Legacy Award Celebration dinner Friday at the D.D. and Velma Davis Education and Visitor Center at Fellows Riverside Gardens, 123 McKinley Ave.

The Beeghlys will be present to accept the award; the Davises will be honored posthumously.

The Legacy Award was created in 2006 and has only been given out twice in the history of Mill Creek MetroParks. It is reserved for those whose support and dedication to the mission of Mill Creek MetroParks has been significant, or individuals who have provided advice, funding, and assistance for park programs.

Bruce Beeghly has honorary doctoral degrees from Youngstown State University and Westminster College and has served on public education boards for the past 25 years, including the Ohio Board of Regents. He currently serves on the board of the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley and is chairman of the Community Leadership Council of Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley.

Nancy Beeghly was an English teacher at Boardman High School and has an honorary doctoral degree from Westminster College for community services, where she later served on the college’s trustee board. She was a former columnist for The Vindicator.

Mrs. Beeghly serves on the communications committee for the Beatitude House, and the boards of the Buechner House, YSU English Festival and Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center. The couple have been married for 46 years and have three children.

The legacy of David Dale Davis and his wife, Velma, continues to support Fellows Riverside Gardens. They founded D. D. Davis Construction in 1946, and one of the many projects that Davis Construction completed in the Mahoning Valley is the D.D. and Velma Davis Education and Visitor Center at Fellows Riverside Gardens.

Davis oversaw construction and donated his time, talent and financial resources to the project, which opened in 2000. He had served on several boards, including the Rescue Mission of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley and The Butler Institute of American Art. Both were active in the First Covenant Church of Boardman. Davis died in 2002, and Velma Davis died in 2007.

Special recognition will be given to the Juliana Kurinka Trust, Mary Alice Schaff, and Friends of Fellows Riverside Gardens. PNC Bank, Agland Country Store, MAX-FREEZE, Fred Martin Ford Mercedes Benz and Jack Weller will be recognized for their support.

Tickets are $75 with proceeds benefiting the Mill Creek Park Foundation. Cocktails will be at 6 p.m. with dinner served at 7. Tickets are available; purchase by calling 330-702-3000.