Piqua Civic Hall of Fame

Past to Present Inductees  

Colonel John Johnston  1775-1861         
Johnston served as the Federal Indian Agent in Piqua from 1811 through 1829.  He was instrumental in organizing the Peace Council of Piqua that kept the Native American tribes in the Ohio country neutral during the War of 1812.  He served as an Ohio Canal Commissioner (1825-1836) and promoted Piqua as a canal port and toll office.  Johnston also served as the first president of the Board of Agriculture and a founder of Piqua’s St. James Episcopal Church.  He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 1995.

Robert Norris Hartzell  1896-1968
Hartzell, a friend and neighbor of the Wright Brothers, established the Propeller Division of Hartzell Industries in 1917.  He was instrumental in establishing another company division in 1928 to manufacture ventilating fans.  In 1936, at the death of his father, Hartzell took over as president of Hartzell Industries.  He established Hartzell-Norris Trust in 1944, which became one of the city’s major benefactors. He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 1995.

William Moore McCulloch  1901-1980                                      To the Top  
McCulloch moved to Piqua in 1928 and began a law practice with George Barry.  He was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in 1932 and served as House Minority Leader and later Speaker of the House.  He was the first House member to be elected to three consecutive terms as Speaker (1939-1943).  He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1947 and served in that capacity until 1971.  McCulloch is best known for his sponsorship and promotion of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 1995.

John Scott Garbry  1902-1990
Garbry was born on a farm in Springcreek Township, beginning his life-long interest in agricultural management and environmental conservation.  He was honored for these activities by the State of Ohio in 1963 and inducted into the Ohio Conservation Hall of Fame in 1986.  Garbry’s promotion of historical preservation was highlighted by his service with the Piqua Historical Museum and the creation of the Garbry Museum.  His philanthropic endeavors included the donation of Garbry’s Big Woods to the Miami County Park District and the donation of the site of the Willowbrook Land Laboratory to the JVS. He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 1996.

 Dominic Salvatore “Don” Gentile  1920-1951 
Gentile was born in Piqua and at age twenty joined the Royal Canadian Air Force prior to America’s entry into World War II.  While serving with the Eagle Squadron of the Royal Air Force in England, he shot down the first Nazi aircraft.  After America’s entry into the war, he became the commander of the 336^th Squadron of the Army Air Force.  He became one of the dominant flying aces in the European Theater, flying 182 combat missions.  He was called “Captain Courageous” by President Roosevelt and “a one man Air Force” by General Eisenhower.  Gentile was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1995.  He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 1996.

Armin Jacob “A.J.” Kaiser  1895-1984                                      To the Top 
Kaiser was a member of the Young Men’s Christian Association for over fifty years, serving as Youth Director from 1926 through 1940, and as the General Secretary from 1940 through 1960.  His work with the youth of Piqua was known throughout the state and culminated with his promotion and leadership of the YMCA’s Camp Wakonda program.  During the Second World War, Kaiser aided servicemen around the world with his constant stream of letters on hometown events.  He worked with various post-war veterans programs, as well as serving Piqua as a local historian and civic promoter. He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 1996.

Goodrich Giles  1846-1927
Giles was born a slave on a Virginia Plantation.  After fighting in the Civil War, he came to Piqua.  He became the community’s first major African-American businessman.  Starting in a tiny barn, he eventually operated several livery stables, three farms, and was an original investor in the Third National Bank, and numerous rental properties.  He was the first African-American to run for city council.  Giles was also the driving force behind the building of the Cyrene Church (Piqua) and the Anderson-Giles Theater (Dayton).  He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 1997.

 Minabelle Abbott Hutchins  1909-1981
Hutchins began her radio career in 1930 in Cincinnati.  By 1935, she had won the role of Mary Southern in one of the nation’s first radio soap operas.  Hutchins moved to Piqua in 1946 and became one of the Miami Valley’s first radio stars on “Your Best Bet” from 1951 until 1976.  Hutchins's other activities included promotion of the local Girl Scout program, encouraged environmental awareness through bird watching, worked with the Salvation Army, American Red Cross, American Cancer Society, Fine Arts Foundation and various school committees. She was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 1997.

Jacob Godfrey Schmidlapp  1849-1919                                     To the Top
Schmidlapp was born in Piqua, one of six children who lived above the family grocery store.  He was forced to quit school to help support his large family.  By the 1870’s he moved to Cincinnati where, through hard work and dedication, he helped found the Union Savings Bank.  He continued to support his hometown with donations that built the first public library, a monument to Piqua’s only Naval Admiral, support for the first hospital, local scholarships, and relief to victims of the 1913 flood. He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 1997.

William H. “Bill” Pitsenbarger  1944-1966
Pitsenbarger was born in Piqua and graduated from Piqua High School in 1962.  He joined the Air Force and was sent to Vietnam in 1965 as a para-rescue specialist.  On his day off, Pitsenbarger went on a rescue mission to evacuate wounded American soldiers.  He was able to aid in the Evacuation of nine men before the helicopter came under fire.  He voluntarily stayed behind to help the wounded and as a result was killed by enemy small arms fire.  Pitsenbarger was the first enlisted man in U.S. history to receive the Air Force Cross.  He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 1998.

John Allen Rayner  1864-1929 
Rayner was born on a farm in northern Miami County.  By occupation, he was a farmer and a plumber, but his hobby was local history.  He collected local artifacts and patiently researched the history of Piqua and the surrounding area.  In 1917, he published The First Century of Piqua which has become the single most important history ever written about Piqua.  His collection of prehistoric artifacts comprises the largest of its type in the city. He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 1998.

Cecil M. Sims  1891-1978                                                     To the Top
Sims was born in Basil, Ohio and moved to Piqua in 1919 to become the new high school principal.  He later served as superintendent of schools and executive director of the Chamber of Commerce.  Sims served as the president of the Library Board, Piqua Chautauqua, Ohio High School Athletic Association, Ohio Teachers Association, and a chair member of the State Board of Education.  Sims spent his life as a teacher, administrator, author, musician, coach, counselor, and civic leader. He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 1998.

Airhart M. Fry  1860-1939
Fry was born in Montgomery County and came to Piqua in 1890 as an independent carpenter and contractor.  During his almost five decades in Piqua, Fry changed the physical appearance of the city.  He was responsible for the construction of the Brown, Benkert, and Orr-Flesh buildings on Main Street, the hospital, the YMCA, at least seven churches, and numerous industrial buildings.  His skill and dedication to the building trade created a new standard for construction in the city. He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 1999.

Raymond S. Mote  1892-1941 
Mote was born in Piqua and began his teaching career there.  By 1918, he was coaching at the High School in all sports but particularly in baseball and track.  Mote organized the Summer Playground Program later creating the American Legion Junior Baseball Commission as a part of that program.  He also served as one of Piqua’s first scoutmasters and as the physical director of the YMCA.  Mote was responsible for bringing organized public sports and recreation to Piqua. He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 1999.

Helen L. Louis  1899-1984                                                         To the Top
Louis was born in Piqua and joined the staff of the Schmidlapp Free School Library in 1921.  She became library director in 1946 serving through 1966.  She began a number of innovative programs including providing circulating audio-visual materials to the public, one of the first five libraries in the state to provide this service, providing books for the hospital and for the homebound.  Louis was instrumental in creating new methods for adult learning in the city. She was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 1999.

Lucy B. Patterson  1871-1930
Patterson was born near Piqua and was one of a very few women in the 1890’s to receive a bachelor’s degree and continue on with graduate work in literature at Columbia University.  She was an English teacher for thirty-five years and took charge of upper level High School English classes in 1906.  She was the founding president of the Piqua Young Woman’s Christian Association, serving eight years in that position during the 1920’s.  She was also one of the founders of the local Story Teller’s League. She was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 2000.

George P. (Buck) Wertz  1899-1969                                          To the Top 
Wertz came to Piqua as a biology teacher and basketball/football coach in September of 1925.  His record as a football coach from 1925 through 1950 was won 165, lost 65, and tied 21.  His 1929 team won the city’s first undisputed MVL championship.  He served until 1968 as the Piqua Athletic Director.  His outstanding accomplishments and dedication as a teacher and as a coach were recognized when Roosevelt Field was renamed Wertz Field in his honor. He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 2000.

Mills Brothers          John Jr.- 1911-1936                Herbert-1912-1989             Harry-1913-1982      

                                           Donald -1915-1999                   John Sr. -1885-1967
The original Mills Brothers were born in Piqua and began singing at local church gatherings.  They began their professional careers with the local Greenamyer Orchestra as Four Boys and a Guitar.  In 1925, they were featured on WLW-Radio in Cincinnati and cut a record two years later.  After the death of John Jr., the father of the Mills Brothers, John Sr. joined the act.  The Mills Brothers recorded over 1,200 songs, including such international hits as Tiger Rag, Paper Doll, Yellow Bird, Lazy River, and Cab Driver.  They were inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 2000.

Henry Flesh  1837-1919
Flesh was born in Germany and immigrated to Piqua by 1858.  With only the coins in his pocket, he started and retired as a business owner and industrialist.  Flesh was instrumental in founding the Piqua Humane Society, the Board of Trade (a predecessor of the Chamber of Commerce), the Piqua Electric Company, a local insurance company, and the Piqua-Troy Railroad.  He was a local bank president and president of the City Council. He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 2001.

Kenneth McMaken  1911-1987 
McMaken was born in Piqua and had a long record of community service.  As president of the Piqua Council of Churches, he was one of the founders of the Bassett Street Mission and he promoted interracial discussions among the city’s churches.  He was co-founder and longtime member of the Piqua Elks/Piqua Civic Band.  His service to local youth is exemplified in over forty years as a local Boy Scout leader. He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 2001.

Robert Hance, Jr.  1914-2000                                                         To the Top
Hance was born in the Piqua area and graduated from local schools.  He served as Piqua City Manager for over twenty-three years.  During his tenure, he molded the community’s post-World War II images as a progressive city, promoting among other items the atomic power plant and a municipal golf course.  As an almost life-long musician, he played the cornet and served as the director of the Elks/Piqua Civic Band for over thirty-four years. He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 2001.

Rachel Johnston  1785-1840
Johnston moved to Upper Piqua in 1811 with her husband, Indian Agent Colonel John Johnston.  She was the mother of fifteen children, supervised a growing farm, and served as hostess to most of Ohio’s notables in the early nineteenth century.  Married at the age of sixteen, her honeymoon consisted of a thousand miles horseback ride across the Ohio country.  She established one of the earliest Sunday Schools in Miami County and organized the first civic organization in the Upper Miami Valley in 1818.  She was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 2002.

Darrell Taylor Sr.  1896-1967
Taylor was a life-long resident of Piqua.  He organized and ran his own auto repair in Piqua for over twenty years.  Active in his church, he organized the Taylor Tots to sing at local and regional church programs.  He served as the first president of the local chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. and led a passive sit-in at the bus station luncheon counter in 1947 that ended restaurant segregation in the city.  Taylor was the first African-American to run for Piqua City Council in the twentieth century. He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 2002.

Godwin Volney Dorsey  1812-1885                                            To the Top 
Dorsey moved to Piqua in 1836 and began his practice as a physician and surgeon.  He served as the Ohio State Treasurer at the beginning of the Civil War and became the first state official to promote equal bonuses for both white and African-American soldiers.  Dorsey served as a delegate for the 1850 and 1873 Ohio Constitutional Convention.  He served on the Piqua City Council, as the first president of the Piqua Board of Education, and organized the city’s second bank.  He was a published poet, author and historian.  He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 2002.

Philip P. Gates  (1894-1983)
Gates moved to Piqua in 1917 to become the director of music at the high school, a position he would hold for the next twenty-six years.  he changed the face of music in Piqua by reorganizing the high school marching band, creating a boys glee club, composing the Piqua High School Alma mater, organizing and directing the Elks band (Piqua Civic Band) and creating and directing several local church choirs.  Regionally he was known for sponsoring one of the area's first band festivals in the 1930's.  He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 2003.

George Rundle (1847-1917)
Rundle moved to Piqua in 1876 to manufacture Porter's Pain King, a patent medicine.  He took the company from a single horse drawn cart selling door-to-door to a firm with hundreds of employees and international sales.  He promoted local growth as president of Piqua National Bank and as a founding member of the Imperial Underwear Company and the Home Telephone Company.  He was active in social causes including the prohibition movement, first president of the YMCA and as a Miami County Treasurer.  He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 2003.

Stephen Johnston  (1812-1885)
Johnston was born at Upper Piqua (Johnston Farm) and as a self-educated man he became an attorney in 1850.  He served the Miami Valley as mayor of Piqua, Miami County Sheriff and an Ohio State representative.  In Piqua, Johnston organized the town's first volunteer fire company, drafted the 1850 City Charter, created the charter for the Columbus, Piqua and Indiana Railroad and recruited the first infantry company in Piqua during the Civil War.  He was one of the community's most active volunteers and promoters.  He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 2003.

Matthew Caldwell, Sr. (1757-1810)                                                             To the Top 
Caldwell was born in Ireland and immigrated to the United States shortly after the Revolutionary War.  He brought his family into the untamed forests of the Upper Miami Valley in 1805 and cleared land for a small family farm.  With a vision of future growth, he joined with John Manning in 1807 and laid out lots along the Great Miami River for the new village of Washington. Caldwell and his family helped the new community grow into the city of Piqua.  He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 2004.

Leonard U. Hill (1885-1984)
Hill was born on the family farm in Springcreek Township.  He was a pioneer in rural programs including the raising of soybeans, the first president of the Miami Rural Electrification Cooperative, and president of the newly consolidated Springcreek Township Schools.  As a historian, Hill organized both Piqua and Miami County Historical Societies, promoted the formation of the Piqua Historical Area and authored several books and numerous local history articles.  He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 2004.

William P. Orr (1834-1912)
Orr was born in Miami County and at the age of seventeen began work as an unpaid carriage maker's apprentice.  by 1890, he had accomplished the rags to riches story by becoming Piqua's most successful business and civic leader.  He was one of the builders of the Plaza Hotel on the square, created the city's first electric street railway and went on to found over ten major industries in Piqua and the area.  He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 2004.

Laura C. "Lola" Hill (1888-1981)
Hill was born in Piqua, the daughter of Judge Walter D. Jones.  She began her newspaper career in 1914 with the Piqua Leader-Dispatch.  She wrote all of her reports in longhand without the benefit of a desk, only a tall stool against a counter.  She was one of the community's earliest female reporters, in an almost exclusively male world.  She served as the society editor for the Piqua Daily Call from 1926 through 1964.  She wrote a regular column, Piquaisms, which ran for over forty-six years. She was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 2005.

Richard Hunt (191 -2002)                                                                         To the Top 
Hunt was born in Troy, Ohio and served in the Pacific Theater during World War II.  In 1947, he was one of the organizers of the first radio station in Piqua and Miami County under the call letters WPTW-AM.  In the 1950's, Hunt added several Michigan radio stations to his growing media empire.  Hunt partnered with several local citizens in 1965 to establish Piqua's and the area's first cable television company, Valley Antenna Systems.  In 1984, he created the Miami County Foundation to provide support for county citizens.  He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 2005.

Samuel Knoop Statler  (1844-1917)
Statler was born in Washington Township, the son and grandson of pioneer Miami County farmers.  He served as the chief superintendent of the Mercer Gas Company and helped construct the first natural gas line to Piqua and Miami County to light local homes and businesses.  he was a director of the Citizens National Bank and one of the co-builders of the Plaza hotel on the square.  Statler was also one of the county's most active and innovative farmers.  He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 2005.

Robert M. Davis 91923-1990)
He grew up in Troy, but moved to Piqua and joined the staff of the Citizens National Bank, an institution he would serve for thirty-four years, retiring as the Chairman of the Board.  As a banker, he actively promoted the economic growth of Piqua and Miami County by encouraging and supporting the creation of new and innovative local industries.  As a community leader, he was a driving force in the expansion of the YMCA, the Piqua Memorial Hospital, the United Fund, and the Piqua Area Chamber of Commerce. He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 2006.

Alfred Willard French, Sr. (1862-1925)
French was born in Connecticut and graduated from M. I. T. in 1889.  After graduation, he stayed at the college for several years to teach mathematics.  In 1899, he patented an improved cake trimming machine for use in the linseed oil industry.  The next year he founded the French Oil Mill Machinery Company in Piqua.  He almost single handedly moved the new company from a tiny firm operating our of a former barn to one of the community's largest industries.  French received over fifty different patents before his life was cut short by a tragic automobile accident. He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 2006.

Charles Butterfield Upton (1884-1979)                                               To the Top 
Upton was born in Piqua and joined French Oil Mill Machinery Company in 1905 as an office clerk.  He rose through the ranks to general manager and finally chairman of the board.  Upton helped write the original 1929 city charter and served as one of the first city commissioners.  He served as chairman of the board of the Piqua National Bank and as the first chairman of Dettmer Hospital.  Upton was one of the chief promoters for the creation of a state historical park at the Johnston Farm.  He was inducted into the Civic Hall of Fame in 2006.