Class of 1968
September 13, 2008
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71
days left
until our Reunion.
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Welcome Flyers
"Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name (well, lots will anyway) and they're always glad you came.........."
It is time to RSVP
The only official RSVP is by mailing in your form and money. No Classmates.com or RSVP on this site constitutes a RSVP. If you have not received a mailing please contact us via the Contact Us link in the left column.
The next reunion planning meeting will be at 12:00 p.m. Saturday, July 12, 2008, in Fairborn at Mayer & Cusack Law Offices at the corner of W. Main St. and Broad St. We encourage all '68 classmates to feel free to join us. If someone from the committee has not gotten your current address, please send that to us via the Contact Us link.
Check out the Details of Events link for the activities we have planned for Sept. 12/13 2008, and RSVP as soon as possible.
Please add to our web page by:
Greeting your fellow classmates in the Guest Book.
Tell your classmates what you've been up to by clicking on the C.Aaron-B.Davis page and scrolling to the bottom where you can give a detailed account and current photograph.
Take us back to 1968 with a story or anecdote on the Flyer Blog.
Swap messages with fellow classmates on the Message Board.
Check out the Albums link for photos that have been submitted by classmates and add some of your own.
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Left to right seated: Barb McCormick, Sharon Garland Gross, Garnette Gilliam Walker, left to right standing - Joe Carmen, Steve Wolaver, Corky Shull, Dave Cooper, Mark Greene, Karen Warner Pearce, Craig Moore, Gary Smith (not shown are Dick Helms and Ed Hamilton)
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As time permits we are going to attempt to interview a number of our former classmates about their lives and experiences. Here is the first one which we think you will find interesting.
Man Who Sees With Hawk Eyes
He left Fairborn High School thinking he would pursue medicine at Ohio State. While medicine ended up being a key component in his future, lab coats and patient charts would never be. Instead he became a medicine man for the Cherokee at the Qualla boundary in North Carolina.
He spent the first six years of his life in Hindman, Kentucky where the two-room schoolhouse had no indoor plumbing. Wanting a better chance at economic prosperity, his parents moved to Fairborn, Ohio where his mother worked odd jobs ironing, doing laundry and cleaning model homes. His father tried his hand at various endeavors including opening his own grocery store, but finally stuck with his own concrete construction company. Living in what was originally World War II housing, and where the post office is today, he didn’t move into a house until Thanksgiving of his senior year at Fairborn High.
Sophomore year of college marked a life change for him when his grandfather passed away: he became increasingly curious about his never-talked-about Native American blood. His parents’ goal was not to proclaim their Native American stature, but rather to live so that their children did not have to work manual labor jobs for the rest of their lives. Although he grew up aware that he was Native American, he never truly understood what that meant.
Feeling strange about his own culture, he started to ask questions that eventually lead to him making occasional trips to the Qualla boundary in North Carolina where he learned about the history and customs of his own people. Most Cherokees were removed to Oklahoma in the 1830s, but a small band stayed behind and hid by assimilating themselves into the Western culture at the time. Never talking about their rituals or beliefs, it became normal for many Cherokee to hide in the open.
At this time, when he was a young man in college, he was constantly asking himself about the meaning of life and so learned about many different religious beliefs looking for the one that matched his own understandings. None of them quite fit until he learned about Cherokee beliefs. In them he found a people and a perspective that perfectly reflected himself. Originally known as Aqunesahna Yona, or “Bear Who Puts His Arms Around,” his gentle spirit and piercing eyes were noticed by his fellow Cherokee who asked him to become a medicine man, or a “Wisdom Keeper for Traditions.” With the new status came a new name, Asgaya Tawodi Digadoli, or “Man Who Sees With Hawk Eyes,” and a new look: long hair and Cherokee jewelry.
The difficulties he has faced have not come from the Native American world, but rather representing a Native American in a Western world. Extremely talented in helping others, he became the Director of Psychological Services for Mentor, Ohio Public Schools. His giving nature also led him to constantly pursue consulting work for other school systems, some of which are on reservation, and to this day he has his own consulting firm: Dancing Waters Consulting (www.dancingwatersconsulting.com).
Using his Cherokee perspective to tackle mental health problems, he has blended the two worlds that are still at odds with one another. As a medicine man he learned that illness is when something is out of balance, whether physically or mentally. As a psychologist he used this understanding to create safe environments for students and staff to heal. He started the first drug and alcohol prevention program in Hamilton, Ohio that focused on primary prevention for both students and staff. Because the program was out of house, with 15 free visits, staff and students could go for any reason such as stress, aging parents, and marital difficulties. The success of this program was possible primarily because it was not stigmatizing and everyone could go with any problem to help gain the balance in life that for whatever reason it lacked.
Retiring in 2005 from the Mentor Public School system, he now focuses on two things: his consulting business and his book “We Are The Work,” about how people do not have to leave part of themselves at home in order to come to work, and how not to deform others by our expectations.
Ron Patrick’s life has consisted of the unexpected and the spectacular. He played varsity lacrosse for Ohio State and made the “All Mid-West Lacrosse Team.” Although he did not know how to swim growing up because his mother always told him, “stay away from water until you learn how to swim,” he later became a diving instructor. Referring to it as a “controlled fall,” he has pursued all things with an open mind and an open heart, which is reflected in everything that he has accomplished so far. His wife, Lori Molnar, and his two children, Sara and Nate, all seem to have an equally helping nature. And so it seems Ron has created a world of safety and truth that he fondly remembers emanating from his father.
From interviews with Ron in March 2008 by Lindsay Helms
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Ron Patrick, wife Lori Molnar, daughter Sara and son Nate.
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