The Akron Beacon Journal from Akron, Ohio • Page 2

1. 12 Akron Beacon Journal Friday, August 20, 1971 OBITUARIES Wagoner, Kent State Coach By TERRY OBLANDER Merle Wagoner, the first Kent State University football coach to win a game, is dead. Wagoner, 77, died Wednesday at St. Joseph Hospital in Phoenix Ariz. of an apparent heart attack.

He was an athlete--from his high school days when he helped set a scholastic mile relay record to his retirement years when he won the Arizona Senior Citizens Golf Tournament. AS A COACH, sportswriters called him "Kent State's miracle man" and "Mr. Everything." In 1925, he took control of the Kent State Normal College Football team which had gone winless in its first five years of intercollegiate play. The first Kent State victory came at the 1925 homecoming game Neal Rickel Rites Saturday LODI Neal Lawrence Rickel, 78, an Ohio Match retiree, died Thursday in Lodi Community Hospital after a short illness. He was a life resident of the Lodi area.

Mr. Rickel. 105 Grandview a retired from Ohio Match, Barberton, 14 years Mr. Rickel ago. He received the Purple Heart in the Army during World War II and was a member of the Lodi American Legion Post 523.

Mr. Rickel and his wife, Dorothy, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1970. Besides his wife, he leaves two daughters, Mrs. Harriet Niswender, Mentor, and Norma Markley, West Salem; three brothers, Lloyd, West Salem, Park, Parma, and Merle, Ashland; seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Services will be 2 p.

m. Saturday at the Parker funeral home where friends may call from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. today. Burial will be in Woodlawn cemetery. Ex-Resident Of Medina MEDINA Services for Donald G.

Spencer, 47, a former Medina resident, will be 11 a.m. Saturday in Union Cemetery, Columbus. He died Wednesday in a Baltimore, hospital after a long illness. Born in Clarkston, Mr. Spencer moved from the Medina area 19 years ago to work on the New York Central Railroad.

For the past six years, he was employed by Chesapeake Ohio Railroad at Worthington, 0. He was a member of the Medina Masonic Lodge No. 58, and was a veteran of World War II. Mr. Spencer leaves his wife, June; son Donald G.

II, at home; mother Mrs. Mabel Spencer, Medina; two brothers, Jack, Medina, and Robert, Cleveland, and sister Mrs. Carol Gibson, Baltimore. Masonic services will be at 8 tonight at the Waite funeral home, where friends may call from 7 to 9. Akron Deaths Henry G.

Wells, 90, of 225 Bodine retired from Akron Tile Fireplace Former Sun Oil employe Ray Mick 74, in Ontario, Cal. Mrs. Geraldine V. Johnson, 53, of 1705 S. Arlington native of West Virginia Mrs.

Lorena Keohane, 88, of 579 Allenford in Akron 64 years Mrs. Almyra Harrell, 91, of 407 Allenford native of Tennessee Joseph W. Buckingham, 76, of 87 Hurlburt av Bennie Dorsey, 71, of 671 East av. Freight Derails, Gas Explodes WELLINGTON, O. (OPS) Two Railroad freight cars carrying a highly volatile gas similar to cyanide derailed and exploded near here today.

No one was injured. Firemen were called to the scene near Rts. 162 and 58, southeast of here, to extinguish a raging fire that followed the explosion. Volatile gas leaked out in the area, which is sparsely populated. Evacuation of residents was not necessary.

2 Harvey Ekers, After Brief Illness Deaths Elsewhere Col. Peter Fleming, 64, author and explorer brother of James Bond's creator, Ian Fleming, died after a heart attack while grouse hunting in Scotland. Fleming traveled widely as a special correspondent for The Times of London and wrote numerous books including "'The Siege at Peking." Willard 1 H. Mobley, 67, a former Associated Press reporter and editor in Washington, New York and numerous other bureaus, in Coca Beach, Fla. He retired from the AP in 1968.

Dr. John Ladd, 48, assistant curator of Central American Archaeology at Harvard's Peabody Museum. He was on a vacation. Broom Job Winds Down SPENCER, Mass. (P -The Town Broom Manufacturing Co.

has called a temporary halt in production for lack of broom winders. Walter J. Reynis, manager By DON FERMOYLE Harvey Ekers, a quiet man with a zest for life, will hold no more singing parties for his hundreds of friends. Mrs. Ekers died Thursday night at City Hospital after a brief illness.

He was 71. The retired owner of Ekers Meats which had three outlets in the Akron area, remained an active participant in Akron YMCA activities until recent weeks. He jogged five miles on the track on his 71st birthday last November. "HE WAS famous for his singing parties," said one of his friends, funeral director. Paul Hummel.

"He would get together a couple of hundred people for a party and he'd be the emcee and lead the singing." of the company that has been broom straw and secures it to Mr. Ekers once said he kept over Vientiane's Wattay Air- Oak, two brothers, rean peninsula was divided in in business since 1890, said the wooden handle. active since selling his port, closing it to all traffic. Harold Burdett and Herbert 1945. GAYLORDS FRIDAY 2 DAYS ONLY! SATURDAY SAVES YOU MORE! WHILE QUANTITIES LAST BLOCKBUSTERS Starts Fri.

DUE TO THEIR EXTREMELY LOW BLOCKBUSTERS Starts Fri. at 5 p.m. MUST BE SOLD ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS WHILE at 5 QUANTITIES LAST, NO RAINCHECKS WILL BE GIVEN. p.m. SAVE 20-2 DAYS ONLY! SAVE 2.30-2 DAYS ONLY QU POND VALVOLINE 10 WT 40 MOTOR OIL LUCITE House Paint BUILT- IN PRIMER WATER CLEANUP DRIES IN AN HOUR BLOCK BUSTER PRICE: VALVOLINE ONLY FOR OUTSIDE WOOD 4 MASONRY 10 LUCITE 1 GAL.

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He'd worked since he was a teen-ager. BORN in London, he came to this country alone at the age of 10 to live with relatives in Cleveland. After a year of high school, he quit to make his way in the business world. He served with the Army in World War I. He learned all facets of the meat packing business, starting as a youngster as a wholesale jobber.

He formed the first of his three retail meat packing stores in the 1940s. Besides being one of the YMCA's most active me m- bers, Mr. Ekers was on the board of directors of the Akron Athletic Club and a member of the Sons of Herman. He and his wife, Nina, lived at 2103 Braewick cir. HE LEAVES a son, Harold, Cuyahoga Falls; a daughter, Mrs.

Becky Broughton, Royal Burdett, both of England; a sister, Mrs. Sybil Elphick, England, and two grandchildren. Services will be 11 a.m. Monday at the Akron Baptist Temple. Calling hours will be 7 to 9 p.

m. Saturday and 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p. m. Sunday at the Hummel funeral home. Burial will be in Greenlawn cemetery.

The family said donations can be made to the B. Harvey Ekers Memorial Fund in care of the Akron YMCA, 80 W. Center st. B. Harvey Ekers business five years ago "because retirement bores me." I found it difficult to Airport Flooded VIENTIANE, Laos (P) The rain-swollen Mekong River burst through a protective dike in three places today and waisthigh flood waters swept Koreans Agree when Kent State toppled West Liberty College, W.

7 to 6. It was one of his first games as coach. Wagoner also was head coach for basketball, baseball, track and tennis during his nine year coaching career from 1925 to 1933. WAR interrupted his athletic and teaching career twice. He served in the Air Force as an aviation instructor in World War I at Galveston, Tex.

where he coached an Army football team. He spent 34 months in Air Force intelligence in the Pacific during World War II. In post-war years until his retirement in 1949, Wagoner taught at KSU's Commerce College and headed the university's program to obtain surplus war materials. He began to direct the sectional, district and regional scholastic basketball tournaments in 1926 and continued as director until his retirement. He was KSU's athletic director from 1927 until 1933 when wrestling coach Joe Begala took over that spot.

AS A senior at Mercersberg (Pa.) Academy in 1913, he was leadoff man for the school's relay team which set a scholastic world record of three minutes and 27 seconds in the mile. He was also star quarterback for the academy team. College meant honors at Ohio State University where he lettered in track and football. Although official records and dates are fuzzy, Wagoner's relatives say he once set an Athletic Union record for the pole vault with a jump of 12 feet and 6 inches. They also say he competed in Olympic one meter diving competition.

Again, records and dates became clouded with age. Merle Wagoner IN RETIREMENT Wagoner kept fit by playing golf regularly, usually shooting about three or four over par, according to relatives. In 1963, he outdistanced all other golden-agers to win the Arizona Senior Citizens Golf Tournament. Born in Beaver Falls, Wagoner lived in Kent for almost 25 years before moving to Phoenix, where he lived the last 21 years. As a child, he travelled to Portage County's Brady Lake, then a popular vacation spot, where his family had a Summer cottage.

HE RETIRED in 1965 from the Superlite Building Supply Co. in Phoenix where he worked as general sales manager for 15 years. He leaves his wife, Elva; two daughters, Mrs. Gretchen Schwensen, Phoenix, and Mrs. Sally Turner, Dallas, and son William, Houston, Tex.

Services will be 10 a.m. Saturday at the Arizona funeral home in Phoenix with burial in Greenwood cemetery, Phoenix. L. H. Hodgeman, Long Illness KENT Lloyd H.

Hodgeman, 72, retired Kent school maintenance man, died Thursday in the Marquis nursing home after a long illness. Born in Akron, he lived most of his life in Kent. Mr. Hodgeman, 1249 N. Mantua was a member of the Kent Moose Lodge and American Legion and was a veteran of World War II.

He leaves his sister Mrs. Mary Langman, Cleveland. Graveside services will be 11 a.m. Saturday in the Standing Rock cemetery. There are no calling hours.

The Bissler funeral home is handling arrangements. Margaret Coe WADSWORTH -Miss Margaret Coe, 91, of 152 Beechwood died early today. Arrangements are being made by the Hahn funeral home, Barberton. all the firm's broom winders are retired or physically unable to work and attempts to find younger men for the job produced no applications. A broom winder shapes the PANMUNJOM (P) Delegates of the South and North Korean Red Cross societies met briefly today and exchanged letters to arrange possible contacts between Koreans separated since the Ko-.