Myers was born in Fostoria, where he played in the band and swam breast stroke on the swim team but didn’t show any academic promise. Despite the fact that he had a good job lined up at the Autolite Spark Plug plant in Fostoria, his friends at the Central Ohio Nazarene Church Camp he attended every summer in Columbus convinced him to attend Olivette Nazarene College in Kankakee, Ill., after graduating from Fostoria High School in 1966.
“All of my high school teachers would have laughed if you told them that I was going to become a teacher,” said Myers, who has taught technology skills to teachers statewide over the past few decades.
“I hadn’t taken any entrance exams, so I had to rush and do that and once I got to college, I had to take a remedial English class. Lottie Phillips, my teacher, saw a spark of something in me. It’s because of her that I majored in English and became an English teacher.”
During his freshmen year at Olivette, Myers met his future wife, Jana McGraw, a Beavercreek High School graduate studying home economics. The couple married and Myers took a job working six days a week for Armstrong Cork Company to support the couple while they both finished their degrees.
In 1971, Myers graduated from Olivette Nazarene College with a degree in English and education and later earned a master of art degree in English from Wright State University. He accepted a position at Mad River Junior High School in Riverside after learning about the district from the music minister at Parkview Church of the Nazarene in Kettering, where Myers and his wife attended church when visiting Jana’s family.
“Mad River was a wonderful place to work, because they’re forward thinking ... always a step ahead,” said Myers, whose wife also worked there until 1979 when she left to deliver Cara, the couple’s first child who died at birth.
Jana Myers remained at home and used her home economics education to start her business, Jana’s Alterations.
The couple later welcomed Holly and Blake into the family. Holly Myers Folk is a 1993 Bellbrook High School graduate, who earned a degree in physical therapy. She lives with her husband and two children in Chillicothe.
Blake Myers is a 1996 BHS graduate, who earned a degree in theology and teaches Bible classes.
A hard worker, Myers credits his summer job of painting houses and building decks and sheds with providing the money to pay for his children’s college education. He also taught summer school at Stebbins High School for seven years and graduate classes for teachers through the University of Dayton.
Myer’s teaching career took a turn in the mid-1980s with the introduction of computers in schools. Myers volunteered to work with the computer specialists installing the new equipment.
He eventually was named the school’s technology coordinator, a volunteer position he held in addition to his full-time teaching position. His high-tech skills served him well as the yearbook adviser at his school and eventually resulted in a part-time position making yearbooks for Taylor Publishing Company in Dallas.
“I became a statewide trainer/facilitator for ‘The Rite Site,’ a PBS program that trained children to use writing and computer skills to make a newspaper,” said Myers, who also was a building technology leader for Schoolnet, and their on-line learning programs.
Myers remains active in Parkview Church of the Nazarene where he is a board member, teaches Sunday school and sings as a soloist in the choir.
Contact this columnist at (937) 432-9054 or jjbaer@aol.com.
About the Author