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ST. MARYS - The Memorial High School Alumni Foundation is set to induct eight Roughriders, a group that includes multiple war veterans, a former Obama administration official and an All-American collegiate football player, into its hall of fame at tonight's football game.
The group will be formally recognized at a dinner and pre-game ceremonies before the football game against Shawnee, at Grand Lake Health System Field starting at around 6:30 p.m.
Alumni can be nominated for four different types of achievement - academic or professional, athletic, service to St. Marys City Schools, and military service.
Inducted under the category of academic/professional achievement is Barbara Poppe; athletic achievement, Ted Liette; service to St. Marys City Schools, M. Sue Thompson and Allen D. Meinerding; and military service to country, Col. Richard B. Bushong, SSgt. Franklin A. Eberle, 1st Lt. Gene A. Dennis and SP4 Lavern E. Pax.
The Memorial High School Alumni Foundation will induct 8 Roughriders into the hall of fame tonight. The new inductees are Barbara Poppe, Ted Liette, M. Sue Thompson, Allen D. Meinerding, Col. Richard B. Bushong, SSgt. Franklin A. Eberle, 1st Lt. Gene A. Dennis and SP4 Lavern E. Pax.
• Poppe, a 1977 MHS graduate, is an advocate and activist in the fight to end homelessness in the United States. At one point, she served as the executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness for the Obama administration. She left in 2014 to establish Barbara Poppe and Associates, which is an independent consulting group that works with national, state and local organizations and governmental agencies to address homelessness.
• Liette, a 1995 MHS graduate, helped the football team win two state championships as a middle linebacker and received numerous high school football honors, which included being named the state's 1994 Defensive Player of the Year. He went on to be a four-year starter on the University of Indianapolis football team, where he also earned numerous honors and set several school records.
• Thompson, a 1956 MHS graduate, was a polio survivor, language arts teacher at McBroom Junior High School and an adjunct professor at Wright State University-Lake Campus. She was an Ohio Reads volunteer, a member of Let's Talk About It book discussion group at St. Marys Community Public Library and past president of the St. Marys Shakespeare Club.
• Meinerding, a 1965 MHS graduate, taught thousands of Roughriders in seventh grade social studies over his 34-year tenure at McBroom Junior High School. He was nominated by dozens of his former students who claimed him as their favorite teacher.
• Bushong, a 1941 MHS graduate, is a 102-year-old veteran that served the country for 32 years in the U.S. Army Air Force, U.S. Air Force and the Air Force Reserves. During his time in the service, he flew 25 missions.
• Eberle, a 1940 MHS graduate, enlisted in the Army in 1942 and eventually deployed to Europe during WWII in September of 1944. He was the first casualty of Company K, 394th Infantry Regiment, 99th Infantry Division, when he was killed by German machine gun fire on Nov. 14, 1944 in Belgium, just across the German border.
• Dennis, a 1944 MHS graduate, is the only remaining soldier from St. Marys to be listed as Missing in Action, presumed deceased. He enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force shortly after graduation. While serving in the 474th Fighter Bomber Group in Korea on Sept. 28, 1952, his plane was shot down two miles south of Hukkyo-ri, near Pyong Yang, North Korea.
• Pax, a 1953 MHS graduate, served as a Sentinel, or honor guard, at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery for 18 months from 1957-1958 and made history multiple times throughout. He was chosen during that time out of 12 soldiers to stand guard on Memorial Day 1958 next to then President Dwight Eisenhower and Vice President Richard Nixon at a dedication ceremony; and was later present as Queen Elizabeth laid a wreath that same year. He laid a wreath at the Tomb himself twice.
