October 12, 2006

OBITUARIES

Paul Laurence Ford

Paul Laurence Ford of Yellow Springs died Friday, Oct. 6, in Hospice of Dayton. He was 80.

He was born the son of Granville and Frostie Mae (Wheat) Ford, the third from the youngest of nine children, five miles outside of Xenia on July 15, 1926.

He retired from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base after 35 years of service as division chief of the Aeronautical Systems Contracting Office.

Paul was elected and served on the Yellow Springs school board for 12 years. He also served on the Yellow Springs Senior Citizens Board and the Zoning Appeals Boards as well as various other committees.

Paul was a very religious man and was committed to his church. As a member of Central Chapel AME Church, he served as church treasurer for 30 consecutive years. Paul was a member of the Steward Board and Usher Board. He was also a proud member of Kappa Alpha Psi, Delta Chapter.

Paul was preceded in death by his parents, four brothers and three sisters.

Paul is survived by his devoted wife of 57 years Betty (Cordell) Ford; two sons and daughters-in-law, Paul and Pamela Ford of Enon, and Mark and Maria Ford of Littleton, Colo.; two daughters and sons-in-law, Teresa and Edward Rice of Honolulu, Hawaii, and Lisa and James Qualls of -Yellow Springs; five grandchildren, Matthew and Kristen Rice, Austin Ford and Tyler and Hailey Qualls; one brother, James A. Ford Sr.; two very close friends, Michael Carter and James Stewart; and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.

Funeral services were held Wednesday, Oct. 11, with burial following in Glen Forest Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Central Chapel AME Church in the memory of Paul L. Ford. Final tributes are a service of Porter-Qualls Funeral Home, Springfield Chapel.

Nolan Miller

Nolan Miller, long time associate editor of The Antioch Review and a famous writing teacher, died at age 99 at the Friends Care Community on Saturday, Sept. 30. Among his well known students were Mark Strand, the former Poet Laureate, the television filmmaker Rod Serling, the independent filmmaker Richard Kaplan, the psychologist and author Arno Karlin, the mystery writer Lawrence Block, the children’s book author Virginia Hamilton, the playwright Herb Gardner and the anthropologist Clifford Geertz. Serling wrote his Requiem for a Heavyweight while a student in one of Miller’s classes and Strand said that he was “my first and greatest teacher.”

Miller joined the faculty of Antioch College in 1946. Algo Henderson, then president of Antioch, asked Edward Weeks, the Atlantic Monthly editor and an Antioch College trustee, to recommend someone for the position of “writer in residence.” Nolan had just published a story in the Atlantic Monthly. After some resistance Nolan agreed to come, fully expecting, in compliance with his own sentiments, that it would be a temporary assignment. It did not take him long to realize that this is where he wanted to be. He joined the literature department, fitting in well with colleagues Basil Pillard, Vivian Bresnehen and Albert Liddle, all of whom he liked and admired.

Born in Kalida, Ohio, in 1907, Miller attended Wayne State University where he took both a BA and an MA. Prior to coming to Antioch he was a high school teacher at Mackenzie High School in Detroit. A widely published short story writer, his work appeared in Atlantic Monthly, Collier’s, Saturday Evening Post and The Antioch Review. He was the author of four novels (Sarah Belle Luella Mae; A Moth of Time; The Merry Innocents; Why I Am So Beat) and in 1957 edited the widely circulated New Campus Writing which contained the best of creative writing from America’s campuses. His 1959 short story “A New Life” was included in the O. Henry Prize Awards. He was also a recipient of the Hopwood Award from the University of Michigan.

He became The Antioch Review’s first fiction editor in 1965 and after his retirement in 1972 continued to play an active role with the magazine well into his nineties. In the late 1970s he taught in the Rod Serling Writing Seminars held on the campus. Miller was an engaging and provocative conversationalist who could turn heads in a restaurant with a comment and who challenged students to shape their own education for their own ends, to write for their own pleasure and the discerning few rather than for commercial gain and to expand their taste for music, art and fine literature.

When his sight began to fail he turned to “talking books” to keep his keen appetite for literature alive. He continued to conduct informal tutorials for students who came out to his home on Grinnell Circle to read to him from stories submitted to The Antioch Review. In 2000 he was awarded the “Dudley Dawson Award for Service” by the Antioch College Alumni Association.

Nolan was an “enthusiast” for literature and for literary magazines who wrote, “The writer must work with a mind ever open, ever free, ever alert.” His own favorite authors were Wordsworth, Proust, Joyce and D.H. Lawrence.

His brother Richard survives him and wrote just after Nolan’s death: “None among my brother’s many students during his years of teaching could have been more enriched by his knowledge and understanding than I was throughout our lives together. His patience and care in helping me to understand the world around me followed and reinforced the moral and intellectual learning I owe to my mother and father. He has bequeathed me a gift of beautiful memories. I will miss him.”

Gifts in memory of Nolan Miller may be made to The Antioch Review, Box 148, Yellow Springs 45387.

Richard F. Mastandrea

Richard Mastandrea died Oct. 1 at the age of 65 after a five-month battle with lung cancer. He was in Fort Hamilton Hospital surrounded by his loved ones.

Richard Mastandrea loved and cared for everyone, even people he did not know personally. Through his accomplishments he changed many lives. His life’s work was the love and compassion he showed for all people.

What his daughter, Jenifer Mastandrea, will miss most about her father are the morning phone calls her dad would make to her at 9 a.m. during his vigorous five-mile walk while she was enjoying her favorite cappuccino at Dino’s. They talked freely about everything in their lives, and he would always ask how everyone at Dino’s was doing.

She will also miss holding his hand when they ran errands downtown.

The Mastandreas lived in Yellow Springs for just one year, but they experienced strong support from the village, including parents, neighbors, local businesses and the Mills Lawn School community. The family also wishes to thank Joshua Smith for his loving kindness.

Preceding Richard in death were his beloved son Jason Mastandrea, who died in 2003, his father Frank Mastandrea, who died in 2005 and his mother Lillian -Mastandrea.

Surviving him are his wife, Deddie Mastandrea; his daughter Jenifer; Jason and Jenifer’s mother Sandy Mastandrea; his grandchildren Elle Rose Smith, Sean Smith and Mathew Mastandrea; and his dearly beloved sister and brother-in-law Toni and Neil Lipscomb, with whom he shared many laughs.

Mary Anne Ferguson Hattle

Mary Anne Ferguson Hattle passed away Oct. 4, at Friends Care Community in Yellow Springs. She was 85.

She was born June 13, 1921, in Chillicothe, Ohio, to Frank Lytle Ferguson and Nelle Enderlin Ferguson.

She was preceded in death by her parents and two sisters.

She is survived by her husband, -William L. Hattle, whom she married Sept. 4, 1949; her sister-in-law, Esther P. Miller; her children, Linda and George Patterson of Simpsonville, S.C., Lee and David -Ferguson of Yellow Springs, William “Rick” and Sandra Hattle of Columbus, Ohio, Robert Hattle of Albuquerque, N.M., and John and Sally Hattle of Western Springs, Ill. Also surviving are her 11 grandchildren, Kristen and Chris Smith, Courtney Patterson, Ian, Ellen, and Andrew Ferguson, Meredith and Gerrit Kitts, Zachary and Nicole Hattle, Erin and Callie Smock-Hattle, Elizabeth and Emily Hattle; two Nigerian sons, Dr. Benjamin and Connie Okwumabua and their three children, and Dr. Benedict “Ngozi” and Joyce Okwumabua and their four children.

A private family service will be held during the time of Mary’s traditional Thanksgiving gathering in November. Interment will follow at Grandview Cemetery in Chillicothe. Mary has requested that in lieu of flowers financial support be offered to Hospice of Dayton, Friends Care Center or the Yellow Springs Community Library. Mary’s long life enriched the lives of countless students, professional associates and friends. She will be greatly missed.

Judith Cochran

Judith Cochran of Germantown, Ohio, died Thursday, Oct. 5. She was 89.

She was born Oct. 23, 1916, the daughter of Jake and Nancy Noble, in Hazard, Ky. She was married to Omer Cochran in 1943.

She is survived by two sisters, Pearl Neace of Middletown and Eliza Riggs of Fairborn; a daughter, Jan; and her three grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews, including Diana L. Riggs of Yellow Springs.

Funeral services were held at Baker Stevens Funeral Home, Middletown, on both Oct. 8 and Oct. 9. Interment was at Highland Memorial Cemetery in Miamisburg.