BARBERTON: It had all the elements of a small-town celebration.
High school band members playing the alma mater.
Old friends and neighbors gathering among downtown storefronts frequented by their great grandparents.
The guy in the crowd who shouts out during a solemn ceremony: “My great-aunt used to change his diapers!”
But what Barberton really celebrated Wednesday during Founder’s Day were the people who make it a big town — the sports, music, business, civic and military heroes that helped put the Magic City on the map.
Tom Kelley, a 1973 Barberton High School graduate, was among eight people honored with a marble stone set into the sidewalk in front of the city’s historic Lake Theatre.
Kelley, an entrepreneur and author who traveled from his home in California to participate in the ceremony, said he was humbled to be in the company of the other inaugural inductees to the Barberton Walk of Fame.
In one of those small-town moments, he acknowledged fellow honoree and former Cleveland Indians star Hal Naragon, saying, “For those of you who never saw him play baseball, you certainly all bought gear at his store.”
The crowd laughed and nodded, sharing a collective memory of buying letter jackets and uniforms at Naragon’s local sporting-goods store.
But then Kelley turned his attention to the high school band members, a sea of purple-and-white potential.
“We’re here today honoring the past achievements and the present achievements associated with Barberton, but you’ve also got to think about the future achievements that are going to come from here, at which point I look over there,” he said.
“It’s hard at this age for you to connect the dots, to figure out what your path is going to be, how what you’re doing right now in Barberton is going to translate and affect you in the future,” Kelley told the teens. “We couldn’t predict how what was happening in our high school years would affect the future.”
Brothers inducted together
Kelley and his brother, David — also inducted Wednesday — went on to become partners in a Silicon Valley invention factory called IDEO, a place a 60 Minutes segment suggested may be the most influential product design company in the world.
Tom Kelley said he credits former Barberton High teacher Mary K. Baker, “the most influential educator in my life,” with his success as an author and professional speaker. He said his brother David, who couldn’t make the ceremony, recently told him that art teacher Phyllis Griffiths was the one who inspired him to study product design.
He also named his parents and the culture of an industrial-era Barberton, which “gave us the freedom to do creative things, to take apart things in the house and not always put them back together” and the “confidence to turn some of our ideas into action.”
“So all I can say is thank you, Mom; thank you, Dad; thank you, Barberton,” Kelley said.
The Kelley brothers’ parents, James and Martha, said they’ve experienced many moments of pride watching their children grow into the industry icons they have become. The Walk of Fame was icing on the cake.
“It’s the best thing that can happen, to have recognition in your own hometown,” James Kelley said.
Another “star” on the walk was dedicated to polka king Frankie Spetich, a warm reminder of Barberton’s rich ethnic roots.
Accepting the honor on behalf of the late musician was his wife, Betty Spetich, who said her husband’s legacy lives on in ways obvious and not so obvious.
“He was a wonderful man, and he did so many wonderful things for people without anyone even knowing what he did,” she said, pausing from autographing a program for one of her husband’s fans.
Other inductees honored posthumously were represented by their families.
Catherine Hudson Turner helped pull the veil off the stone honoring her great-aunt Catherine Dobbs, who became the first female mayor of any industrial city in America when she led Barberton in the 1950s.
Kevin and Patrick Costello, nephews of the late Catholic Archbishop John Whealon, traveled from New York to participate.
Jack Woodford stood in place of his uncle Army Sgt. Howard Woodford, awarded the Medal of Honor for heroic actions in World War II.
Town founder and industrialist O.C. Barber was also inducted.
Mayor Judge said the walk will grow by an undetermined number of honorees this fall. A committee of residents is busy picking the next class to be installed during September’s Mum Fest, which will become the annual tradition.
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/paulaschleis.