HANK SPRING

Counselor and Principal
Nominated by: Margene Spring '52

Hank’s impact on Clay High School and the City of Oregon may have started when he walked into Wynn Elementary as a kindergarten student. He graduated from Clay High School in 1952. He earned degrees in education from Bowling Green State University and the University of Toledo.

During his 32 years at Clay, Hank wore many hats – as a teacher, Counselor, Dean of Students, coach, Assistant Principal and Principal. He retired as the Principal of Clay High School in 1988. After retiring from education, Hank became Executive Director of the Oregon Area Chamber of Commerce for 5 years, retiring for a second time in 1994. 

Hank was a past President of the Oregonian Club, a past chairman of Oregon’s Board of Zoning Appeals, a member of the Eastern Community YMCA Board of Managers, a past President of the board of Trustees for the East Center for Community Mental Health and a past Congregational President of East Toledo’s St. Mark Lutheran Church. Hank was given the Fredric E. Hansen Humanitarian Award by the East Toledo-Oregon Kiwanis Club in 1996 in recognition of his continued interest in the community.

Hank was Secretary/Treasurer of the Oregon Area Development Foundation, a Program Coordinator of the Adopt-A-School Program for Clay High School and an active Mason. He was a member of the Toledo Chapter of the United Swiss, Phi Delta Theta Fraternity, the Oregonian Republican Club, and the Oregon-Jerusalem Historical Society. He helped organize the Ombudsmen Committee at St. Charles Mercy Hospital.

Hank loved Clay High School and the City of Oregon. Everyone looked to him because he had a very calm and easy going way about him. He was dedicated to and concerned for kids. Hank is remembered for leading gently with patience and understanding.

JOSEPHINE FASSETT

Superintendent
Nominated by: Mary O'Brien Jones

Miss Fassett was a pioneer in education and did much to shape the Oregon public school system as it exists today. As a child she attended school in Momineetown and in her early teens, passed the teachers’ examination. During the summers and at night she continued her education and earned degrees from Bowling Green State University and the University of Toledo. She completed her degrees while teaching for the Oregon school system.

In 1914 she was hired as a District Superintendent, and her duties included supervision of the Oregon and Jerusalem Township schools. She personally delivered new books, chalk, erasers, coal scuttles, drinking fountains, and equipment to the schools by way of horse and buggy, which she later replaced with her first car, a Maxwell.

She was instrumental in erecting Clay, Coy and Wynn elementary schools after the Oregon school districts were combined. During Miss Fassett’s tenure as District Superintendent, and later full-time Superitendent of the Oregon and Jerusalem Township schools, many other improvements were made, including the football stadium and the new Clay High School.

Miss Fassett became a life member of the National Education Association, a member of the national women teacher’s honorary Delta Kappa Gamma, and the Lucas County Teacher’s Organization (where she served as President). She was a founding member of the Oregon-Jerusalem Historical Society of Ohio, and in 1961 her book, History of Oregon and Jerusalem, The Story of Two Communities was published. In 1961 the city of Oregon honored Miss Fassett with the naming of Fassett Junior High School.

She was known as a generous and compassionate woman who often provided food and fuel for needy families and loaned money to students for higher education. She sometimes anonymously provided financial aid to help Clay High School graduates pay for college. The following quote from a special edition of the “Oregon News” honoring Miss Fassett’s eighty-seventh birthday voices the sentiments of all who knew her well: “Miss Fassett’s outstanding qualities were in such well-ordered balance that a single quality cannot be named. She was painstaking, industrious, loyal, keen and in hearty sympathy with her work. Perhaps the only criticism that can justly be made is that she gave of herself too much for her own good.