Madison County Democrat

Several Received Awards At Dinner For Opekasit Men

A total of two hundred forty years with Opekasit, Inc. is the length of service of employees and tenants who received awards at the company's Annual Service Award Banquet September 19, at the Y.W.C.A. on Third Street, Hamilton, Ohio. One hundred thirty employees, their wives and husbands attended, all of whom have served five or more years with the company.

Awards were presented by W. P. Matthews, Chairman of the Board and R. F. Lovett, President to 32 employees. Some employees are on farms, some are tenants on farms and others are employed in the company's offices and on its farm management staff.

The program included a baritone soloist, Richard C. Payne, pupil of Louis John Johnen, Wyoming Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati. The speaker was the Rev. Samuel N. Keys, Rector of Episcopal Churches in Waynesville and Wilmington, Ohio and Chairman of the Episcopal Church's Town and Country Department in the Province of the Mid-West Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. His subject was "Land Use and Relations between Owner, Manager and Tenant".

Toastmaster for the occasion was J. M. Holcomb, Vice President of the company's farming operations in this area.

Those from this area receiving awards were:
Jane Kennedy, Farm Management office, London five years;
Walter Pemberton, Warrington Farm, London, five years;
Clark Snyder, Foreman Woodstock No. 3 Farm, Mt. Sterling, five years;
Kenneth Lugenbeel, Tenant, Lone Oak Farm, Mt. Sterling, five years;
Walter Montgomery, Elcamaere Farm, South Charleston, five years;
Robert Cornett, Foreman Goodyear Farm, Irwin, ten years;
Raymond Snider, Foreman Proctor Farm, Sedalia, fifteen years;
Willie Ray Stegall and John Oscar Harmon, five years and Bill S. Truitt, ten years, all Opekasit Center, South Solon;
James M. Salyer, Foreman, Greenawalt Farm, South Vienna, fifteen years.