Nancy Patzer: A Light In The Sky
At the Urbana Aviation Museum on Sunday, July 25 at 2 p.m., Nancy Patzer will present a program on Warren Grimes, a member of the National Aviation Hall of Fame.

Grimes, the inventor of the familiar red, green and white navigation lights still found on the wing tips and tails of modern aircraft, made his home in Urbana, Ohio and created an internationally-known company, Grimes Manufacturing. As businessman and community leader, Grimes provided jobs for thousands of local workers and built the Grimes Field airport on the north side of town.

From his humble beginnings in an orphanage near Dayton, and as a day worker at Ford Motor Company, Grimes had the grit and ambition, not to mention ingenuity, to live the American Dream. Grimes served as mayor of Urbana and chairman of the State of Ohio Aviation Board. This “Father of the Aircraft Lighting Industry” built airplane lighting that helped the U.S. and Allied Forces win World War II.

Grimes Manufacturing is now part of Honeywell International’s Aerospace Division. Mr. Grimes passed away in 1975. In an effort to celebrate Grimes and his legacy, Mike Major, visual artist and sculptor, published a book on Grimes at Main Graphics, his design shop in downtown Urbana. With the help of writer Nancy Patzer, who grew up in Urbana and has written historical non-fiction throughout her writing career, the book is called “A Light in the Sky: A Biography of Warren G. Grimes and the History of Aviation Lighting.”

Patzer, a 1983 graduate of Urbana High School, currently resides in Columbus, Ohio. She has written a number of articles on Ohio history. She owns a marketing communications company, providing consulting services to the residential housing and healthcare industries. Patzer also dabbles in fiction and has twice received the Thurber Treat Award for Humorous Fiction by the Thurber House Literary Center.

1950 National Plowing Contest
On Sunday, Aug. 15 at 2 p.m. at the Champaign County Historical Museum at 809 East Lawn Avenue, there will be a program on the 1950 National Plowing Contest that was held in Champaign County. There will be several presenters talking about their memories of this event. The presenters will include: Howard Brust discussing the history of this event, members of the Dean Wilson family relating how the publicity from their father’s success affected their family, Sue Evans Berkemeier covering the conservation project connected with the event, and finally, Sarah Finch will introduce Shirley “Payne” Prosser who was crowned the Queen of the Furrow of Champaign County in 1950.

A third is Buzz Jackson, who has been a collector since 1969 with a specialty in military items, known as “militaria.” He became interested in military items during the centennial of the Civil War, and has since become an expert on artifacts from all U.S. wars. Jackson has appeared on WGBH Television’s “Antiques Road Show” and brings that level of expertise to the Champaign County Antique Appraisal Fair. He looks forward to helping you learn what your prized possession is worth.

The fourth appraiser is actually a team of auctioneers from Springfield – Perry Conley and Charlie Ferris. The two are with the Conley Auction Service and specialize in all forms of antiques and real estate. They will be our “generalist” appraisers. Both are natives of Clark County and have been in the auction trade for a combined 40 years. Conley and Ferris are well known among Champaign County’s antique and collectible dealers and have volunteered their time due to the persuasiveness of our local dealers.

There will be four appraisers at the event. The first appraiser highlighted is Greg Shipley.

Shipley has been a passionate collector of early Americana and Native American artifacts for over 50 years. He is an avid amateur archaeologist and his favorite part of collecting is hunting for artifacts in the field. Shipley is looking forward to the Appraisal fair and helping you know what your prized possession is worth.

Early Americana items include relics from the Colonial era through the Federal era (1620-1820). Native American artifacts include stone and flint arrowheads and cutting implements, trade goods, tomahawks, beads and wampum.

The second appraiser highlighted is Dan Fawcett of Cable. Fawcett has been a collector, trader, picker and subject matter expert on antiques and collectibles for more than 40 years. He is well known to most dealers in the region and his opinion on antiques is frequently sought by the Ohio History Connection. His has a lifetime of knowledge of Logan, Clark and Champaign County artifacts. Fawcett is looking forward to the Appraisal fair and helping you know what your prized possession is worth.

On Sunday, March 14th at 2 pm, Roger Shroyer will be giving a presentation on setting the land speed record for an electric vehicle at the Utah Salt Flats!!

Seating will be limited and masks will be required.

Artist and writer, Robert Kroeger, based in Cincinnati, recently finished The Ohio Barn Project, which involved painting at least one old barn and writing an essay about it in each of our 88 counties - sort of a way to preserve the history of them before they are gone. The History Press/Arcadia Press will publish the book in March of 2021. 
 
For the next few years, Robert is offering fundraiser opportunities to historical societies. We were fortunate to schedule such a fundraiser at our museum on March 31, 2021 at noon. 

The fundraiser will feature a book signing along with Robert telling a few barn stories, offering a few paintings for auction, and a palette knife demo painting that will then be raffled.  Half the proceeds from the auction and raffle will be donated to the Champaign County Historical Society.
 
A great way to get a flavor for Robert’s background, paintings and essays is to visit this website: THE BARN PROJECTS.