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Spraley earns accolades


LINDA MOODY/Advocate photo

North Star Fire Chief Bill Roll, right, presents Alvin Spraley with a plaque for his 60 years of service to the North Star Fire Department.
2/6/2013 8:08:00 PM

 By Linda Moody

 NORTH STAR - Alvin Spraley was the guest of honor at a retirement of public service ceremony Tuesday night at the North Star Community Center.

North Star Mayor Cory Griesdorn and the North Star Village Council honored Spraley for his numerous contributions to the village.

Griesdorn presented him with a plaque of appreciation, which acknowledged Spraley for his time as mayor, 1953-57; as police chief (constable), 1957-2012; as a member of the fire department, 1949-2009; and on rescue squad, 1949-75.

Fire Chief Bill Roll also presented Spraley with a plaque, thanking him for the 60 years he had given the fire department. He also presented Spraley’s stepson-in-law, Leo Wehrkamp, with a plaque for his 40 years of service.

“Alvin has also been a surveyor, helping pipe crews to locate lines,” said Griesdorn. “We are also going to plant a tree near the ball diamond and a plaque with your name will be placed on it.”

“Will the sewer be underneath it,” asked Spraley, to which Griesdorn replied, “No,” as the audience chuckled.

In presenting his award, Roll had this to say about the honoree: “Alvin was one of the original members of the fire department. He has worked at all of the picnics, and he wanted the lights in the exact spot at the [American] Legion. He turned them off every night. Nobody has been better than Alvin.”

“How I got into the city job,” Spraley told the crowd that gathered, “is that Harry Kelch was going to retire. I studied law at the University of Dayton, and a highway patrolman ran this area. I volunteered to hold court here. It was 24-hour court when I was in office. Nilah [Davis] was clerk. She was part of the team.”

Spraley went on, “I thought about making the city a little bigger, re-surveyed the whole village and got annexation for the town. We did a lot of street and sewer jobs. I worked with the state during that time. For the next project, I’ll probably be too old to help.”

He said he has enjoyed working for the community.

“I designed all of the storm sewers,” he said. “Somebody had to do it to get it done.”

He said he did mostly ground work in his later years with the fire department, and reported that before ambulances, he would keep oxygen in his vehicle at all times while working with rescue.

His most memorable rescue mission was one night when the lives of three people were lost in two separate accidents.

“It was a busy night,” he said.

The 87-year-old, who worked with the county planning commission for 30 years and is a former board member of Darke County Veterans Services, was asked how many arrests he made during his time as constable.

“All I did was pronounce judgment,” he replied.

Spraley said he was born in Dayton, but noted the family had moved to live with his grandfather, J.B. Grilliot, in 1930 in the North Star area. He was one of four children, with one sister living and two brothers deceased.

He graduated from Versailles High School in 1944 and earned two degrees - one in civil engineering and the other in geology - from U.D.

“I’ve had better than eight years of college credits at four colleges, U.D., Wright State and Edison with some special classes at Ohio State University.

“I taught civil engineering a little bit at Edison,” said Spraley, who is a World War II veteran, having served in the European Theater with the Army Air Corps.

He is a member of Darke County Chapter 57 of the Disabled American Veterans, member and past commander of the North Star American Legion and a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Greenville.

He was a longtime bachelor before he wed Rita L. Wenning 30 years ago.

“I married a young woman with five children, and her death last year left me with 16 great-grandchildren,” he said.


 

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