The Waynedale News is privileged to have many contributing writers. As a part of our mission to promote the Waynedale community, our writers’ columns are meant to inform and engage our readers with positive, family friendly and unique news and entertainment from around the Fort Wayne, Indiana area.
James D. Wolf Jr. is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in newspapers across Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, including The Chicago Tribune, The Daily Herald, and The Des Moines Register. He grew up in Munster, IN, and attended Purdue University’s . . .
Kasey is the author of the “At The Movies With Kasey” column, a review of current movies and TV series.
Kasey Butcher grew up in Fort Wayne and started writing for The Waynedale News in 2003 when she was a sophomore at Homestead . . .
Vince is a regular contributor to the newspaper, showcasing local highlights, personal stories, and much more.
Vince LaBarbera is a Fort Wayne native. He attended Cathedral Grade School, Central Catholic High School and is a graduate of the University . . .
Trustee Austin Knox is a Fort Wayne native who has been working at the Wayne Township Trustee Office since January of 2015. On Friday, January 10, 2020, he was unanimously elected trustee at a caucus of Democratic precinct committee leaders of Wayne . . .
Doris is the writer of her column titled “The History of Ordinary Things.”
My life in retirement is centered on “Collections & Connections”. I continue to install displays for small museums, libraries and public spaces. In . . .
Lois Levihn, author of the “Around The Frame” column, stitches together stories of current events while highlighting a significance woven into each quilt.
As a Fort Wayne native, I grew up close to Waynedale graduating from Wayne High School . . .
He has written for newspapers in Michigan City, Indiana; Pekin, Illinois; and Bradenton, Florida. He also has written for and edited websites in Florida and San Francisco, California.
He currently resides in Waynedale, where he continues to work as a freelance writer.
I love the friendliness and closeness of the Waynedale community and am very passionate about seeing Waynedale prosper.
I serve as chair of the Waynedale Trails and Sidewalks committee and co-chair of the “Rivergreenway Adopt a Trail” two-mile portion of the St. Mary’s Pathway. Winterset Association also supports this cleanup effort year-round. I am also involved in the Annual Walk In Waynedale event held in August. We are fortunate to have a strong group of committed volunteers who help with organized fundraisers such as this.
On the personal side, I am married to my best friend Jack. Our daughter Alicia, and son-in-law Andy have blessed us with a beautiful granddaughter Sadie. We live in Winterset Association which is full of great neighbors. I enjoy walking, biking, scrapbooking and reading.
My church home is Waynedale UMC on Church Street. I serve on several committees within the church and love the outreach we share with the community.
I am also a board member with Honor Flight Northeast Indiana. It is very rewarding to be a part of this group that sends Veterans to Washington to reflect upon the memorials built in their honor.
Shawn and his wife, Kristen, have been married for 27 years and have two beautiful daughters, Alex and Jorey. Kristen is an assistant principal and loves working with children. Alex, is a student at the University of Cincinnati and is studying social work. Jorey, is a student at Ball State studying business and finance.
Shawn D Wall
Financial Advisor
(260) 747-5411
6110 Bluffton Road Suite 101
Ft Wayne, IN 46809
Owner & Publisher of The Waynedale News
Alex Cornwell is a community-focused newspaper publisher and civic leader based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He is best known as the sole Owner and Publisher of The Waynedale News, a long-running local . . .
The Waynedale News welcomes The Fort Wayne Ink Spot (FWIS) as a monthly columnist! FWIS is a black-owned, Indiana based newspaper that discusses regional and national stories that highlight individuals in the community as well as topics that affect . . .
Maria Sutherland is a community advocate that enjoys being involved in opportunities that encourage engagement and connection. Her passion for the natural environment has also led her to become a Naturalist at Lindenwood Nature Preserve where she currently . . .
He was a state champion wrestler and competed in college athletics. He also lived for eighteen months in New York when he was 19 – 21 years old.
Daris and his wife, Donna, have ten children and were foster parents for several years. He has also worked in scouting and cub scouts, at one time having 18 boys in his scout troop.
Daris is now a math professor and his classes are well known for the stories he tells to liven up discussion and to help bring across the points he is trying to teach.
His plays, musicals, and books build on the characters of those he has associated with, along with his many experiences. He also writes a popular weekly newspaper column called “Life’s Outtakes” that are short stories from his life and the lives of those he has known. His scripts and books are much like his stories, full of humor and real life experiences.
He has had his plays translated into German and French and performed in many countries around the world.
His plays have won many awards including the National Theatre Co-op Award, the Deseret Dramatic Award, semifinalist in the Moondance Film and Theatre Festival, and his book, The Three Gifts, has won the Editor’s Choice Award.
The same could’ve been said of Slim at the time, as he weighed about 135 pounds until he was 40 years old. At the age of 16, Slim and his horse moved to the town of Independence, on the eastern side of the High Sierra. He worked at Sequoia-Kings Pack Trains all summer, taking campers and their gear over the high passes. For the next eight years, he’d pack mules all summer and then either attend college or report for small newspapers in the winter.
He finished high school in Independence, as well. Well, almost. He was given an honorary high school diploma from Owens Valley High School when he was 37 years old.
For sport, Slim roped calves and steers in local rodeos, not very well, but enthusiastically. At the pack station, he became known as a good hand at gentling colts, and several times caught wild horses and burros in the desert mountains to the east of there. It was legal to do so then.
Randles spent the decade of the 1970s in Alaska, working as a feature writer and columnist for the Anchorage Daily News, the state’s largest paper. Each fall Slim guided hunters in the Alaska Range and the Talkeetna Mountains, and he built a cabin 12 miles from the nearest road and spent eight years there.
Two dog team expeditions he made for the newspaper in 1970 helped build public interest in long-distance dog mushing, and when the first Iditarod Race was held in 1973, Slim drove a team in it for about 300 miles, until crushing an ankle. For the next three races, he served as a race official.
For three years, Slim was associate editor of Petersen’s Hunting Magazine in Hollywood, and wrote both the blackpowder hunting column and the knife column. He went back to working for newspapers in 1981, first as investigative reporter for the Victorville, California, Daily Press, and then as managing editor of the Pampa News, a daily paper in Pampa, Texas.
Moving to Albuquerque in 1983, Slim wrote a horse column and an outdoor column for The Albuquerque Journal, and then was given a column called “Bosque Beat,” consisting of feature stories on interesting people. He wrote that column for 17 years.
Teaming up with another Rounders Award winner, cowboy and artist Grem Lee, Slim wrote the back-page humor column for New Mexico Magazine called Ol’ Slim’s Views from the Porch for six years, until the magazine changed.
Six years ago he began writing a syndicated humor column for newspapers called “Home Country.” Today it appears in more than 350 newspapers in 44 states and has a readership of more than 4.2 million.
He’s also the author of 16 books, including three novels and the biography of The Rounders author, Max Evans. One of Slim’s most recent books, “A Cowboy’s Guide to Growing Up Right” has won two state awards and one national award.
Slim spent 12 years in the village of San Ysidro, New Mexico and now lives in Albuquerque with his wife, Catherine. His hobbies include shooting traditional archery competitively, fly fishing, hunting and playing the accordion.
Returning to Iowa, I attended Iowa State on a Navy ROTC scholarship. I graduated in 1954 with a degree in zoology and went on active duty as an ensign in the Navy. I served three years on a destroyer in the Pacific, home port Pearl Harbor. I was damage control officer, then assistant engineer officer, then, for a year, engineer officer, perhaps the only ship chief engineer officer the Navy ever had who had a BS in zoology.
I served two more years in the Navy as a Navy ROTC instructor at Cornell University, then fifteen years in the Navy Reserve, achieving the rank of captain and earning a Navy retirement.
After leaving active duty in the Navy I became a student at Cornell and earned an MS in wildlife management. Then I moved to Indiana and worked for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, first as assistant manager of the Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area, then assistant manager of the Upper Wabash Reservoirs, then manager of Salamonie Reservoir. I retired from the IDNR in 1991, bought a home in the country in Noble County and a motor home. Until my wife got cancer, in 2010, we spent about half the year living in our motor home and half at our country home.
My wife and I were married in 1963, raised four children, two girls and two boys, who are all college graduates and self-supporting.
My wife died in July, 2012. My older daughter lives with me and looks after me.
I have always liked the outdoors and birds and am a conservationist and an environmentalist. I don’t write specifically about conservation but mix my opinion in with stories about a bird, a mammal, a plant or other outdoor subject. The editor of one paper using my articles called them soft-sell conservation.
David C. Long is a Republican member of the Indiana State Senate representing the 16th district.
He serves as the President Pro Tempore of the Indiana State Senate.
Prior to his election to the Senate, David Long served from 1988 through 2005 as a member of the Fort Wayne Common Council from the Fourth District. He defeated incumbent Ben Eisbart to win the post. Mr. Eisbart had won the post by defeating incumbent Frederick Hunter, the father-in-law of David Long.
Dr. Nill graduated in December of 2003 and has since opened his own practice in Fort Wayne. He continues his commitment to the health of our community and still offers lectures for area businesses, clubs, groups and schools covering many health topics.
Dr. Jayme Nill has a strong family presence in Fort Wayne including being the grandson of the late Dr. John H. Nill, M.D. and the nephew of Dr. Thomas G. Nill, M.D. He is also the great-grandson of Princess Delight Poorman of Waynedale who recenly passed at 96. He is one of five children of June and Jim Nill with two brothers and two sisters (Erin, Breanne, Brandon, and Nate).
At Nill Family Chiropractic, the Doctor understands the importance of your family and their health as well. He takes the “whole person approach”. This approach to wellness means looking for underlying causes of any disturbance or disruption (which may or may not be causing symptoms at the time) and make whatever interventions and lifestyle adjustments that would optimize the conditions for normal function. Using this unique approach, Dr. Nill is able to help you to accelerate and/or maintain your journey to good health.
Barley, encounters great suffering during his grinding before succumbing to an unpleasant death by fire. However, as a result of his death bread is produced; therefore, Barleycorn dies so that others may live. Finally his body will be eaten as bread it returns to the earth and once again springs to life—he can never die…
I have lived in the Waynedale area for over 15 years, currently working full time as a surgical assistant for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Associates and part-time for The Waynedale News. I started my newspaper career over 10 years ago beginning as a sales executive, progressing as copy editor, graphic and paper designer, and through the years enjoyed writing for the paper as well as taking on the role of Mathew Brady-a photographer.
As a writer I enjoy writing about a great place to live, shop, work and play-small town USA-Waynedale. Whenever a story lends itself to good news about this perfect place to live—Waynedale—I am there. All across America, this small town ambiance symbolizes friendly neighbors and a great place to raise a family so why not tell their story.
I have been published in the Allen County History Book, contributing the Wayne Township section, of this said to be most comprehensive and largest history book in the nation.
When I am not working as a surgical assistant or playing the role of “Lois Lane” at The Waynedale News I am playing golf, riding or running the Rivergreenway Trails, downhill skiing, gardening, traveling or hanging out with all my wonderful friends that I have been blessed with. My most recent project was co-coordinating the Blue Ball Open- raising awareness for prostate cancer through a golf outing. And currently, soon to be published, a book called The History of Waynedale.
As Abraham Lincoln said, “And in the end, It’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”
Schindler’s newspaper column, “Schindler Sez, appears in several Indiana papers. In addition he is the author of two books, Schindler’s Tiny Tales & Whatnot, and Schindler’s Short Short Stories & Uncommon Sense (www.jamesaschindler.com). Schindler’s books are an easy to read, enjoyable collection of incredibly short, true, and humorous stories, written with a bit of advice and uncommon sense thrown in for good measure. He has been a guest speaker at the University of Notre Dame and has been quoted in, Bits & Pieces, a national motivational magazine.
Furthermore, he has developed a complete set of exercises, “The Look Your Best Naturally Facial & Neck Exercise Program,” (www.lookyourbestnaturally.com), which firms and tightens the muscles in the face and neck, for a more youthful appearance.
Married, with seven children and an ever-growing number of grandchildren, he now resides in Fort Wayne, Indiana. You may contact him at (260) 417-4247.
Now as mayor of Indiana’s second-largest city, Henry believes to risk more, care more, dream more, and expect more, paraphrasing the West Point Academy Cadet Maxim. His administration is one of accessibility, approachability and community involvement.
With experience in the private sector, Mayor Henry has been a successful small-business owner for more than two decades. He is currently President and CEO of The Gallant Group, a Fort Wayne insurance agency and healthcare consulting firm. Henry also worked as President and CEO of Midwest Health Net, a multi-hospital group purchasing organization serving the tristate area, and has been a hospital consultant.
During his 20 years on City Council, Henry provided independent, innovative and progressive representation. He served three years as Council President and three years as Vice President. Henry authored key City ordinances still in effect today including the anti-discrimination ordinance, sunset ordinance for boards and commissions, transient merchant ordinance, homestead credit provision and the City’s parking garage privatization ordinance.
Henry is involved with the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities and the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns.
Mayor Henry’s community involvement includes the Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce, Neighborhood Health Clinic Board of Directors, Science Central Board of Directors and the Whitington Homes & Services Board of Directors. Henry’s past service includes the University of St. Francis Board of Trustees, Red Cross volunteer during the flood of 1982, and several state and federal task forces.
A 1970 graduate of Fort Wayne Central Catholic High School, Henry earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology and his MBA from the University of St. Francis. Henry served his country from 1971 to 1973 as a Specialist 4 with the U.S. Army’s Military Police.
Mayor Henry’s family has been in Fort Wayne for over 100 years and 6 generations. Tom Henry is the second of Jerome and Marge Henry’s 17 children. Since 1975, Tom has been married to Cindy (Kocks), owner of the popular neighborhood restaurant and pub The Green Frog Inn. Tom and Cindy have a son, a daughter, and two grandchildren. The Henrys are members of Most Precious Blood Catholic Church.
Trustee Stevenson was born in Fort Wayne to a family of eleven children and has lived in Fort Wayne all his life. Growing up in such a large family taught him what it is like to do without material possessions. Trustee Stevenson’s background helps him understand the problems of the poor and fuels his desire to do everything he can to help clients move from assistance to independence.
Wayne Township is among the largest Townships in Indiana, with a staff of over thirty employees. Since he took office, Trustee Stevenson has made several changes at the Trustee’s Office, while always keeping in mind the dual goals of the office. Those goals are being a community leader in countering the effects of poverty, while maintaining careful guardianship of the taxpayers’ resources.
Among Trustee Stevenson’s accomplishments at the Trustee’s Office has been to reorganize the employment department, now called the “Employment Training Center,” to help as many clients as possible find jobs. Trustee Stevenson’s favorite saying is, “We want to give clients a hand up, not a hand out.”
As part of the reorganization, Trustee Stevenson instituted a mandatory, once-a-week employment training class for Township Assistance clients who are physically able to work. The class offers practical, hands-on training in areas such as resume’ writing and job interviewing.
Clients also receive job referrals every week and are required to apply for the jobs to which they are referred. Trustee Stevenson believes that finding jobs for clients is a win-win for everyone. When clients find jobs, they feel good about themselves because they no longer have to request Township Assistance and because they have become a contributing member of our community.
Trustee Stevenson is married to Carol Stevenson, and they have two adult sons and seven grandchildren. His grandchildren are the light of his life, and he loves to spend as much time as he can with his family.
A big part of Trustee Stevenson’s life is his devotion to and work for his Church, Pilgrim Baptist. He is a Trustee of the Church and is Superintendent of the Sunday School. Trustee Stevenson is active in numerous community organizations, including serving on the Board of Associated Churches and Executive Board of NAACP. During the Presidential election in 2008, Trustee Stevenson organized the Grassroots Committee, a non-partisan group which registered hundreds of voters in Fort Wayne. The Trustee was employed by the City of Fort Wayne for several years before being elected Trustee.
Through college I studied various aspects in the computer art field with my colleague Alex Cornwell. Over the years there we developed a fantastic friendship and ironically both of us lived in Waynedale. Sharing the same passion filled view for the Waynedale area, we were presented with an opportunity to take over The Waynedale News. Alex and I saw this as a chance to improve and uphold Waynedale traditions. So on September 1, 2009, Alex and I jumped into the newspaper world “headfirst,” so to say and assumed control of the newspaper.
The Waynedale News proved to be an overwhelmingly successful venture and a truly great accomplishment for myself. The newspaper always provided unique challenges and rewarding experiences. I am proud of what we as a “family,” which included our in-house team, writing, editorial, sales and delivery staff accomplished while I was with the paper. We helped the newspaper grow (over 20%) to 35,000 newsprint readers every two weeks and to 40,000 monthly visitors on the Waynedale News website (Created in 2010.)
The creation of Waynedale.com brought and will continue to bring an immensely positive imprint on the area which includes a community website, apparel line and business directory. The apparel line has sold well over 2,000 items and the business directory is a project that has continued annually. All of those projects helped and will continue to shed a positive and most importantly, growing chatter about the Waynedale area.
My major interests include aviation, entrepreneurship, animated films, art, and sports.
Since leaving the paper early in the summer of 2013, I have married my beautiful wife Emily, who is studying at Notre Dame, moved to La Porte, Indiana and have been studying to becoming a commercial pilot. I hope to achieve this goal in the next year, to year and a half.
I currently still visit the Waynedale area from time to time and follow the newspaper very closely.
Mitch Harper was born in 1956 in Fort Wayne and is a lifelong resident of Allen County. His great-great grandfather, William Harper, settled in Allen County in 1834 after immigrating from County Tyrone, Ireland. Mitch Harper was married in 1989 to Dawn Wilson and they reside in the Barrington Lake Estates neighborhood. Dawn is a Certified Public Accountant.
Mitch Harper is an attorney in private practice.
He served as State Representative from 1978 through 1990. Elected at age 22, he was the youngest member of the Indiana House of Representatives. As state chairman of the American Legislative Exchange Council, he was an advocate for term limits. He chose not to seek re-election after 12 years in the General Assembly.
He served as Chairman of the House Urban Affairs Committee and the House Labor Committee. He was co-chairman of the House Environmental Affairs Committee. He served on the House Committee on Cities and Towns and was a member of the joint committee on Local Government Affairs which drafted Indiana’s first Home Rule legislation.
As President of the Mary and Perry Spencer Foundation, a founding member of the board of the Maumee Valley Heritage Corridor, a member of the board of Drive Alive, Mitch is deeply involved in the community.
He is active in promoting running and recreation in northeast Indiana. He is the organizer and founder of several athletic events including the Galloping Gobbler 4 Miler held at the campus of the University of St. Francis each Thanksgiving. The HUFF 50K Trail Run at the Chain O’ Lakes State Park at Albion in December attracts competitors from 30 different states and is one of the largest events of its kind in North America.
He was brought up in San Antonio, Texas, and Louisville, Kentucky, and has degrees from the University of Louisville (chemistry and nuclear physics) and Southern Methodist University (a B.D. in divinity), as well as a doctorate in theology from Oxford University in England.
After his retirement from Indiana University in 2003 he became Director of the Hindsfoot Foundation, which publishes books on the moral and spiritual dimensions of recovery, and has been devoting his full time to working with alcoholics and addicts. He and his wife Sue continue to live in South Bend in a tree-shaded house three blocks from the St. Joseph river, just at the edge of the University of Notre Dame campus. They enjoy traveling in their camper to music festivals and reading detective novels.
For more about him see his photo website at unmeasureddistances.ftml.net/
Ronnie has been a pastor, chaplain, leader in social justice ministries, and a writer. His post-Katrina relief work with Habitat for Humanity was featured by the CBS Evening News and the New York Times, and his writings have been featured in various media outlets. He holds degrees in Christian Education and Theology, with post-graduate studies in Bio-Ethics and Critical Incident Stress Management.
McBrayer’s weekly syndicated column “Keeping the Faith” is a past Florida Press Association award winner in Religion, and a collection of those articles was published in book format under that same title in 2008. Also released in 2008 was Ronnie’s book But God Meant it for Good, based on the Old Testament character of Joseph, by Smyth and Helwys Publishers of Macon, Georgia. In 2009, Smyth and Helwys released two more of Ronnie’s works: Leaving Religion, Following Jesus, and “The Book of Esther” a Formations Curriculum Teaching and Study Guide. Ronnie’s latest work, The Jesus Tribe, will release in the winter of 2011.
He is a Navy Veteran of the Vietnam era where he was a Radar Electronics Technician aboard a Tin Can (Destroyer) home ported in Hawaii. He is a long time Boy Scout leader and has been a Scoutmaster of two different troops in the Waynedale area. He still gives demonstrations on Dutch oven cooking and knot tying.
He has written a humorous book titled How To Eat A Wild Green Pancake and other humorous tales (available electronically at Barnes & Noble and Amazon or by contacting him at: P.O. Box 9793, Fort Wayne, IN 46899-9793 in care of Hunters’ Publication or by E-mailing him at WVHumorWriter@aol.com. NO, it is not a cookbook.
He lives in Waynedale with his lovely wife Joanne; they have 5 children and 8 grandchildren. Currently, his many Kampfire Kookin’ and Humor Corner articles and columns appear in MidWest Outdoors magazine, The Gad-A-Bout outdoor magazine, and other outdoor publications. They are based on his Dutch oven cooking and some of the humorous things that have happened to him in his life while growing up in West Virginia.
He graduated from Gassaway High School (’56), from the US Navy School of Electronics (’58). He attended Santa Ana College (Journalism Major (’62 – ’64) and Graduated IU Fort Wayne (’88) with an associate’s degree in General Studies..Publications in which his work has appeared: The Otter – high school, El Don – College, News Sentinel – Neighbors Section, Journal Gazette – Summer Outdoor Columnist – Lakes Addition, Gad-A-Bout outdoor magazine, MidWest Outdoors (columnist and Feature Editor, Rag Horn News, Elkhart Truth, Waynedale News, Scouting Smoke Signals (Editor). Indiana Outdoors, Braxton Citizens’ News, Braxton Democrat, Charleston Gazette.Organizations: H.O.W. (Hoosier Outdoor Writers), Sigma Chapter – Beta Phi Gamma, Life Member NRA, American Legion Post 241, BSA Trained LeaderInterests: Hunting, Fishing, Camping, Outdoor Cooking, Outdoor Humor, and writing about all of them.
His motto is: “If you ain’t havin’ fun doin’ whut yer doin’, then you shouldn’t be doin’ whut yer doin’.”