KENNETH G. VALASEK was born in Kittanning, Pennsylvania on May 28, 1949 to Ludwig “Moon” and Mary (Goyda) Valasek, both deceased. He attended Holy Trinity Parochial School in Ford City and was the president of his graduating class of Ford City High School in 1967. He earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Pittsburgh and then a Juris Doctor degree in Law from its law school in 1974. After graduating from law school, he served as a law clerk to Judge Roy House for one year and later became a partner with David Suckling in the firm of Suckling and Valasek. He remained in the partnership until he was elected Judge in the Court of Common Pleas of Armstrong County in November, 1991. As a lawyer, Judge Valasek served as solicitor for many municipalities in Armstrong County including Ford City Borough, the Borough’s Sewage Authority and the Manor Township Joint Municipal Authority. He has been active in community affairs over the years, including fifteen years on the board of directors for the Progressive Workshop and as its president for two terms. He has also served as a director for Evergreen Homes for ten years. He was president of the Ford City Democrat Club from 1975-1977. He was a member of Holy Trinity Church where he served on the parish council and is currently an active member of St. Mary’s Church in Kittanning. He organized a Latin singing Guardian Angel choir which performs in local churches and has performed at Heritage Days in Ford City. He is active in Little League baseball, having coached in the Ford City Area Little League and more recently, devoting substantial time and effort to the Kittanning Little League and its girls’ fast pitch softball program. He has coached numerous all-star teams in the area. Judge Valasek is married to the former Mary Ann Brindger, his high school sweetheart from nearby Bethel Township. They have three daughters, Hana, Jane and Alexandra. The Valaseks currently reside on North Water Street in Kittanning.

FRED WAIN was born in Ford City on January 22, 1921 to Fred and Margaret (Howells)Wain. Educated in the local schools, he enlisted in the U.S. Merchant Marines and served throughout World War Two. After the War, Fred went to work for the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company in Ford City, retiring in 1987 after forty-two years of service. Fred has been an active member of Ford City Hose Company Number One for more than forty-four years and continues even now to serve on its Committee for the Fire Prevention Essays in our Ford City Elementary School, Lenape Elementary School and Divine Redeemer School. He also continues to be actively involved in raising funds to help sustain the Ford City Hose Company and the Armstrong County Fireman’s Association. He has been active in the Armstrong County Firemen’s School. Fred recently completed his fiftieth year of involvement with the Knights of Pythias, a brotherhood organized to disseminate the principles of friendship, charity, benevolence, tolerance of religion, obedience to law and loyalty to government. He has also been a member of the Elks, Eagles, Moose and Mooseheart, the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars. He is a charter member of the Heritage Days Committee, beginning in 1981. He has been elected to serve as President of the Western Pennsylvania Firemen’s Association and continues to serve on many of its committees. In 1989, the Armstrong County Firemen’s Association named him to be their “Man of the Year”. For many years, Fred has been an active member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Kittanning and has served many terms on its Vestry. Fred is married to Gloria (Mazzonti) Wain. Together they have raised sons John and Charles and daughters Carolyn (Wain) White, Mrs. James (Rosemary) Dunlap and Juliannne Crawley.

ALICE (ANDREWS) WARE graduated from Ford City High School, was married to the late Altimore Ware and raised a family of seven children. After all of this, she still found time to be a member of the Phillips Chapel C.M.E. Church and a den mother for the Cub Scouts. In her life, she has been a member of the following groups and organizations: the FCHS Band Boosters, the American Field Service, the American Red Cross Auxillary, the Armstrong County Memorial Hospital Auxillary, Ford City Bank Services, the Kittanning Christian Women’s Club, the Eastern Star Lodge and the Lily of the Valley Post #48. She was a founding charter member of the Ford City chapter of the NAACP and has served our town in various elected posts. Alice has been a chairperson or solicitor for: the March of Dimes, American Cancer Society, Muscular Dystrophy Association and the Republican Party Advisory Board. She has served for thirty five years as a member of the Republican’s Women’s Council and has served twenty-six years as minority inspector for the First Ward-South election board of Ford City and has also served with distinction as the Supervisor of the Ford City Playgrounds.

JAMES WITCHELL was born on December 12, 1907 in Fayette City, Pennsylvania to Samuel and Mary (Knight) Witchell. He was educated in the public schools of Fayette and spent most of his life working for PPG in either Charleroi or Ford City. As a combat infantryman in World War Two, he was wounded on D-Day on the beach at Normandy. Jim was very active in Ford City Local 14 of the Federation of Glass, Ceramic and Silica Sand Workers of America, the union that represented the men working at PPG and Eljer. He served his co-workers in a number of positions throughout his life, culminating in the chairmanship of the building committee that built the union hall on Third Avenue that was dedicated in August 1951. He is probably best remembered for his unionizing activities on a regional basis in the early days of union struggle. His tenure as Vice President and Trustee of Local 14 was productive. He was a staunch supporter of public education and served twelve years as a member of local school boards. He served as the President of the Ford City Union School Board and was instrumental in the creation of Lenape Vocational Technical School in Manor Township, a facility that serves students from high school in all of Armstrong County. Lenape Vo-Tech has become a regional asset, mainly due to the inspiration, guidance and efforts of men like Jim Witchell. Jim was an avid reader. He and his wife Anna had one son, James Joseph Witchell. Jim and his family were members of Faith Presbyterian Church.

MARY JO WOJTON began her education at St. Mary’s Catholic School in Kittanning and graduated from Kittanning High School in 1955. She began her college education at Carlow then transferred to the CCD-Greensburg Diocese where she gained her teaching degree. She taught religious education for eleven years, serving the last three as a junior high school principal. She is a member of the St. Francis de Paola Church in Ford City and has served two terms on the church council. She has served on the Ford City Community Picnic Committee for eight years, two years as chairman. She served on the Ford City Library Board from 1971-1976 and was president in 1975 and 1976. She was publicity chairman for Heritage Days from 1983-1988. Mary Jo was president of the Ford City Area Business and Professional Association from 1985-1987, chairman of the Ford City Founders Day 1986-1988 and co-chairman in 1989; chairman of the Armstrong County Daffodil Days of the American Cancer Society in 1989; Community Representative on the Armstrong County head Start Policy Council 1987 to present. In 1987, she was the author of “Talk of the Town” Centennial newspaper and since 1988 has been editor of “River Bitts,” the newsletter of the Allegheny River Development Corporation. She has been a member of the corporation since 1985, serving as treasurer 1986-1989 and president from 1989 to present. Having two children of her own that are deaf, she has worked for the welfare of all deaf people and has served as the transportation chairman for Deaf Parents of Armstrong County 1971-1978 and in 1989 was deaf awareness chairman-Mt. Joy Grange #537. Mary Jo has been a member of the Polish Falcon Nest #159 for the past thirty two years and in 1989 was selected as the Falcon Fraternalist of the Year by the Polish Falcons of America for her unselfish involvement in the Nest, church and community and lives by the spirit of the brotherhood. Mary Jo Wolfe is married to Valentine Wojton and they have five children, Valentine II, Evelyn, James, Paul and Rose Mary. They reside at Ford City RD #2.