Business manager was active volunteer

4/24/2005

DEFIANCE - James E. Meyer, a former member and president of the Defiance County school board and the Four County Career Center who also was a branch manager of Kiemle-Hankin Co., an electrical parts supply company here, died Friday in Medical College of Ohio Hospitals, Toledo. He was 67.

He died from complications of pulmonary fibrosis, family members said.

Born in Edgerton, Ohio, Mr. Meyer attended public schools and graduated from Edgerton High School in 1956, where he had played varsity basketball.

He married Nancy Ambruster on Sept. 7, 1956, before enlisting as a cryptographer in the Air Force. After a three-year assignment in England, Mr. Meyer returned to the United States and took a job at General Telephone Co. in Indiana.

"He was a very service-minded person who was giving of his time," Michael Meyer, his son, said.

In 1969, he returned to Ohio to work as a branch manager in Defiance for the Toledo-based electric parts supply company, retiring in 2003.

An ordained elder and deacon as well as a trustee at First Presbyterian Church, Mr. Meyer volunteered and served on the boards of various community organizations, including the Defiance Rotary Club, Jaycees, and the Defiance High School band boosters. He also was a member of the Greyhound Pets of America.

Mr. Meyer, who was an avid high school sports fan, was a part-time radio sportscaster for area high schools.

He enjoyed fishing and playing golf in his free time when he wasn't playing card games with family members, his son said.

Surviving are his wife, Nancy Meyer; daughter, Michele Wisner; son, Michael; four grandchildren, and a great-grandchild.

Visitation will be after 2 p.m. today in the Mast-Mock-Hoffman Funeral Home. Services will be at 11 a.m. tomorrow in First Presbyterian Church.

The family suggests tributes to the Defiance School Foundation or Greyhound Pets of America.