Teacher enjoyed traveling overseas
10/27/2006BRYAN - Dolores Mellott, 93, the owner of Building 3 of the Bona Vesta Apartments here and the first woman to be on the Williams County Fair board in the 1950s, died Wednesday at the Inn at Fountain Park here of heart disease.
Mrs. Mellott and her husband, George Mellott, whom she married in 1947, owned the former 360-acre Bona Vesta Farms until 1959, when they developed it into the Bona Vesta subdivision, which includes Bona Vesta Apartments.
Mr. Mellott died in 1976 and his wife sold three of the four buildings in the apartment complex in the mid-1980s.
Mrs. Mellott was a substitute teacher at Bryan High School from 1960 to 1971, teaching Latin and home economics.
She was a home demonstration agent for the Ohio State Agricultural Extension Service in Williams County in the 1940s. She also taught home economics for about two years at the University of Hawaii.
"She was adventuresome, outgoing, and ambitious," her sister, Joan Althaus, said.
"And she definitely was a very caring person. And she loved the Bryan community," her daughter, Patsy Mellott, added.
Born in Auglaize County, Ohio, Mrs. Mellott, whose maiden name was McCarty, graduated in 1929 from Waynesfield High School and in 1933 from Bluffton College, with a bachelor's degree in home economics.
She later attended Ohio Northern University and Ohio State University and taught home economics and coached the girls basketball team for four years at York Township High School in Van Wert County. She then taught home economics for a year at Junction City High School in Perry County, Ohio, before working as a home demonstration agent in Williams County.
In retirement, Mrs. Mellott enjoyed traveling in the United States and overseas.
Mrs. Mellott was a member of the Wesley United Methodist Church, Bryan, where she volunteered in the office.
Her other memberships included the Williams County Tuberculosis Association, of which she was a past treasurer; the President's Club at Bluffton University, where she established the Mellott McCarty scholarship; the Bryan Hospital auxiliary; Williams County Historical Society; the Daughters of the American Revolution; the First Families of Ohio, and the state and county genealogical societies.
Surviving are her daughter, Patsy Mellott, and sister, Joan Althaus.
Visitation will be held from 2 to 8 p.m. today in the Burr Funeral Home & Crematory, Bryan. A memorial service will begin at 2 p.m. Nov. 5 in Wesley United Methodist Church, Bryan.
The family suggests tributes to the George and Dolores Mellott 4-H Fund at the Bryan Area Foundation, Wesley United Methodist Church, or the Mellott McCarty Scholarship Fund at Bluffton University.