Ex-Toledo official gets anti-drug state job

11/18/2000

A former Toledo official has been put in charge of state efforts to help keep people from becoming dependent on alcohol and other drugs.

Gary Q. Tester, interim director of chemical dependency services at Boysville of Michigan's St. Anthony Villa on West Central Avenue, has been named prevention chief of the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services.

He replaces Victoria Crews, who retired after a 32-year career in state government. She had been the state's only prevention chief since the department was established in 1989. It was not known how much Mr. Tester will be paid.

Mr. Tester, a counselor and psychologist, is former executive director of Toledo's youth commission. He resigned from that position in 1998 to become Ohio policy and development director for Boysville of Michigan. From 1988 to 1994, he ran Toledo/Lucas County C.A.R.E.S. (Chemical Abuse Reduced through Education and Services). In 1996, then-Gov. George Voinovich appointed him to a two-year term on a state advisory board, the Council on Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services.

A Toledo native and a graduate of the former DeVilbiss High School, he has been a consultant to the Lucas County Family Drug Court.

Mr. Tester holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Toledo and a master's degree in rehabilitation counseling from Bowling Green State University. He is a member of the National Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors. He and his wife, Ruthie Kuckarewski, have two sons, Ryan, 19, and Kris, 16.