The Eastwood Alumni Association will induct six community members into the Eagle Way Hall of Fame on Feb. 24.
Honorees are Darla Boyk, Joseph Hirzel, John F. Kurfess, Aaron Lawniczak, and Jane and Tom Lingenfelder.
Darla Boyk, a 1981 graduate of Eastwood High School, has practiced small animal medicine at several local veterinary clinics since graduating from Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine. Boyk has also made a significant impact as a dedicated and inspirational leader in Mission Honduras, a ministry of Bethlehem Lutheran Church that supplies water filters to families in rural Honduras villages.
Boyk made her first visit to Honduras in 2017 with the John Carroll University medical brigade. She was astounded at the number of gastrointestinal problems the brigade treated. When she returned to Ohio, she and her husband, Dave, asked the church to help purchase the much-needed filters, and led to the start of Mission Honduras.
Since 2018, the mission has distributed 1670 household water filters, giving more than 8,300 people access to clean drinking water. Boyk’s desire to serve others and her willingness to put in the work to make it happen has helped reduce the incidence of gastrointestinal complaints by 87% in children under the age of five. The Honduras villages have benefited from the ministry, but the Eastwood community has come together to be impacted as well. Many community members have helped to raise funds for filters, and others have made trips to Honduras to see first-hand the people affected by unsanitary drinking water and the life-changing impact of the filters.
Boyk, who is the daughter of Earl and Doris Abke, is married to Dave Boyk, and they have two children, Megan and Joe.
Joseph R. Hirzel has been a beacon of leadership to the Eastwood community, the family business–Hirzel Canning Company, and the regional, national and international agricultural and manufacturing industries for more than 70 years. The company, which is operated by the fourth and fifth generations of the Hirzel family, celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2023.
During his school years, he spent his free time with his father in the family business, where he learned how to build machines needed to improve the canning processes and the ins and outs of canning tomatoes and other products made by the company. In 1954, when he was just 17, he was tasked with managing the newly acquired Pemberville tomato plant. He was sent to a tomato canning plant on the Bahamian Island of Eleuthera when he was 19, to help get the plan running smoothly.
He has served in leadership roles as the president of the Ohio Food Processors Association in 1979, helped establish the Center for Innovative Food Technology (CIFT) Ag Incubator and the Eastwood Community Improvement Corporation, served on the Pemberville Zoning Appeals Board and the Luckey Exchange Bank, and provided scholarships at Eastwood High School and summer jobs for area students.
He also earned numerous honors, including Pemberville Lions Club Citizen of the Year in 1994, Pemberville’s Outstanding Citizen in 1998, the H.D. Brown Food Processing Person of the Year in 2001, and a Wood County Agricultural Hall of Fame Inductee in 2019. He and his wife, Julia (Williams), have five children: Carla (Todd) Greenlese, Jessica Hirzel, Joe (Francisca) Hirzel II, Otto (Jenni) Hirzel, and Tekla (Rom) DuPlain. There are nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Nineteen members of the family are Eastwood alumni or current students.
John F. Kurfess was an early advocate for school mergers and served over 40 years on local school boards. He farmed and raised livestock–mainly Holstein dairy cattle–for more than 50 years on his family’s Dowling Road homestead. With John heavily involved in education and Margaret a teacher, the farm was frequently the site of school field trips, enjoying perhaps a maze in the corn or a taste of fresh milk.
Kurfess was a charter board member for Penta County School, promoting alternative vocational training, and a charter board trustee for Owens Community College. His first school board experience was serving on his alma mater’s board at North Troy (Lemoyne) School beginning in 1937 when he advocated for one of the first Wood County school consolidations which became Troy-Luckey. He served on that board until 1958 when Troy-Luckey, Webster and Pemberville schools merged into Eastwood. He also served faithfully on the Wood County Board of Education from 1963-79. He also was a lifetime member of St. John’s Lutheran Church, Stony Ridge serving as a Sunday School Teacher and also on its Church Council.
He married Margaret (Zingg) and they celebrated 65 years of marriage before he passed in 1990. They had four children, 13 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Aaron Lawniczak is a class of 1997 graduate and one of the greatest athletes to graduate from Eastwood High School. He earned a multitude of individual honors, shattered numerous school records, received All-Ohio accolades in two different sports and left behind an incomparable, powerful legacy at Eastwood.
He was not only a gifted athlete, but also one of the most considerate and kind individuals you could meet. He maintained a quiet and unpretentious demeanor and was highly respected by his peers, teammates, teachers, coaches, and community members.
During his high school career, he helped unite the community like no other Eastwood athlete has done, when the Eastwood gym, stands and bleachers were filled to capacity.
In basketball, he was named First-Team All-Southern Lakes League (SLL) in 1995-97 and was player of the year in 1997 when he broke 27 Eastwood High School basketball records. That same year he held the Wood County scoring title, was District 7 Player of the Year and First Team All Ohio, had the highest scoring average in Ohio and was the MVP of the Ohio North-South All-Star Game. His Eastwood basketball single-game records included most points (50), most field goals (20), most points in a half (32) and most defensive rebounds (17). His regular season records include most points scored (554), scoring average (32.6) and 20-point games (17). He also held All Games Season records for scoring average (32.3), 20-point games (17) and 3-point field goals (51), and Career Records for points (1,635), scoring average (20.4), 3-point field goals (133) and 20-point games (49).
In baseball, he held the school record of 51 hits in a single season; a season pitching record of 9-5 with two saves, a 2.60 ERA and 94 strike-outs; and a senior season batting average of .560, 40 RBI and seven home runs. In his senior season, he struck out only once in 91 at-bats. He earned 1st Team All-Ohio, SLL and Wood County in 1997, and All Wood County in 1995. Additionally, he was 2nd Team All SLL in 1994 and 1995.
Tom and Jane (Swartz) Lingenfelder together helped create educational excellence in Eastwood schools: loving their students, guiding and motivating them throughout their school years to be valuable, responsible citizens after graduation. They both exhibited and promoted an enthusiastic and a positive, safe learning environment.
Tom earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from University of Toledo where he was a catcher on the baseball team. He taught at Oregon Schools and Glenwood Elementary School in Rossford for several years. He was instrumental in consolidating the elementary schools (1985-2018), starting as Webster Principal (5 years), Webster and Pemberville school Principal (26 years) Pemberville and Luckey Principal (2 years) and at Pemberville until the new Eastwood Elementary School Principal (5.5 years). He served with four superintendents and six secretaries. Tom impacted over 1,500 Eastwood students; and hired/managed over 150 top notch Elementary School teachers.
During his tenure, he led the launch of ‘Fast ForWard to Reading’ on-line reading intervention, organized the first elementary quiz bowl team at Eastwood, and brought the Intervention Assistance Team approach to Eastwood before the Ohio Department of Education mandated it. Eastwood Elementary received the United States Department of Education Blue Ribbon School award in 2020 shortly after his retirement.
Jane Lingenfelder grew up outside of Pemberville and attended Eastwood Schools from kindergarten through 12th grade, where she had been active in Student Council, cheerleading, chorus, Swingin’ Ez, musicals, Arion Club, AQUILA Staff and Spanish Club, graduating in 1971. She earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from Ashland College.
She was an Eastwood second-grade teacher from 1976 to 2011 and taught more than 1,000 students. During the last 12 years, she has continued to teach, working for the Wood County Educational Service Center as a prevention specialist, where she has impacted more than 1,000 children in the Beginning Awareness Basic Education Studies (B.A.B.E.S.) program. She was a PAX (Peace, Productivity, Health and Happiness) Partner for eight years. The program nurtures self-regulation in peer-contexts to improve attention and reduce impulsivity. Jane also has been a Wood County teacher mentor for six years, mentoring more than 10 teachers.
The couple has been married since 1978 and have two children and two grandsons. They are members of the First United Presbyterian Church, where Tom was a deacon, and Jane was an elder and a deacon.
