Visitation:
3/11/2008 11:00:00
Service:
3/11/2008 11:00:00
Alvin Marshall Kelley
June 14, 1915 -November 28,2004
He was born in the small river town of Brilliant, Ohio on Flag Day. In his public speaking days, he jokingly claimed that these two facts made him a “brilliant patriot.”
He was just a grade-school youngster when his father Frank Alvin Kelley was killed at work on the railroad and his mother Eva Maude (Reed) Kelley moved the family to her mother’s hometown of Willard, Ohio. After several years of unsuccessful effort on his mother’s part to hold the family together, he and his younger sister, Einora (Kelley) Gamer found themselves in a children’s home where they remained until he graduated from Springfield High School, Springfield Ohio at the age of 17. He continued his education by attending colleges wherever his career took him: Cleveland College; Case Western College; Georgetown University; and graduate courses in psycometrics at Cincinnati University.
During his years in the home, he learned music playing saxophone and clarinet in the I.O.O.F. home marching band and orchestra; and later as an adult in life, the Shrine Band in Cincinnati.
Also while in the home, he learned something about the art of self-defense and upon returning to Willard, he became an amateur featherweight boxer becoming a Golden-Glove champion. He fought out of the Main Street and Dempsey gyms in Los Angeles. As he outgrew his weight class, he returned home where he fought several exhibitions for the home folks in a ring set-up in the center of town, then giving it up for serious lifetime pursuits.
He married local girl, Mary Ellen Glenn, a graduate of New Haven High School, with whom they eventually raised five children, one boy and four girls including identical twin daughters. They moved and started home keeping in the Cincinnati area when he was promoted from a competitive Civil Service position to a clerical position in the headquarter office of the Sixth District U.S. Civil Service Commission for Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. Although he started in the service at the bottom salary grade, within a year and a half he was out in the field establishing Civil Service Boards in National Defense agencies designed to recruit, investigate, and train civilians.
His lengthy and distinguished federal career included: U.S. Civil Service Commission (1939); U.S. Treasury Department (1953); District Director (IRS), St. Louis (1960); District Director, Boston (1962-65); Regional Commissioner, Midwest Region, Chicago (1966-71); Assistant Commissioner, Washington, DC (1971-73); District Director, Cleveland (1973-74); Chairman Federal Executive Board (1973-74); Cleveland Mayor’s Advisory Committee, Job Development Service, Cleveland Public Schools (1973-74); and Commission on Energy Conservation (1973-74).
Semi-retired in 1974, he remained a special consultant and advisor with the Executive Branch U.S. Government (1974-83) which included the following agencies: White House – 0MB; U.S. Civil Service Commission; Executive Development Institute, Charlottesville, VA; Army Intelligence, Pentagon; Naval Research Laboratory; Standards Division, Nuclear Energy Commission, Washington DC; Dept of Interior, Mine Health & Safety Academy, Beckley, WV.
His more recent activities included: Board of Directors, Crazy Horse Memorial
Foundation, South Dakota (1974), President of the Board (1977); Board of Directors, Huron County Council of Alcoholism (authored tax exempt status/annual tax forms); Huron County Welfare Advisory Commission; Firelands Labor Management Committee; Meals-On-Wheels Management; First Director of Taxation, Plymouth, Ohio (receiving salary of$l); developed and enacted manual for Personnel Policies & Regulations for Service for Aging, Inc.; President of the Board of trustees Norwalk Area Food Bank (statuary agent/author of Not for Profit/tax exempt status); Erie-Huron County C.A.C. Chairman of the Board; Firelands Labor/Management Citizens Committee member; Willard Community Hospital board member. Episcopal Diocese of Ohio Area Chairman, Venture-in-Mission/Special Committee, Search for Bishop Coadjutor; Ohio Hunger Task Force; Forward Fund Committee; Cursillo; Chairman, Every Member Canvas; Commissioner, Stewardship Commission; Vestryman, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Norwalk, Ohio.
Although he was increasing inactive in recent years, he was a current member of all of the Masonic bodies: Blue Lodge and the Willard Ohio Chapter; Knight Templar, Norwalk; 32nd degree Mason, Scottish Rite and Shriner, Cleveland; Firelands Shrine Club. He was the past Director, Brotherhood of St. Andrew, Boston.
He was proceeded in death by his parents Eva Maude (Reed) Kelley and Frank Alvin Kelley; his older sister, Ethel Mae (Kelley) Stutz; his younger sister, Einora (Kelley) Gamer; and his wife of 62 years Mary Ellen (Glenn) Kelley. He is survived by his son Larry A. Kelley of the Washington DC area; and four daughters all of the Chicago area -Lynda K. Males, Patricia E. Kelley-Miller; Pamela S. Kelley-Broullard; and Deborah E. Keller; 9 grandchildren and 16 great-grand children.
“Twilight and evening star
And one clear call for me
May there be no mourning at the bar
As I put out to sea”
A memorial service for both Mary and Marshall will be held at a later date.
Secor Funeral Home in Willard, Ohio assisted the family with arrangements.