…ger (1937–51) and then as president (1951–53). When General Motors acquired the company in 1953, Armington remained as general manager of the Euclid Division, a maker of massive earth-moving equipment used in mining and construction projects around the world. He left in 1960 to establish Triax Company, which eventually became Webb-Triax, a maker of automated storage and handling equipment. Armington served on the boards of Case Western Reserve…

…hairman of the East Ohio Gas Company from 1966 to 1974. Born in Stahlstown, Pennsylvania, he graduated from Auburn University in 1943 with a degree in mechanical engineering. After serving in the Pacific with the Navy during World War II, he returned to Auburn as a member of the engineering faculty. His career in the gas industry began in 1949 when he joined the Gas Light Company in Columbus, Georgia, as an industrial engineer; in 1957, he…

…on. He served as chairman of the Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority, president of the Children’s Aid Society, president of University School and the Yale Scholarship Committee and vice chair of the Cleveland Council on World Affairs. He co-founded and chaired the Businessmen’s Interracial Committee, sat on the finance committee of the Cleveland Institute of Art, and served as chair of University Circle Inc., vice chair of University…

Before the United States entered World War I, John Closey Virden Jr. (1897–1981), then a student at University School, attempted to join the French air corps. His desire to serve would have to wait until May 1917, a month after the U.S. declared war on Germany, when Cleveland’s volunteer Lakeside Hospital Unit was the first to arrive in France. He was attached to the French army for training, winning his pilot’s wings, then…

…the military during World War I. He worked in the legal department of the Cleveland Automobile Club before joining the firm of Calfee, Fogg & White as a partner in 1927. For many years he was a member of the probate and trust committee of the Ohio State Bar Association, and in 1949–50 served as president of the Cleveland Bar Association. He was a director of Union Savings & Loan, vice president of the Family Service Association of…

…northeast Ohio and in 1945 was appointed operating VP. In 1950, he moved to Detroit to head Michigan Bell, returning to Cleveland two years later to serve as president of Ohio Bell. Before his retirement in 1958, Greene was trustee of a dozen community service groups and in 1942 had been voted Cleveland’s “First Citizen” for his work as president of the Welfare Federation. After retiring, he continued his philanthropic efforts,…

…an Army Air Forces rest facility in England during World War II. It was at the headquarters of the U.S. Eighth Army Air Force that she met Lt. Royal Firman Jr. They married in 1944. In addition to being a fine horsewoman and running a farm in Kirtland, Ohio, Firman devoted her energies to community service. She sat on the boards of the Cleveland chapter of the Red Cross, Planned Parenthood and Central School of Practical Nursing, and served as…

…cturer of machine tools and home appliances. In 1985, Sales and Marketing Executives of Cleveland named him Business Executive of the Year. Born in Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland, Holdt served with the U.S. Army in Europe during World War II and was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Bronze Star from the French government. After graduating from Dyke College in Cleveland, he went to work for Apex Electrical Manufacturing, which was acquired by White…