NEWS

Art Sale 001Dozens of pieces of art created by longtime New Carlisle Pastor Joe Quinn were displayed Saturday afternoon at Honey Creek Presbyterian Church as part of an art sale, with proceeds going to assist Quinn’s daughter Mary as she undergoes a battle against breast cancer.

Reverend Quinn arrived in town in 1967, when he took the role of Pastor at Honey Creek, and began to immerse himself in New Carlisle culture, becoming a household name in the area, especially among the Tecumseh football community. Quinn was known as the “voice of the Tecumseh Arrows,” having acted as the announcer at all football and basketball games from 1970 until 1994.

Quinn also bestowed upon each graduating Tecumseh High School football player a personalized pen and ink sketch of them in action. These sketches, which grew to become quite coveted among the high school football team, were each signed by Quinn himself.

Mary Quinn now resides in Park Layne and is still a member of the church that her father served from 1967 until his death in 2000. She said her breast cancer diagnosis was “unexpected,” as it was found during routine surgery earlier this spring. She said doctors discovered a golf ball-sized tumor and removed it, and she began chemotherapy in June to ensure that the cancer had not spread.

Mary said her oncologist is optimistic and does not expect that it will spread to other parts of her body, and that the chemotherapy is being performed as a precaution.

Mary said that her father never took an art class in his entire life, as his abilities were quite natural and self-taught. She said that her father and his brother contracted scarlet fever while they were just children, and that they were given art kits during their recuperation period. She said that her father and uncle spent their recovery “sitting on the bed and drawing”, noting that she believed this to be the instance that laid the foundation for her father’s passion of creating art using pen and ink as well as watercolors.

Many pieces displayed at the sale depicted Quinn’s time spent in Ireland. Mary said he traveled there in 1971 with a network of Presbyterian choirs from the Dayton area. She said they stayed with different parishioners in Ireland, and many of the scenes were captured in stunning detail by Quinn’s own hand.

Mary also discussed her parents’ contribution to the Tecumseh district, as her mother Beverly served on the Tecumseh Board of Education for 22 years. Her father, along with acting as the announcer for sporting events, received the Tecumseh Citizenship Award in 2000, and also taught marriage and family classes and conducted mock weddings at the high school.

Dave Suther of the Medway Area Historical Society attended the art show and told Mary of one of her father’s other claims to fame, saying that Quinn was the mastermind behind the design of Tecumseh’s Circle-T emblem.

When asked if it was difficult to part with her father’s works of art, Mary said she had kept the pieces with special sentimental significance, including a piece Joe had done specifically for her mother, which was a faraway depiction of a woman walking down a street by herself. Mary said that Madge Shellhaus of The Card Depot had this piece hanging in her shop for many years and insisted that Mary take it.

Reverend Shelley Wiley of Honey Creek Presbyterian said the art sale raised $1,130 which will be contributed to Mary’s recovery.

Several pieces of Reverend Quinn’s artwork remain, and anyone with interest in purchasing a piece should call the church at 937-845-1298.

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