Bill Briggs always had a heart for the poor
ZANESVILLE - The 1960s was a time of racial rioting throughout the U.S. and Ohio witnessed its fair share of violence. By 1966, Bill Briggs had been called to serve as director of the Northeast Inner-City Mission in Canton. From 1967 to 1969 things were pretty bad, Bill s wife, Dottie, said. The mayor at the time, Stanley Cmich had recruited Lee Anderson - a black man - to create activities to deter racial rioting in Canton. Bill was part of that effort called Operation Positive. They provided a youth recreation program and training program for low-income adults. As a consequence, Canton was spared the riots that were happening at that time.
The nation had not yet been catapulted into World War II.
In Youngstown, there was squabbling over accusations of voter fraud. British teenagers boys and girls were gearing up for military service. In Canton, Lillian Herman, the 47-year-old wife of Trinity Lutheran Church Pastor E.C. Herman, died tragically from a cerebral hemorrhage.
That same day, the city also received a new resident, Don Stock.
To mark his 80th birthday, Stock s granddaughter Jessica Morford bound 80 front pages of the Canton Repository into book form one Jan. 29 edition of the front page from each year from the past last 80 years.
Stock, who shares a birthday with President William McKinley, said his granddaughter, who grew up in Shaker Heights and now lives in Denver, surprised him with the book in February.