(From the Findlay City Schools Alumni Association)

Friday night, we gave out the Distinguished Alumni Award during halftime.

The purpose of the award is to recognize and honor graduates of Findlay High School who have made significant and noteworthy achievements as successful adults in their chosen careers and/or have served as benefactors to mankind.

Furthermore, the purpose is to give current students the opportunity to realize and appreciate the contributions made by those who have graduated before them.

Dr. Joyce Friesner Swisher was a skilled and accomplished single mother to five children and educator within Findlay City Schools.

A few highlights include becoming the Special Education Supervisor of Findlay City Schools during the 1970s and 1980s.

In addition, she and two of the learning disabilities teachers spent a summer in Baltimore, Maryland at the Johns Hopkins University to become certified in teaching the Orton-Gillingham Multi-sensory approach to reading, a method that helped her dyslexic son learn to read.

For her doctoral thesis, Dr. Swisher ran a free summer school for kids with dyslexia.

Dr. Swisher continued expanding special education access for the children in the Findlay City Schools and adults with learning disabilities who she taught in her home.

She was an adjunct professor at Bowling Green State University, Ohio Northern University and Findlay College, (University of Findlay).

She helped write and promote the perceptual motor program used by Findlay City Schools.

Dr. Swisher touched so many lives and taught so many to read who thought they couldn’t.