The 2024/ 2025 Speaker Series is Scheduled! 

 

Monthly Speaker Series 2024 - 2025 

Third Tuesday (usually) of the month   **   Free & open to the public!

RecPlex West Theater (Rec West)

965 Miamisburg Centerville  Rd.

 Reception 6:30 p.m.        Program 7:00 p.m.

Enjoy refreshments and historical education. 

Donations welcome and appreciated.

**NOTE -- Please enter on the south side of the building using the east doors that are closest to the theater. Park between the Subaru dealership and the building for the shortest walk.

2024/2025 Speaker Series Schedule (pdf)

September 17, 2024
Angie Hoschouer Berghuis
Patterson, Kettering, Cox and Wright Brothers: The drive & passions of Dayton's most eccentric men

This program follows the book The Grand Eccentrics by Mark Bernstein. It highlights the lives of John H. Patterson, Charles F. Kettering, Gov. James M. Cox, and Orville & Wilbur Wright. Discover the drive and passions of Dayton’s most eccentric men and how they acted and interacted with one another. 

Angie Hoschouer Berghuis is a historian, public speaker, community volunteer, and a lifelong Daytonian. She is a member of the Heritage Committee at First Baptist Church which is celebrating its 200th anniversary in 2024, and is currently the neighborhood liaison for Grafton Hill Neighborhood Association and Preservation Dayton.  

October 15, 2024

Sara Kaushal 
Dayton Ghosts & Legends

All towns have their legends and Dayton is no exception. Author Sara Kaushal will share facts surrounding some long-told ghost stories and legends from Dayton featured in her new book, Dayton Ghosts and Legends. Highlights may include tales from the Sorg Opera House, stories of phantom truck drivers in Englewood, or reports of the famed Butter Street Monster roaming Germantown. Hear these and other stories along with the facts behind some of Dayton’s most fascinating tales. 

As a native Daytonian and avid historian, author Sara Kaushal has enjoyed uncovering little-known facts about Dayton, its history, and its residents. Her first book, Murder and Mayhem in Dayton and the Miami Valley, was initiated through researching for the blog ‘Dayton Unknown’, founded in 2014. Her second book, Dayton Ghosts & Legends, is a compilation of thorough research of Dayton area ghost stories and other legends. 

November 19, 2024

Ken Serey

What’s the Story: Soldiers War Memories!

‘WHAT’S THE STORY?’ is a collection of first-hand stories from Ohio veterans who answered the call when our country needed them in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. True stories from the Veterans who were there:

• The first man to land on Omaha Beach.
• A detailed account of the Battle of the Bulge from a member of the 101st. Airborne “Band of the Brothers.”
• A pilot’s description of the firebombing of Japan.
• The treasures found at Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest hideaway.
• A Merchant Marine’s story of surviving a torpedo attack.
• The soldier who took on a Panzer tank-without ammunition - and won.
• German POW camps in Ohio.

Ken Serey is an author and proud husband of almost fifty years with two grown children and five grandchildren. He lives in Tipp City, Ohio. Ken and his brother had an independent business to help thousands of blind and visually impaired men and women by giving them the capability to see, read, and resume normal life. As he worked with veterans, he invited them to share their personal, moving, dramatic stories.

 

 

  January 21, 2025

Andrew Lloyd

Joe Desch – WWII Codebreaker –
Oakwood’s Unsung Hero

 

 

February 18, 2025

Mike Williams
The Rise & Fall of George Remus, America’s First Millionaire Bootlegger

 

March 18, 2025

Jim Charters

1913 Dayton Flood

 

April 15, 2025

Don Aukerman

Discovering the Industrial Town of Woodbourne

 

May 20, 2025

Tom Morrow

The Rise & Fall of Dayton’s Streetcars

 

  

Previous Presentations available on YouTube:

A Canal for the West: The Miami & Erie Canal by Andy Hite  Watch this presentation on YouTube

Christmas Truce on the Western Front - WWI  by Bill Albers  Watch this presentation on YouTube

Frontier Between the Miamis: Pioneers in Ohio 1783-1800 by Paul Cooper Watch this presentation on YouTube

Ida Weller - A Woman Ahead of Her Time by Ed Ross Watch this presetation on YouTube

Post-1908 Trip into the Wright Brothers’ "Clunky" Business Affairs by Ed Roach Watch this presentation on YouTube

A Vietnam Memoir - Adventures of an American Red Cross ‘Donut Dolly’ 1968-1969 by Rosemary Thurnder Schwoebel Watch this presentation on YouTube

May 21, 2024

Billy Ring, Miamisburg Fire Dept. Capt. (Ret.)

July 1986 - Miamisburg Railroad Chemical Tank Car Fire

At 4:25pm on July 8, 1986, a 44 car Baltimore & Ohio railroad freight train, traveling at 45 miles per hour southbound to Cincinnati, derailed near Miamisburg, Ohio. Some of the cars contained white phosphorus forcing city officials to evacuate 17,500 people from Miamisburg and nearby towns on Tuesday. Wednesday afternoon, after all but a few hundred people had returned, the fire flared again and more than 30,000 people spent Wednesday night and Thursday morning away from their homes, causing one of the largest evacuations to occur in Ohio’s history, up to that date. Mr. Ring will take us step-by-step through the entire incident and show us actual video footage of the events that occurred.

Mr. Billy Ring is a lifelong resident of Miamisburg, Ohio. In 1995 he retired from the Miamisburg Fire Dept. after 27 years of service. He also retired from the Dayton Regional Hazardous Materials Response Team as a HAZMAT Coordinator, serving both Montgomery and Greene Counties. He has served on the Miamisburg High School Tech Prep Advisory Committee and on the Sinclair Community College Safety Risk Management Advisory Committee. He is currently serving as an Instructor for U.S. Department of Labor’s OSHA 10- & 30-Hour Course Training Certifications. Mr. Ring owns and operates his own business, The Administrative & Technical Services LLC, an industrial safety, consulting and training service. Ring has been a presenter & speaker at numerous conventions, conferences, and workshops for over 40 years. 

19th Century Quakers in Southwest Ohio by Tanya Maus (click for YouTube video of presentation)

FDR’s Confidential Crusader by Mike Williams - Watch the presentation on YouTube

Hidden History of Dayton by Tony Kroeger - Watch the presentation on YouTube

The War in Ukraine and the Future of Geopolitics by General John R. Allen - Watch the presentation on YouTube

 Enjoy videos of our 2020/2021 speakers on YouTube