Note: This story was last updated at 2:15 p.m.
CLINTON—A decision could be announced in January about whether to seek the death penalty for two Oak Ridge defendants charged with three counts of first-degree murder each in the gruesome kidnapping, rape, and murder of a 36-year-old woman.
Harold “Hal” Lloyd Davis, 91, of Oak Ridge, went to be with the Lord, December 7, 2021. He passed surrounded by his family following a short illness. Hal’s legacy of love for his family and passion for learning will stay with his family and friends forever.
Harold was born at home on September 18, 1930, to Bertha and Ray Davis in Portage, Ohio, and he grew up in the Buckeye State. From the very beginning, Harold had a strong passion and aptitude for education. He attended Portage Elementary School in Ohio, a school with three classes in one room and no indoor plumbing. In high school, he was bused from Portage to Bowling Green. He graduated in 1948 and started his college education at Bowling Green State University that fall.
In 1952, he interrupted his education to serve in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He performed personnel duties at the regimental level and was in charge of the regimental Morning Report; after all, he could type! He was honorably discharged as a staff sergeant in 1953 and returned to Bowling Green State University where he was awarded a B.S. (cum laude) in Physics in June 1954.
Never one to sit still, he spent the summer as a bricklayer working for various contractors in the vicinity of Bowling Green before enrolling as a physics graduate student at Ohio State University that fall. His drive to learn led to Harold passing a two-day test that allowed him to continue his studies toward a Ph.D. at Ohio State without taking time for a master’s degree. His formal education ended with Ohio State awarding Harold a Ph.D. in theoretical materials science on Friday June 12, 1959.
[Read more…]Scott Cummings, who led West to a Class 5A state championship in 2014, has been named head football coach at Oak Ridge High School.
Joe Gaddis announced his retirement as Oak Ridge football coach in November. He has been named interim athletic director.
Oak Ridge Schools announced the appointment of Cummings, who will replace Gaddis as football coach, on Monday.
A press release said Cummings was named head football coach at Knoxville West High School in 2002.
[Read more…]
Promo Joe by Jessica was named the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business of the Month for December. Craig Peters of Enrichment Federal Credit Union, sponsor of the monthly award, is pictured with Jessica Diveto, owner of Promo Joe by Jessica. (Submitted photo)
Promo Joe by Jessica was named the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business of the Month for December.
The monthly award is sponsored by Enrichment Federal Credit Union.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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Literacy grants for 2022 are now open for projects in Anderson and Roane counties. The grants are made possible by the annual Lunch for Literacy in Oak Ridge, a joint effort by Altrusa of Oak Ridge and the Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club.
Application packages must be received by January 15. If you would like an application or have questions, send an email to lunch4literacygrants@gmail.com or call Dean Cheatham at (760) 443-4379.
By Bob Fowler, Roane State staff writer
The new Anderson County Higher Education Center “is an example of what should be happening” to spur workforce development, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee told a large crowd on Friday, December 10.
Gesturing to students in the back who will be attending classes at the center starting in January, Lee thanked them for “pursuing the path you’re pursuing.
“The private sector drives what we’re doing here,” Lee told attendees crowded into the spacious classroom where diesel powered technology will soon be taught.
In the planning and construction stages for years, the center will soon offer several Roane State Community College and Tennessee College of Applied Technology Knoxville classes.
It’s a 48,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility where more than 200 students will be enrolled. It cost $11 million, and SL Tennessee, an auto parts manufacturer next door, donated seven acres for the center, located on Frank L. Diggs Drive in the Clinton/I-75 Industrial Park.
[Read more…]
The Oak Ridge Community Band performs at the recent Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony in A.K. Bissell Park on Dec. 1, 2021. (Submitted photo)
The Oak Ridge Community Band will play familiar holiday songs, and you will be able to sing along to favorite carols during a Christmas Concert on Sunday afternoon, December 12.
The family-friendly concert to ring in the holiday season will begin at 3:30 p.m. Sunday in the sanctuary of the First Baptist Church, and there is no admission fee, a press release said.
Among the compositions on Sunday’s program will be one of Leroy Anderson’s most popular holiday tunes, “Sleigh Ride,” in which you can not only hear the bells on the horse pulling the sleigh but the crack of the whip, the clip-clop of the horse’s hooves, and the horse’s distinctive neigh, the press release said. The band will also perform Robert Buckley’s arrangement of “Let the Bells Ring!” based on “Ukrainian Bell Carol,” Alfred Reed’s “Russian Christmas Music,” and Robert Smith’s arrangement of “All is Calm.” More holiday tunes performed by the band will be Leroy Anderson’s “A Christmas Festival,” Paul Lavender’s arrangement of “A Home Alone Christmas,” and John K. Evans’s “Angels We Have Heard on High.” [Read more…]
Jim Campbell, president of the East Tennessee Economic Council, is retiring March 31 after serving as president for 26 years. ETEC’s vice president, Tracy Boatner, has been selected to replace him.
The leadership change was announced Friday morning by Buddy Heins, ETEC board chair.
“We thank Jim for his many years of consistent and effective guidance of ETEC,” Heins said in a press release. “The growth and influence of Jim and ETEC in Oak Ridge, East Tennessee, and beyond have been truly remarkable. I, along with the Executive Committee, look forward to Tracy’s leadership of the organization in the months and years to come.”
ETEC members met in person to celebrate the 2020 winners of the Muddy Boot Award and Postma Young Professional Medal, originally awarded virtually last December. Also announced was the date for ETEC’s 2021 Annual Meeting and Awards Celebration, which will be February 4. At this end-of-year celebration, both Campbell and Boatner spoke about the leadership change.
“This has been fun,” Campbell said. “The metamorphoses of this region over the last generation are a wonder, and there are only greater things in store for the Oak Ridge Corridor in the generation to come.”
[Read more…]An Oak Ridge man and his two dogs were displaced following a fire at their Cedar Lane home early Wednesday morning.
The Oak Ridge Fire Department responded to the house at 2:56 a.m. Wednesday after the homeowner said a lithium battery was on fire in his living room.
Firefighters arrived on scene within three minutes of the call and found smoke and fire in the front of the residence, a press release said. Crews were able to contain the fire within 10 minutes, but there was significant smoke and heat damage throughout the home.
The man and his dogs were able to safely evacuate before the fire department arrived, the press release said. He credited his working smoke alarms for alerting him to the fire and allowing a safe exit.
[Read more…]
The Oak Ridge Police Department has charged three students with terrorism and threats of mass violence after they allegedly made school shooting threats in two separate incidents on social media on Monday and Tuesday.
The charges were filed in Anderson County Juvenile Court on Wednesday afternoon, and the court authorized the detention of the children in the Richard L. Bean Detention Facility in Knox County. The children were taken into custody Wednesday afternoon, Seventh Judicial District Attorney General Dave Clark said.
All three juveniles were charged with terrorism, threat of mass violence on school property, and false report. Two of the children were allegedly involved in a shooting threat posted on Snapchat on Monday, and they were also charged with conspiracy. That threat led to a lockdown at Oak Ridge High School on Monday. The third child was allegedly involved in a separate shooting threat that was posted on Snapchat on Tuesday, and that student will face the first three charges.
Clark said the children are required to have a detention hearing quickly under Tennessee law, and that hearing could occur as soon as Thursday afternoon in Anderson County Juvenile Court.
[Read more…]
Lighting candles at a previous Service of Memory and Hope at First Presbyterian Church in Oak Ridge. (Submitted photo)
A Service of Memory and Hope will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, December 14, in the sanctuary of First Presbyterian Church at 1051 Oak Ridge Turnpike. The public is invited. Face coverings will be required.
The service will feature music by local composer and pianist John Purifoy, Steve Boyce (vocal), and Anna Thomas (flute). They will present “Psalms of Comfort” using Purifoy’s musical arrangements of select Psalms for the occasion, a press release said.
Emily Anderson, pastor of New Providence Presbyterian Church in Maryville, will share a brief meditation. [Read more…]
An ORICL course during the winter-spring term will explore Zentangle, a fun, easy-to-learn, relaxing method of drawing beautiful images with structured patterns. As a meditational art form, every Zentangle stroke is mindful rather than mindless (like doodling). (Submitted photo)
Would you like to learn about fascinating characters in Oak Ridge history and in the Old West, as well as hear the voices of those who shaped the Golden Age of Radio? Are you familiar with the story about the Oak Ridge Wildcats football team that won the national championship in 1958?
Would you like to learn the best ways to research your family’s history and identify potential ancestors? Do you know all sides of the gun issue in our country? Do you wish to hear from a former Oak Ridge mayor and his wife how to run a local political campaign?
These and other interesting topics will be addressed in courses that will be taught during the winter-spring term of the Oak Ridge Institute for Continued Learning (ORICL), a press release said. Most of the smorgasbord of 65 courses will be presented in person but a few will be online via Zoom or as hybrid classes (in person and online). ORICL’s in-person and hybrid classes will be held mostly in the Coffey-McNally building on Roane State Community College’s Oak Ridge Branch Campus at 701 Briarcliff Avenue.
The fall catalog is posted on ORICL’s www.roanestate.edu/oricl website. The registration form and calendar are also posted there, the press release said. Online registration opened Tuesday, December 7. Paper registrations can be brought to the office or mailed by December 14. The office will be closed from December 15 to January 3. [Read more…]
