GREENFIELD — Jason Horning didn’t mind sharing his dad when he was a kid.
His father, Ron Horning, spent nearly three decades as a program director and then executive director at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Hancock County, playing a father figure to the hundreds of kids who came and went over the years.
“Me and my brother (Eric) both got to see him act as a father figure and an influential person to many, many kids in the community as we were growing up,” said Horning, deputy chief of operations for the Greenfield Fire Territory.
“He really genuinely cared about the youth and the community. That’s how he spent most of his career,” he said.
Ron Horning died Feb. 17, four days after his 74th birthday, after struggling with health issues since early December.
Those who knew him remember him as a man who was fully devoted to his family and his community.
“My dad was a very giving person. I could go on and on about what a great person he was,” Jason Horning said.
The elder Horning first joined the local Boys & Girls Clubs as program director in 1977, serving seven years in that role before being promoted to executive director, a job he’d hold for the next 20 years.
After retiring from the club in 2004, Horning spent several years as a Realtor. In 2006 he was elected Center Township trustee, with 70% of the vote, a position he held until resigning in December due to declining health.
“He thoroughly enjoyed serving as trustee. I believe that he was able to get a lot of satisfaction from helping the less fortunate people in our community through that position,” said Jason Horning, his eldest son.
In his role at the Boys & Girls Clubs, “the biggest thing he enjoyed there was those kids. Everything that he did there — the blood, sweat and tears that he put in that place — was for the kids and the community,” he said.
“He really poured his heart and soul into that place, and made sure that they had a really positive environment to be able to go to, because not all kids have a positive environment at home.”
Horning recalls seeing his dad working with kids who couldn’t afford a membership, which was $13 at the time, giving them tasks to do around the club to work off the payment, teaching them self-respect and discipline at the same time.
“He did all kinds of things like that. He’d take kids home, pick kids up. He also started the busing program they have now, where they bus kids from school to the Boys & Girls Club, because he didn’t feel it was safe for them to be walking around town,” his son recalled.
His dad also started the summertime free lunch program at the club, after noticing that many kids were there all day and would go without food. He enlisted the help of civic and community organizations to get the program started.
Several years after Horning retired from the Boys & Girls Clubs, the basketball court at the club was renamed in his honor.
Robb Reed, who now serves as unit director at the youth center, 715 E. Lincoln St., remembers looking up to Horning as a kid playing ball at the club. Seeing Horning around town always brought back those warm memories he had as a kid growing up at the club, he said.
“That’s the thing with Ron. I don’t think he ever lived anywhere outside the community, so you saw him everywhere,” said Reed, who said Horning was easy to spot given his ever-present mustache.
“It was always good to see him because he always made you feel like he still knew you, that you still had a connection to this place. Even if you just saw him from a distance, you could still feel like that support was still there,” he said.
Now, as a member of the club staff, Reed is grateful for all the positive programs Horning implemented during his time there.
“All the stuff he put into place here gave kids the opportunity to explore something, and taught the same character and leadership skills that we’re still promoting today,” he said.
Steve Leonard, who took over Horning’s position as Center Township trustee, said Horning will be greatly missed by the community.
“Ron fulfilled all of his duties as trustee well, but it seemed to me his passion for the job was assisting those in the community who needed it the most,” Leonard said.
“He was so helpful to me personally as I was preparing to assume the trustee position, even insisting on meeting with me in the office one Saturday morning after he had just been released from the hospital. I’ll never forget his kindness to me,” he said.
