Ice Dancing in Troy

(click here to read previous story: The First Son)

When the Boyer family moved from Cuyahoga Falls to Troy, OH in 1960 (or '61), they came with two baby girls.  In their short time in Troy, they welcomed their first son to the world, and when they moved back to Cuyahoga Falls in the summer of 1965, they brought back two little girls and their new baby boy.

However, an accounting of the family's years in Troy would not be complete without stories of Liz and Dinon's involvement in the skate club at the Hobart Arena.

Hobart Arena in Troy, OH
(Source)

"It was a big part of our social life in Troy," Dinon said.  "Most of the people that belonged to it were pretty well-to-do, so we rubbed shoulders with the [higher-ups].  I was personnel manager of the plant down there, so I guess that was high enough to warrant me being able to join."

Dinon especially was deeply involved in the club and participated on all levels, from casual skating to competitive ice-dancing, from records keeping to managing the annual ice show.  

"We heard about the skating club when we moved to Troy.  I don't remember who mentioned it or told us about it, but I said to Liz that that would be a fun thing to do," Dinon said.  "So every week we had lessons from the [local] skating pros [who did the choreography for the ice show], and they would teach us different moves, and then we had some free time to skate around and do what we wanted.  So, it was an enjoyable time to go there and learn.  We'd get a babysitter for the kids, and then we'd go skating."

He liked it so much he brought coworkers with him, too.

"I remember there was an engineer that we hired from India, so he had hardly ever seen ice or snow.  So I enticed him to join the skating club," Dinon said, chuckling.  "He was so scared, he would hold on to the edge all the way around, and if he started at all to fall, why, he'd grab on with both hands!"

Liz never liked ice skating quite enough to go by herself, but Dinon often went alone during open skating just for the exercise.

Carol Heiss, winner of the gold medal
in the 1960 Olympics and
five-times world champion (1956-1960)

"For fifty cents, you could get in for the whole evening, so it was real cheap entertainment," Dinon said.  "I'd go for exercise and skate fast and really work up my energy level, and maybe work on one of the moves that I would have to do in the ice show ... I was never gonna be one that could twirl or do some of these things, but regular skating, yeah, I enjoyed that."

The skating club put on an ice show for the community every year, pulling out all the stops.  "We got props and costumes and we always had somebody who was well-known, a top-notch skater, come out - Carol Heiss came and skated for us one year."

Dinon had loved to go out dancing when he was in college, so it was hardly surprising when he ended up competing in the ice show one year.

"The lowest level of ice dancing is skating the Dutch Waltz," Dinon said.  "Oh, I loved the Dutch Waltz.  I mean, when I was in college, I danced a LOT.  [For the competition] I skated with another woman, a single lady, I don't remember her name now, but she and I practiced.  Liz wasn't really a good enough skater to do it, she couldn't concentrate enough [because] of her ADD.  So anyhow, this other woman and I skated to the Dutch Waltz, and we got our names put on the trophy - it's permanently there, and we were the first ones to get on to it.  I think they had several couples dancing the Dutch Waltz and we did it the best.  I enjoyed it.  I never advanced beyond that, because the other dances were, well, they were more complicated.  Part of the time you were skating backwards or twirling or something, and that was beyond my skill.  But I loved to dance, so I'd make these real wide curves, and had a ball, because the Dutch Waltz was something I could master."

Diagram of the Dutch Waltz
(Source)

He liked the experience well enough to repeat it and performed on ice again.  In March of 1963, Dinon ice-danced in lederhosen at the Alpine Festival's International Ice Review.  All of the skaters in the Review received a 12-inch tall copper mug with the inscription of the event and date - and it still sits in a place of honor, on a high shelf in Dinon's study.  "I've always kept this," he said.

The club appealed to Dinon for many reasons, from his natural love for dancing to his meticulous attention to detail.

"Part of the time I was in the club, I kept track of the levels of the various skaters," Dinon said, "and these records were very important as they progressed.  For a while I judged the figure eights, and I kept the records for one year.  It was fun, it was just an enjoyable thing to do."

He even volunteered to manage the ice show one year.

"Different people became the general manager of the show ... it didn't really rotate, but different people volunteered, and we always had a budget, and we'd get different things - some for costumes, some for special lighting - I mean, all kinds of things," Dinon said.

Now, there are two important things to remember about Dinon: first, that he was raised by frugal Depression-era parents and second, that he is naturally very literal and extraordinarily detail-oriented.  Therefore, when Dinon Boyer is given a budget, he sticks to that budget.  Period.

"During the time I was there, the only year that the club made money was when I ran the ice show," Dinon said with evident pride.  "And I ran it with an iron fist.  We had a budget, and we all agreed on it, and I kept them to the budget, so we didn't have any wild spending like we always did other years.  Somebody always wanted to do something, and in the past they'd say, 'Yeah, go ahead,' and they'd do it and submit the bill and be way over budget.  So I was determined that we were gonna be on or below budget, and that we were gonna come out and have some money for the club.  And I accomplished that because I kept tabs on what the different groups were spending and doing, and kept reminding them about the amount of money they had, and I told them that if they wanted to do more they had to get innovative about it because they only had this amount of money ... and it worked.  We had a good show, we made money, so that was my legacy to the skating club."

It's a legacy he's proud of, and in line with the rest of his life.  Dinon was always an excellent provider for his family and wife.  And, decades laters, he still takes pride in having been a good provider during that ice show for the skating club he loved in Troy.

"It was a good time.  I'm glad we had the opportunity," Dinon said.  "After we got transferred back to Cuyahoga Falls from Troy, we tried to find a place to skate nearby.  We found out Kent State had a rink, but it was never in really good shape.  I don't remember if they even had a zamboni or not.  We soon lost interest in going out to Kent.  We probably had other priorities."

(to be continued)

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Baby Diann

Baby Diann and Daddy Dinon

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New Wife, New Life)

After two years of marriage, baby Diann Elizabeth arrived as a belated Christmas present to her parents on December 26th of 1957.

Mama Liz and Baby Diann

"I was pretty happy about it," Dinon said.  "She was planned, I was through with grad school, and I was working for Goodrich.  We were living up in Cuyahoga Falls, which is next to Akron on the north side.  We were in a small apartment on the second floor of the house that we later bought, but, at the time, we were renting."

Since Dinon was the oldest child for his mother, who was herself an only child, this meant that Diann was a highly-celebrated first grandchild.  The abundance of baby photos, and the level of doting around Diann in each, speaks to the same.

Diann took after her father's light hair color and by her first birthday it hung in a thick blonde bowl above her chubby cheeks. For her birthday, Diann happily sat in a high chair at the same table her father had grown up around, and a big round cake, frosted in white, sat on the table with a single lit candle in the center.

Baby Diann with
Grandma Alma 'Babe' Boyer

"We were glad to have her," Dinon said.  "She was a pretty happy child."

Blessed with the financial stability of Dinon's job, the young family of three took a camping vacation to the Gaspé Peninsula in the autumn of 1958.

The Gaspé Peninsula, a piece of Canadian land northeast of the state of Maine, runs along the St. Lawrence River and ultimately overlooks the St. Lawrence Gulf. North of Maine, it is, as one might expect, rather cold in September.  However, this detail did not deter Liz from making sure that Diann remained clean on their camping trip.

"Liz was pregnant with Sharon when we were on vacation, and she didn't realize she was pregnant at the time.  And Liz, on that trip, Liz thought that the baby needed to be bathed every day, every single day," Dinon said, beginning to laugh.  "This is fall in Canada.  Picture Diann, bare as can be, and Liz is bundled up with a jacket and everything trying to stay warm, and then we've got Diann out there in a pan because she had to be bathed.  Liz and I laughed about that later – it’s a wonder Diann survived.  I mean, she didn't get sick or anything.   I mean, it's just [that Liz was a] new mother and she thought that that was the thing you had to do.  Oh golly..."

Baby Diann with
Great-Grandma Henness

Diann was also the only one of Liz's children to meet her father, Joseph Marshall, a handsome English immigrant with a beautiful singing voice.

Liz's parents, Joseph and Ernestine Marshall, had separated in September of 1942 due to infidelity on Joseph's part.  Liz, the youngest of four, was just eleven years old at the time.  The children continued to live with their mother when Joseph moved out; Liz did not maintain a close relationship with her father, even though both parts of the family lived near Boston.

Liz, Diann and Dinon
in front of their home
in Cuyahoga Falls, OH

"We did see her dad after Diann was born, Diann was just a little baby," Dinon recalled. "I think it was the first time I met him.  And he was remarried.  I do remember seeing him, and him holding Diann, but he died shortly thereafter."


In September of 1959, Joseph died at the age of 61.  "We didn't get a chance to go to the funeral because we were in Ohio and it was down in the Boston area," Dinon said.  In addition to the +650 miles and 21-month-old Diann, Dinon and Liz had also recently added a fourth member to their family.  Baby Sharon, born in April of '59, was just 5 months old at the time of Joseph's passing.  "At that stage, it was a big deal to travel that distance, so we just couldn't do it," Dinon said.  


After the news of Joseph's passing, the small Boyer family of four settled back into their routine in Cuyahoga Falls, OH, unaware of the coming medical challenges for their newest daughter.

(Next story: Family of Four)

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Wedding day cake: August 26, 1955

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In May of 1955, Dinon was released from the army after 21 months of service.  Three months later, on August 26th, 1955, he married Liz Marshall.

After leaving the army, Dinon decided that he wanted to use his G.I. Bill benefits in order to return to school.  So, in the autumn of 1955, Dinon found himself at the University of Wisconsin once again, this time in the two-year graduate program for his master's degree in business.

The young Boyer couple decided to wait until after Dinon finished graduate school before having any kids.  While Dinon was studying, Liz was working at a nearby church as the church secretary.  Their first year of marriage was a quiet one and the biggest speed bump they ran into was Liz's tonsillectomy.

"We were newly married, and we found out that she had to have her tonsils removed.  So she said, 'Well, I'll have it done on a Friday so I can be back to work on Monday' ... but it was a week from Monday before she got back!"  Dinon laughed. "We don't heal like we're kids, it just takes more time.  It was funny, because she was SURE she was going to be able to recuperate over the weekend.  It was kind of fun to tease her a little bit about what she had said."

Young Liz and Dinon

All that year, Dinon worked hard in the two-year graduate program and, impressively, managed to earn his master's degree in a single year.

After graduating in 1956, Dinon accepted a job offer to work at Goodrich in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, where for the next ten years he was the personnel manager. It was a career that constantly frustrated inquisitive Liz.

"Liz used to get upset when I wouldn't tell her what was going on in the office," Dinon said.  "I said that she might have contact with some of the other spouses of people in the office, and they might ask her a question, and the way she responds might give it away, and it was supposed to be very confidential.  The only safe thing was - just don't tell her!"

The young couple moved to Ohio at the end of 1956, and in March of 1957 Liz became pregnant with their first child - a little girl they named Diann.

(Next story: Baby Diann)

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