CATCHING UP WITH

Robert Kisner

I’ve run into former Monongah High classmates in West Virginia, Ohio, Virginia and Florida and in Mountaineer Field at WVU football games. This time one showed up on my doorstep, ringing my doorbell.

Robert Kisner, who started with the Class of 1950 but was at Fairmont East as a junior and then left high school to join the military, was the friendly face.

Bob Kisner, my friendly visitor

Bob served in the 25^th Infantry Division in Korea, which is where Joe Manzo, also Class of 1950, wound up as a medic. 

Bob said that, when they both were Thoburn School students, “Joe took me under his wing.”

Bob married a Fairmont East girl, Jean Harris, who passed away at the age of 50.

His second wife, for 31 years, is Patty Burge of Parkersburg, where the late Bob Fox, Class of 1948, super fullback for Monongah High football, lived till his 2014 passing. 

Bob Kisner and Patty lived all their married life in Brimfield Township, which is between Kent and Tallmadge, where I live, and near Akron, Ohio.

Bob has a son, Clyde Kisner, who lives in Seville, Ohio, which is 23 miles west of Akron, and a daughter, Doreen Kisner Johnson, who lives in Wadsworth, Ohio, 16 miles from Akron.

Bob and Jean have 15 to 20 grandchildren in their families. They multiply faster than Bob can count them.

Bob left West Virginia to work in the steel mills in Lorain, Ohio. He became a powerhouse engineer, which means he makes steam equipment and boilers work properly.

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Bob’s sister, Ellodean Kisner, passed away at the age of 13. His brother, Albert Kisner, passed away in 2001 in Lorain.

When I told Bob that I had another reunion with Kathryn Toothman Crim of Farwell, Michigan, Class of 1950, at the 2018 Monongah High Alumni Reunion last weekend in Fairmont, Bob spun this memory:

“One day (at Monongah High) we were turning in our math assignments and Reid (Crim, later Kathryn’s husband) reached around me and pinched Kathryn on the butt. She smacked him with her math book.”

And later married Reid, who served his country in the Air Force for a couple of decades before he passed away.

Kathryn’s siblings were Paul Albert Toothman, Class of 1948, who passed away in Mantua, Ohio and was born in Rivesville; Blanch Toothman, who passed away in Tennessee; and Melba Toothman Lowe, who lives in Minden, Louisiana. Their parents were Albert and Nila Toothman. 

If you want to contact Bob Kisner, his phone is (330) 678-5129. Like most Lions he turned out to be a great human being.