Alumni Hall of Fame
Service to St. Marys City Schools (2009)

Frank Dennings, a native of St. Marys, was a member of the Memorial High School Class of 1938. Mr. Dennings served the St. Marys City Schools for thirty-five years as a math and science teacher, McBroom Junior High School Principal, Assistant Superintendent and Superintendent of St. Marys City Schools. Mr. Dennings was a lifelong educator and passionate and dedicated advocate of vocational education.

Mr. Dennings attended Four Mile School, a one room school house, located on Koenig Road. It is here that Frank began his service to St. Marys City schools as a janitor. He would later serve as captain of the 1937 Western Buckeye League Championship St. Marys Memorial High School Roughriders football team. This was the first of many such league championships in this storied and tradition-rich football program.

Mr. Dennings graduated from Depauw University in 1942, with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Science and Education. Before returning to St. Marys, Frank served his nation during World War II as an officer of the United States Navy. Mr. Dennings went through Officer Candidates School at Columbia University and served as an executive officer on a sub chaser in the Pacific Ocean. In 1946, Frank Dennings would return to St. Marys where he would begin his career with the St. Marys City Schools, starting as a teacher and football coach. During those six years, Mr. Dennings spent his evenings and summers pursuing and earning his Master�s Degree in School Administration from Indiana University at Bloomington, teaching science courses at Depauw University, taking additional science courses at Brown University in Rhode Island, and working toward a Doctorate in Education at Bowling Green State University. His doctoral studies resulted in a Specialist Degree from Bowling Green State University. In 1952, Mr. Dennings would become the first principal of McBroom Junior High School, where he served for fourteen years. In 1966, he became Assistant Superintendent of Schools. In 1968, Mr. Frank Dennings was named Superintendent of St. Marys City Schools.

It was during his thirteen year superintendency that he tirelessly pursued vocational education to serve the needs of our agriculture and industrial-based economies in Auglaize and Mercer Counties. He faced multiple vocational education levy defeats at the ballot box. Eventually, the Tri-Star Career Compact was created, one of the first of its kind in the State of Ohio. In 1987, several years after his retirement, Mr. Dennings was honored for his tireless efforts on behalf of vocational education when the Tri-Star Career Compact building on McKinley Road in St. Marys was named the Frank Dennings Vocational Building. For many years after his retirement, Mr. Dennings continued to educate the youth of St. Marys by sharing his knowledge and passion for his mineral collecting, sea shell collecting and gardening hobbies.



It is for his distinguished and superior service to the St. Marys City Schools and tireless efforts in enhancing the vocational education of our proud blue collar communities, that Mr. Frank Dennings is inducted into the St. Marys Memorial High School Alumni Foundation Hall of Fame.

The above text, in its entirety, is embossed on a St. Marys Memorial High School Alumni Hall of Fame plaque permanently on display in Memorial High School.

Frank Dennings passed away in 1992.