Centerville woman among Ohio Senior Citizen Hall of Fame inductees

CENTERVILLE — A Centerville woman is among a group of Ohioans being inducted into the Ohio Senior Citizen Hall of Fame this week.

Martha Boice, of Centerville, will be one of 15 people inducted Wednesday.

The Ohio Senior Citizen Hall of Fame honors “the vital role older adults play in their communities, our state, and the nation,” according to the Ohio Department of Aging.

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Boice has spent more than 50 years saving historic buildings and landmarks in southwest Ohio. In 1972, she saved the David Watkins-George Sears House from being demolished by a developer.

While she worked to preserve the David Watkins-George Sears House, a 150-year-old house, Boice lead the creation of Centerville’s National Register District. The Ohio Department of Aging said it marked Montgomery County’s first National Register District.

“She then trained a committee to tour historic houses and find records from local government offices, court cases, estate packets, and library archives. The committee’s work led to publishing a book in 1977 titled ‘A Sense of Place’ about the historic homes in Centerville and Washington Township,” her inductee biography stated.

Boice has help found several historical preservation organization, including Landmarks Foundation of Centerville-Washington Township, the Western Shaker Study Group and the Friends of White Water Shaker Village.

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Ohio Heritage named Boice a Preservation Hero in 2016. She’s also been given the Excellence in Public Education and Awareness award from the State Historic Preservation Office of the Ohio History Connection and has been named Volunteer of the Year for the Dayton-Montgomery County Park District.

Boice and 14 others will be inducted into the Ohio Senior Citizen Hall of Fame Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. at the Ohio Statehouse.

You can read Boice’s full biography here.

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