Fred W. Nall — 02/04/10 » Editorials » Daily Independent (Ashland, KY)

Editorials

Discussion

February 3, 2010

Fred W. Nall — 02/04/10

Businessman did much for the area during his long life

Anonymous The Daily Independent Wed Feb 03, 2010, 02:59 PM EST

Fred W. Nall spent more than 40 years as an employee and executive of Ashland Inc., retiring in 1985 as vice president of Ashland Coal. However, Fred Nall’s most positive impact on this community may have come from what he did after his retirement.

Nall died Thursday. Although 90 at the time of his death, he remained active until late in his long life. His funeral was Tuesday.

After his retirement from Ashland Inc., Nall became interested in providing quality care for the elderly and disabled. That led him to build and oversee Woodland Oaks Health Care Facility in Ashland, Oakmont Manor in Flatwoods, Martin County Health Care in Inez, and Middlesboro (Ky.) Health Care. While we don’t know enough about them to judge the quality of the homes in Inez and Middlesboro, both Woodland Oaks and Oakmont Manor are among the best nursing homes in this region and have received recognition from the state for the quality of their care for the elderly and the disabled.

Nall took a deep, personal interest in Alzheimer’s, and because of that interest, he developed a close working relationship with University of Kentucky physician William Markesbery, a respected Alzheimer’s researcher. Ironically, Markesbery died just two days after Nall.

His intense interest in sufferers of Alzheimer’s and their families led Nall to open an Alzheimer’s wing at Woodland Oaks, the first care facility in this region to offer special care for those with the debilitating disease that impacts the mind but not the body.

Nall also was extremely active in his church, First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Ashland. He served in nearly every leadership position in his church and also in statewide leadership offices for the denomination. He also was on the board of trustees for Lexington Theological Seminary, the main seminary for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

Nall also was a former member of the Ashland Board of Education and was on the Advisory Board of Vocational Education, which helped oversee the former Ashland Area Vocational-Technical School, which is now part of Ashland Community and Technical College. While many years have passed since Nall’s time on the Ashland school board, he served during a time when the system developed a statewide reputation for its outstanding academic and athletic programs.

Fred Nall could be gruff and was not the easiest person with whom to work. But he got things done and helped make this a better community in which to live — and to die.

Text Only

Editorials

Charles Chattin
Before it merged with Ashland Community College to form Ashland Community and Technical College as a result of the 1997 Higher Education Reform Act, the Ashland Area Vocational-Technical School compiled an impressive record for teaching job skills to young adults and placing more than 85 percent in jobs for which they were trained.

February 10, 2012
Try again
It is time for Kentucky Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, and Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, to cease playing political games and redraw district lines that are compact and are based far more on population changes during the first decade of this century than on partisan politics.

February 9, 2012
'Asset poor'
More than one in four Kentucky households are “asset poor,” meaning that they are living from paycheck to paycheck with little or no financial cushion to fall back on should they suddenly lose their jobs or have another emergency resulting in a temporary loss of or delcine in income.

February 7, 2012
Safer mines
The head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) says coal operators throughout the country are improving their operations and, as a result, mines are becoming safer. However, MSHA chief Joe Main said too many coal operators still “don’t get it” and are continuing to cut costs by ignoring safety. That’s why MSHA plans to continue targeting mines with a history of repeated violations for additional inspections.

February 7, 2012
Not far enough
For the past three sessions of the Kentucky General Assembly, bills that would raise the minimum dropout age from 16 to 18 have been approved by the Kentucky House of Representatives by wide bipartisan margins only to die in the Senate without even a vote.
Now the Senate Education Committee has unanimously approved a dropout bill hailed as an alternative to the House bill, but it does not go nearly far enough. It is a halfway measure that would have only a limited effect on preventing teenagers from quitting high school before graduation and virtually assuring themselves of lives on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.

February 6, 2012
Not their job
The local government committee of the Kentucky House of Representatives has wisely killed a bill — dubbed “Cooper’s Law” — that would have allowed the family of the Lexington toddler with cerebral palsy to have a playhouse on their property despite a deed restriction that apparently prohibits such structures.

February 6, 2012
Keeping FADE
Despite an increase in cost to the department, Carter County Sheriff Casey Brammell told the Carter County Fiscal Court that his department will continue to be active in the FIVCO Area Development Drug Enforcement (FADE) Task Force — at least for now.

February 4, 2012
Needed changes
The soaring enrollment that Kentucky’s community and technical colleges have experienced in recent years could come to a sudden end — or at least be slowed — as about 5,500 students in the statewide system that includes Ashalnd Community and Technical College are expected to lose their financial aid under new rules being implemented by the federal government.

February 3, 2012
Released early
While it is disappointing that 75 of the 952 prisoners granted early release in January have violated the terms of their releases, the good news is that none of the former inmates have been charged with new felonies. That’s an early, but positive, indication that the nonviolent felons released before their sentences were up have been carefully selected and are among those least likely to return to a life of crime.

February 2, 2012
Obese children
Almost a decade after former Gov. Ernie Fletcher called childhood obesity an “epidemic” in Kentucky, a majority of Kentucky adults still think that there are too many overweight children in the state and they place the bulk of the blame squarely on the shoulders of their parents.

February 1, 2012
More Editorials Headlines

Editorials

Search Results

Discussion

Fred W. Nall — 02/04/10

Businessman did much for the area during his long life

Site Map

Contact Us