Tom Wiley

Journal article...

The man who won’t turn his back on Middletown

MIDDLETOWN — It’s hard to think of Middletown — at least the positive parts — and not envision Tom Wiley.
His fingerprints are everywhere in the city from the athletic complex at Middletown High School to the new elementary schools and, most recently, the remodeled Barnitz Stadium on South Main Street. In football terminology, he’s the “go-to-guy,” the player who always gets the first down.
If you have a wish list, and it involves students in the Middletown City Schools District, he’s your man.
Born and raised in Middletown, Wiley, 75, has spent most of his life paying the city back for his upbringing, the way the city opened doors for him, the way the city’s leaders, guys like Bud Weatherwax and Bill Verity, took him under their wings.
He was here during the “glory days,” the 1940s, 50s and 60s, and he’s still here today as the former All American City is going through a rebirth.
“The best of times,” is the way he describes his childhood. “What a wonderful place Middletown, Ohio was in every aspect back then. From the time I can remember, anything meaningful to me was always positive. It was positive, positive, positive. How can you not want to give back and love the community?”
This is where Wiley separates himself from most of the lifetime Middletown residents. He knows its rich history, and at the same time, he works to resurrect the city.
So even before he graduated from Middletown High in 1956, he made a lifetime promise: Never turn his back on his hometown.
He was president of the MHS Athletic Boosters Club when All-American Weekend, a July 4th celebration that during its 20-year run raised tens of thousands of dollars for the athletic fields at MHS, was founded; is on the board of the Pigskin-Roundball Spectacular, which distributes college scholarships that bear the name of his late son, Jeff; he was on the facilities committee that was instrumental in the district passing the levy that funded the building of its elementary schools; and five years ago, he laid the groundwork to raise more than $1.5 million in private funds to remodel Barnitz Stadium.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
For a guy who loves to talk, he rarely says “no.” If it’s a project that he believes in, he pushes all his chips in the middle of the table. I asked his wife, Lynne, although I already knew the answer, if she ever tries to corral Tom’s enthusiasm. She laughed.
“Never,” she said. “Why try?”
Gary Lebo, the high school athletic director, said Wiley never shies away from taking the important leadership role on projects.
“He’s very passionate about the district,” Lebo said. “You have to have people like him.”
His wife added: “He has a love of this town and the people who are in it.”
Wiley threw his support behind the renovations at Barnitz Stadium because he wanted it to become the “center for this community.” It’s his hope, he said, that football and soccer games, band competitions and fireworks will be held at Barnitz. He has been in conversations with the Ohio High School Athletic Association about bringing the state soccer tournament to Middletown.
If this doesn’t happen within the next three years, Wiley said people could “chase me down to the Ohio River.”
He said Middletown was the last school in the Greater Miami Conference to have a turf field. He doesn’t want the city to be last in anything.
“Our kids can’t be left behind,” he said. “I want our kids to have what the other kids have. When they don’t, that’s when I usually go to work. That burns inside me and I can’t let go.”
Tom and his wife met during their childhoods. They celebrate three anniversaries: around the time they met, when they started dating at Miami University and when they were married at First Presbyterian Church in Middletown. They have been married for 53. Been in love a lot longer.
I asked Tom if marrying Lynne was his best decision ever?
“You betcha,” he said.
And what’s No. 2?
“There are a of of great seconds, no close seconds.”
But Wiley, in some aspects, is no different than you and me. He has suffered terrible losses. He has buried a son.
And several years ago, Wiley, who always stood on the sidelines at Barnitz Stadium, was seriously injured when two Colerain players and one Middie accidentally collided into him while he was talking to a friend, and not watching the game. A few years later, because of complications from the injury and the effects of diabetes, Wiley lost his left leg.
Before his leg was amputated, Wiley said he drove home from vacation with his wife, fell asleep with his clothes on and he didn’t realize his leg was filled with gangrene. He was taken to Atrium Medical Center where he was in a coma for four days. Eventually, a doctor notified Wiley’s family — his wife, son, Rob, and daughter, Amy — and told them, he was near death.
That’s when Amy spoke up: “You don’t know my dad. He’s all old Middie.”
“I woke up and here I am,” he said.
It’s a good thing, too. The city wouldn’t be the same without him.

WHAT A GREAT PERSON. THIS MAN HAS GONE BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY FOR THIS CITY. I APPLAUD HIS ENTHUSIASM FOR HIS LOVE OF THE CITY. IT IS A SHAME OTHERS IN CONTROL DON'T FEEL THE SAME.

WE ARE 10 YEARS APART IN AGE. WE HAVE BOTH LIVED THROUGH THE SAME TIMES IN THIS CITY. WE HAVE BOTH EXPERIENCED THE GOOD, THE BAD AND NOW THE UGLY THAT HAS OCCURED IN THIS CITY. WE BOTH CARE ABOUT THE CITY, JUST SEE IT IN DIFFERENT WAYS. HE WANTS TO WORK ON IMPROVING THE MIDDLETOWN SCHOOLS DESPITE THE DOWNTURN IN ACADEMIC AND ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE. I WANT TO SEE SOME IMPROVEMENT IN BOTH AND FEEL THAT THE POWERS THAT BE HAVE HAD AMPLE TIME AND MONEY THROWN AT THEM TO HAVE MADE MEASURABLE IMPROVEMENT BY NOW, BUT HAVE NOT. HE REFUSES TO DRAW A LINE IN THE SAND AND SAY ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. I HAVE DRAWN A LINE IN THE SAND AND WOULD CHOOSE NOT TO HELP THEM THROUGH LEVY SUPPORT OR ANY OTHER MEANS OF SUPPORT. IMO, THEY HAVE BEEN "SUPPORTED" ENOUGH AND HAVE NOT BUDGED MUCH ABOVE GROUND ZERO. HOW MANY CHANCES DO THEY GET TO CHANGE THINGS? HOW MANY MORE DECADES DO THEY NEED TO MOVE TO ACCEPTABLE?

TWO DIFFERENT PEOPLE, TEN YEARS APART, HAVING SEEN THE SAME THINGS OVER THE YEARS, INCLUDING THE GREAT TIMES OF THE 50'S AND 60's, AGREEING ABOUT THE GOODNESS OF THE PAST, BUT HAVING TOTALLY DIFFERENT OPINIONS ABOUT THE SAME CITY THEY CARE ABOUT WITH TODAY'S SITUATION. I WOULD BE INTERESTED TO HEAR MR. WILEY'S OPINION, NOT SO MUCH ABOUT THE SCHOOLS AS ABOUT THE DIRECTION OF THE CITY. THE STORY DOESN'T MENTION MUCH IN THAT REGARD. AND SO IT GOES.......STILL, MR. WILEY IS A GREAT MAN WITH TREMENDOUS INTENTIONS. GOD BLESS HIM.