…Holland and Springfield Township Recollections
Editor’s Note: This is another in a series of stories on mayors of the Village of Holland. Holland-Springfield-Spencer Historical Society President Karla Miller submitted this story as part of the village’s centennial celebration this year.
Each month, the column will feature one of a dozen mayors the village has had over the past 100 years. This month’s story is about Mayor Ronald Manley.
The 11th mayor of Holland was Ronald James Manley born August 26, 1935 in Holland, to Karl Elmer Manley, born 1912 in Holland, and Adelyn Sylvia Shepler, born 1914 in Toledo.
They married August 9, 1934, in Jackson, Michigan. Karl Manley’s family were pioneers in the Springfield Township area. Karl was an only child and attended Springfield Local Schools. He was a World War II U.S. Navy veteran, a longtime volunteer fireman, charter member of Providence Lutheran Church and a millwright with Doehler-Jarvis in Toledo.
Karl died at his home on 7007 Hall Street, Holland, of cancer, August 12, 1991 and is buried at Springfield Township Cemetery.
Adelyn graduated from Waite High School, Toledo, in 1933. She and Karl had two sons, Ronald James, 1935, and Gerald L., 1938.
After the boys began school, Adelyn became a cook and later the cafeteria manager for Springfield Local Schools, retiring in 1970 after 25 years.
She was a charter member of Providence Lutheran Church, and a valued member of the Holland-Springfield-Spencer Historical Society. In 1938, Adelyn started a pinochle club for eight mothers on Hall Street with young children to give them a night away from home one evening a month.
Adelyn died February 5, 2015, at age 100 at Wotring Home on Holland-Perrysburg Road. She is buried at Springfield Township Cemetery.
Ronald James Manley married Beverly Jean Oates in Toledo on July 28, 1956. Beverly was born June 19, 1938, in Toledo, to William J. Oates, 1905 to 1944, born in Dunkirk, Ohio, and Harriet C. Rhonehouse, 1911 to 1994. William and Harriet are buried in Toledo Memorial Park, Sylvania.
Ronald and Beverly had three children; Karl David, 1957; Robin L., 1959, and Todd Allen, 1963. All three graduated from Springfield High School, Holland.
Ronald graduated from Holland High School in 1953. He was elected to Holland village council in 1970 and became president of council in 1972. Following the resignation of Harry Dale Prentice in 1974, due to illness, Ronald took over as mayor.
He finished Dale’s term and was elected mayor for two consecutive terms. He resigned the post in October 1981, due to illness. ln total, he served six years as mayor and eight years on village council.
Ronald also worked 30 years with Columbia Gas, retiring in June 1981. He was a long-time member of Holland Volunteer Fire Department and was a fire captain and president of the department in 1962. He was a charter member and treasurer of the Sons of the American Legion Holland Post 646.
Ronald James Manley, 52, of 7126 Kipling Drive, Holland, died of cancer on Friday October 9, 1987, in Tolfree Memorial Hospital, West Branch, Michigan. He is interred in Springfield Township Cemetery, Holland.
Beverly Jean Manley was employed by Toledo Trust Bank for many years. A member of Holland United Methodist Church and past social secretary of the Holland- Springfield-Spencer Historical Society, she also belonged to Young at Heart, a group which met at Providence Lutheran Church.
Beverly, age 60, died Saturday, December 19, 1998, at St Luke’s Hospital, Maumee. She is buried at Springfield Township Cemetery, Holland.
