Everett Dodrill

Everett Dodrill was born in Morgantown, West Virginia, and moved to Flushing, NY when he was about two years old. The family of five moved to Baldwin, NY near Freeport when he was in elementary school, and had a two bedroom home with a coal furnace. He shared a bedroom with his brother, Bill. He had fond memories of his friends in Baldwin and secret paths through the woods. The Dodrills moved to Larchmont, NY when Ev was in 7th grade, where he attended Mamaroneck Junior High. He enjoyed drawing in school, especially in sharing his Uncle Hugh's fascination with airplanes but his teacher complained to his mother. He was intrigued on learning the rules of drawing, especially since losing vision in one of his eyes from an accident when he was five. He delivered newspapers during and after high school, and tried to quit to spend more time playing trumpet and on extra curriculars, but his father made him deliver papers, sometimes working till 8 or 9 p.m., on his bicycle. His father Everett Lewis Dodrill. Sr. had a law degree from Harvard. The summer after high school, he got a deferment from the draft and took college courses at Columbia College in NYC. He didn't do well in school at that time and left. He got a job working as an office boy at Union Carbide for about 6 months, which he liked very much because it involved organic chemistry he always said that knowing chemistry was the key to good cooking. Then he returned to college and completed his freshman year with a "B" average. In January of 1946 he was drafted into the Army and spent a year as a radio mechanic. He played trumpet in dance bands in the army, and put on magic shows. He was honorably discharged and was, to his disappointment, never deployed, and finished college on the GI bill, majoring in?À?pre-med. In his senior year he took 4 labs at one time for chemistry, advanced physics, and histology. He applied to medical schools but was not accepted. He received a BS in Science and Literature from Columbia College. While he was in college he took ballet classes with his sister, Ada. They danced together in a production at the Metropolitan Opera house of a Russian opera. He was one of 4 dancers.?À?He moved out of the house and started working in advertising at Morey, Humm & Johnstone in NYC. Ev worked there for 3 years, and wrote articles for 4-color magazine "House Organ". He shared an apartment around 23rd Street with Don Geluardi "an Italian guy right out of Hell's Kitchen", and described his room in the apartment as a boarded up airshaft. Ev went to art school for one term at night. He also attended the Pratt Institute for advertising design for a period of time. Ev also honed his skills as a magician during this time. He would spend his Saturdays at a magic shop in NYC, learning from the old pros. He was interested in magic, he claimed, because he liked to show off. He practiced magic professionally for a period of time under the name Ajax the Magician Ajax was his nickname, and also his father's nickname. Ev met an artist from Cleveland who told him that Cleveland was a good advertising city. He moved to Cleveland by himself, rented a room in Bedford, and started a theater group called the Bedford Players, even though he knew nothing about directing or acting. He thought he had talent, but soon learned that good actors need training! He acted at Lakewood Little Theatre for a couple of years, where he learned to act, and where he learned to direct by observation.?À?Additionally he acted at Karamu. In Cleveland he worked for Penn, Hamicker, Meldrum & Fewsmith, and Lang Fisher & Stashhower ad agencies. In the early 1960s he met his wife, Marji and two daughters, Joyce and Janet, who he later adopted, at Chagrin Valley Theatre, and was working at Lang Fisher at the time. After losing that job, he hooked up with a guy named Jerry Turk who ran 3 businesses, Story Craft where Frank Sidel also worked, Editorial Features, and Editorial Services run by Bill Ellis. Ev worked for Story Craft and started writing "On Location" radio shows for Jerry?À?Turk at $35 a script, and a daily show called "Speaking of Money". Ev then started also working for Bill Ellis and, as he described it, worked constantly, day and night. Bill Ellis really taught him to write. Ev wrote half of the book The Cuyahoga which bears only Bill Ellis' name as the author, wrote numerous scripts and produced slide shows and films for projects that required him to travel all over the country. He also worked for Educational Research Council of America in the 1980s and wrote 50 educational stories including Truck Mechanic, Ecologist, and Market Researcher for its "Real People at Work" series, and 3 textbooks. One book, he recalled, was about menial jobs, one was about geography and what it was like to live in different climates, and the other was about Indian culture and arts. After parting ways with Bill Ellis, he started working at Mark 5, where he met his future business partner, Mike Vasilakes. At Mark 5 he worked on writing and producing sales meetings and training programs for Arkansas Power and Light and traveled frequently to Little Rock, Arkansas where he also bought some land with the hope of someday building a home or retreat there. In the 1970s, he and Mike Vasilakes formed their own partnership for about 10 years called Dodrill-Vasilakes & Co. Mike had connections with industrial magazines and they each wrote industrial articles for magazines, one of which was entitled "Basic Utility Sales Techniques". Ev and Marji were also two of the original cast members and founders of Dobama Theatre on Coventry in Cleveland Heights in the 1960s, and were good friends with Don and Marilyn Bianchi. He acted in many plays there over the years, and was a regular feature in the Kids Playwriting Festival sometimes in conjuction with grandson, Max as recently as in 2009. He also assisted in putting together the "Dobama Collection", part of the Cleveland Memory Project through Cleveland State University, which can be found at http://www.clevelandmemory.org/dobama/ . In the 1980s and 1990s, Ev wrote on a freelance basis, joined the Rotary Club and served as president and in other positions, took romance novel courses, wrote murder mysteries, and acted and directed in local theaters Clague Playhouse, Cain Park, Dobama Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse, Garfield Players. Ev also joined AFTRA and became an active male model. He appeared in TV commercials including with Joe DiMaggio at Giovanni's for Mr. Coffee, and for Ohio Lottery doing hand card tricks, and in print ads including one for Ohio Bell an Ameritech Company published in Time Magazine. He worked at ASM International American Society for Materials in the 1990s, and produced 50 training videos, one that was called 'Understanding Quenching'. Other professional work experience includes working on research, technical writing, training and development for user manuals and sales presentations for National Electrical Carbon Corp., General Electric, NASA Lewis Research Center, Union Carbide Corporation, and BFGoodrich. He was also highly skilled at the computer and in graphics. He wrote and produced "Home Again", which aired on WVIZ Channel 25 in 1981, about the rehabbing of a neglected, ruined house in Cleveland, in 13 programs, each tackling a different home repair or maintenance problem, working with Jim LaRue. He also wrote a TV special that aired on WJW Channel 8 called "The Wandering Muse of Artemus Flagg" in 1977, starring Burgess Meredith and featuring the Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. And he wrote and produced for WVIZ an Emmy winning TV series called "Say Older My Son, Not Old" for the Heartsong USA project. ?Û¬ Ev loved and owned motorcycles, practiced fencing and judo, and was an avid bicycle rider, having ridden his bike through Europe when he was in his 20s. He and Marji toured through Austria and China on their bicycles when they were in their 60s. He loved animals and won dog training awards. Ev learned how to scuba dive and passed certification when he was in his late 70s and went on several diving trips with groups all over the world, including to Cozumel, Curasou, St. Lucia, and the Thousand Islands/St. Lawrence River area. He also took up sculpting with clay in his later years, taking advantage of the free courses offered by CSU to people over 60, and was a participant at semi-annual CSU ceramics sales. Ev was particularly enamored of sculpting fairies, mermaids, flamingo dancers, and faces. Other activities he engaged in after retirement included volunteering at the Cleveland Sight Center reading articles on the radio; volunteering at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History where he made molds/casts of fossils; and working with the Case Western Reserve Medical School acting as a patient in its doctor training program. In 2004, he worked with son-in-law coordinator Mark Krieger, as producer and member of the cast in "Christmas Classics by Cleveland", a two hour collection of original and classic Christmas narratives recorded at the WJCU 88.7 FM studios. He was joined by some of Cleveland's most talented actors including the voices of John Buck, Peggy Buerkel, Ted Burr, Bernie Canapari, Kelly Ferjutz, Paul Floriano, and Jo Gibson. Just this past Christmas 2010, Ev starred in the WCJU production of the original radio version of "A Christmas Carol", produced by Mark in a cast that included daughter, Joyce, and grandson, Nathan, where he played the starring role of Scrooge. Everett L. Dodrill, Jr. age 84 of Cleveland Hts., OH, passed away on March 1, 2011 of cancer. He was the loving husband and soulmate of the late Marjorie M. Dodrill. He was the dear father of Joyce M. Dodrill Krieger Mark H. of Cleveland, OH and Janet R. Dodrill David J. Cox of S. Euclid, OH. He was the brother of Ada Cowan Ross of Pinckney, MI and William Dodrill Renate of Morgantown, WV. He was a dear grandfather to Nathan and Maxwell Krieger, and the loving owner of Punkin the cat. The family prefers that those who wish may make contributions in his name to the Cleveland Hts. ?À? University Hts. Public Library, 2345 Lee Rd., Cleveland Hts., OH 44118 or to the Dobama Theatre, 2340 Lee Rd., Cleveland Hts., OH 44118. Memorial Services will be held at 2pm on Sunday, March 13th at Brown-Forward, 17022 Chagrin Blvd., Shaker Hts., OH. An Inurnment Service will be held the following day at 10am at Lake View Cemetery, 12316 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH.


PDF Printable Version