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Health & Fitness

Russell Ash Is Plymouth Proud

From time to time Patch will be highlighting various longtime members of our community who have done good things in order to serve the Plymouth Community. This feature is called Plymouth Proud, and is the brainchild of longtime Plymouth resident Ken Garner. Today's featured resident is Russell Ash.

Russell is 89 years old, and he has been a Plymouth resident for all but the first 2 years of his life. Of course he has been away from the community for a small period of his life, when he served our country in the Navy during World War II, but apart from that, he has been a constant proud citizen of Plymouth.

Mr. Ash graduated from Plymouth High School in 1942, and then went on to serve our nation in the United States Navy from 1943-1946. He served aboard the USS Mayrant, which was a Benham-class destroyer, which ended it's service with three battle stars for service in World War II. His service on the Mayrant was mostly in the Atlantic, but he also spent time in the Pacific escorting, and protecting US convoys.

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After his time in the Navy ended, Russell took advantage of the GI Bill, got a degree in engineering, and took a job as an engineer apprentice with Chrysler. After moving up through the ranks.  Russell retired from Chrysler after 30 years of service.

During his time in Plymouth, Russell was also instrumental in the beginning the Plymouth YMCA, actually helping draft their their bylaws and constitution.

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Russell also worked on all of the various class reunions for the Plymouth High School class of 1942. He described this work as being the secretary of the reunion committee, handling the task of locating everybody, and keeping tabs on class members. I know a little about this, and it is a daunting task, that takes up a lot of time, and gets more difficult as the years go on.

Mr. Ash also served the Plymouth Township community. Mr. Ash was on the Plymouth Township Planning Committee back in 1959, and later went on to serve as a Plymouth Township Trustee in 1968.

These days, Russell serves on the Board of the Plymouth Community Council On Aging, which is organized to coordinate programs, public and private, which promote and safeguard the independence and well being of senior citizens of the greater Plymouth community. Bobbie Pummill, who is the Director of the Council on Aging, indicated to me that, “You couldn't have picked a more perfect person to highlight for Plymouth Proud, than Russ Ash.”

For all of the reasons listed above, we agree with Bobbie. Russell Ash is most definitely Plymouth Proud! Thank you Mr. Ash for all of your contributions to our nation, and to our community...

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