Three Hillsboro woman — Sue Boatman, Mary Stanforth and Jane Tissot — have been selected as this year’s inductees for the Highland County Women’s Hall of Fame.

They will be honored during a ceremony at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 13 in the atrium at the Southern State Community College campus in Hillsboro. The event is open to the public and tickets are $16.

Following is information on each of this year’s inductees taken from the forms nominating them for the honor.

Boatman

“Sue Boatman has been a valuable asset for the Hillsboro for over 20 years,” Hillsboro Superintendent Tim Davis wrote in his nomination form. “She has been a very loyal and dedicated employee, but it has been her willingness to volunteer for many activities that has set Sue apart. Sue has volunteered many years to chaperone the eighth grade trip to Washington, D.C. She has put in countless hours in starting the Junior National Honor Society back in 2004. She has proudly represented Hillsboro City Schools at almost every sporting/extracurricular event our students have participated in.”

Davis said that in 2002, Boatman was the Highland County Exceptional Achievement Award winner presented by Hopewell Region 14 to individuals in recognition of outstanding contribution and commitment to excellence in educating students with special needs.

Davis said Boatman has also been a major contributor at Richard Shaffer Park, volunteering her time as a commissioner and secretary of Hillsboro Recreation.

“Sue has dedicated her life to helping the children of this community. Whether it has been in the classroom, community or on the sports field, Sue has been supporting and promoting our students in a positive manner. You are not going to find someone that represents Hillsboro with any more pride or passion for this community,” Davis wrote.

Hillsboro Middle School teacher Tara Gilliland wrote, “For many years Sue worked with our middle school special needs students, giving extra guidance and assistance to them, academically as well as social/emotionally. More recently, she has dedicated her time to the students in the high school who are labeled ‘credit recovery,’ meaning they must make up courses in order to graduate. … Anything that has been asked of her, she has done willingly and to the best of her ability. In can think of no one in our community more deserving than Sue Boatman to be included in the Highland County Women’s Hall of Fame.”

Boatman’s husband and children noted that she has been a Sunday School teacher at the First Baptist Church for almost 40 years, manages the concession stand at Shaffer Park, helped restructure the Highland County Historical Society, and has been a hairdresser and still is on weekends.

Stanforth

“Teaching is a calling. Some who answer that call excel in the classroom during many years as a pedagogue and rarely venture out into other aspects of education,” an unsigned nomination form for Stanforth said. “Others find that teaching is only the beginning of what can be contributed to a field that is rife with ideas of what is the right way to educate our youth. For one such person, Mary Stanforth, teaching was a stepping stone to a career in education that spans over 40 years in the field and ranges from classroom teacher to principal.”

The form says Stanforth taught at Lynchburg-Clay Elementary from 1976 to 2009. She later served as a substitute teacher and principal at St. Mary Catholic School, instituting a series of fundraisers because the school was operating at a deficit, with many of those events continuing today.

Stanforth has also received the Exceptional Achievement Awards from Hopewell and is deeply involved in Altrusa of Highland County, where she serves as vice president. She is treasurer of the St. Vincent de Paul, and a Hillsboro City Council member.

“Moving from the classroom to the principal’s office is a big change,” the form says. “For Mary Stanforth, the move brought with it great challenges. Not only did she oversee the day-to-day operation of the school, she had to rescue the school from financial ruin and earn accreditation, allowing the doors to remain open as an alternative to public education. Not many people can say they saved a school to educate another generation of children. Perhaps the highest accolade that can be given a teacher was observed by (former) Lynchburg-Clay Elementary Principal Clo Davis, ‘Every student should have a Mrs. Stanforth for his/her first grade teacher.’”

Tissot

“In my mind, there is no one more deserving of this than honor than Jane,” longtime educator and Altrusa President Barbara Youchum worte in her nomination form for Tissot. “…Jane never stops, she is always thinking about new ways to help people and ways to serve her community.”

Yochum said Tissot has been an Altrusa member since 1994, has served in each of its offices, and maintains four Little Free Libraries, in addition to several other programs she has started for Altrusa.

A 1964 graduate of Whiteoak High School, Tissot taught first grade in Milford from 1966-72, then opened Tissot’s Home Center in Hillsboro.

“Jane is an entrepreneur, a business person, a staunch family member and church supporter,” the unsigned form says. She is each of these, but her most lasting legacy is her philanthropy and support of the youth and youth programs in the county. Jane is a firm believer in the power of education and our schools in Highland County. She believes in our youth of today through her school sponsorships in scholarship and athletics.”

The form says Tissot and her husband, Darrell, have contributed more than $100,000 in scholarships since 2003 to the local 4-H program, gave generously to a 2014 building project at the Mowrystown Presbyterian Church, support the Ohio State University Foundation and Ohio State University 4-H Foundation, and she is a working member of the Highland County Junior Fair Sales Committee.

“Jane Tissot represents all those qualities we aspire for all of our children,” the form says. “She is a sharp business person, an entrepreneur, a warm and caring family member, a community supporter, a firm believer in higher education through her own work and through financial support. She is a community role model, the kind of person that we would hope our children would model themselves after…

“It is fair to say Jane is a true servant leader in her community. She is devoted to her God and her family. It is not just her service and philanthropic endeavors that make Jane worthy of induction into the Highland County Women’s Hall of Fame. It is her spirit and joyful manner that is shared unconditionally with so many.”