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Joseph D. McKay 1937-2017

BAZETTA — Dr. Joseph D. McKay, 80, of Bazetta, and formerly of Warren, died Monday morning, Aug. 21, 2017, at Shepherd of the Valley in Howland.

He was born Jan. 25, 1937, in Robins, Ohio, the son of the late Joseph Robert and Ann Petras McKay.

Dr. McKay was a 1954 graduate of Byesville High School, where he was a star player on the basketball team. He then received a bachelor’s degree in secondary education from Rio Grande College in 1958, where he was a four-year letterman in basketball and during his senior year was the team captain, leading rebounder and scorer and was named Most Valuable Player for the Redmen. He received his master’s degree of education in guidance in 1962 from Ohio University and in 1974 received his doctorate of philosophy from the University of Akron.

His life’s desire was to teach. His career spanned 39 years as an English teacher, counselor and basketball coach at Mansfield Madison, Willoughby-Kirtland, North Canton Hoover and retired from Howland High School in 1989. Starting in 1974, Joe served as an instructor in the graduate school of education counseling department at Youngstown State University.

Joe’s career in the Ohio public schools included coaching seven high school basketball championship teams and three players named High School All-Americans. The students and student-athletes that he prepared for college are countless. In 1989, he was named head coach of Team USA for the International Basketball Tournament in Seoul, South Korea in which the team won the bronze medal. While in Korea, he was selected to present coaching theories at the International Coaching Clinic.

Joe’s career included a writing career in which he had 13 articles published in national periodicals. One of his articles was published in Scholastic Magazine’s Silver Anniversary edition of 25 articles and was designated the “Greatest Collection of Coaching Articles” ever to be in print. Dr. McKay was a selectee of the National Defense Education Act Guidance Institute, Phi Delta Kappa inductee, a Martha Holden Jennings scholar and a 1998 inductee into the Rio Grande University Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame.

Joe is survived by one daughter, Sara A. “Sally” (Michael) Mills of Bazetta; one son, Victor J. (Patti) McKay, MD, of St. Petersburg, Fla.; his son-in-law, David A. Zipnock of Leavittsburg; four grandchildren, Melyssa (Kristopher) Leonard of Bazetta, Christopher McKay of St. Petersburg, Timothy McKay of New York City and Joseph “J.J.” Mills of Columbus; two great-grandchildren, Abigail and Matthew Leonard; one brother, Ronald (Patricia) McKay of New Philadelphia; two sisters, Sherry McKay of Norwich and Eleanor Hronec of Derwent; and a longtime friend, Shirley Werner of Warren.

His wife of 42 years, Patricia Ann Rupe McKay, whom he married March 22, 1957, preceded him in death in 1999. One daughter, Cynda J. Zipnock; and five sisters, Margaret McKay, Judy Emerson, Dorothy Grisak, Mary Ellen Hannum and Betty Hudson; and one brother, John McKay also have all preceded in death.

The funeral service will be 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017 at Lane Family Funeral Homes, Roberts-Clark Chapel in Warren, where the family will receive friends 2 to 4 p.m. prior to the service Sunday. Pastor Don Barnes will officiate.

Online condolences may be made to the family and the obituary viewed at www.robertsclarkchapel.com.