Caleb Mikesell and I are the only students in Bluffton who have blown up power lines for a school project

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15 minutes with Derek Swartzlander
2019 graduate of Bluffton High School

Icon: What have you been doing since graduating from BHS?
Derek: I’ve been attending Xavier University where I study English and Accounting. I play guitar in the Xavier Jazz Orchestra and Xavier Singers, which is a group of singers and dancers with a live band. I also play sousaphone in the Xavier Pep Band and I am a member of the Students for Life club. I come back to Bluffton during breaks.

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A Bluffton University master's graduate, Gregory Phipp  of Lima, recently earned a doctorate in management of technology and digital communications from the Indiana State University.

The assistant professor of communication at Ohio Northern University is a graduate from Lima Technical College and the University of Toledo’s electronic engineering programs. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Bluffton in organizational management.

His research topics include broadcast television communications and the adoption of bonded-cellular transmission technology.

Always the inventor, Bill says he's designed a battery clamp for easy use under the hood

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Remember Bill Marchal, former owner of the Bluffton Dari Freeze? Always inventing something new, Bill's latest patent pending invention, a quick change battery clamp is now on Kickstarter. Click here to view his product. Here's Bill's story:

How often have you struggled to remove the clamp attached to your car battery? 

You know, that clamp first designed for under-the-hood use in vehicles invented 80 car models ago?

We opened our time machine and went back to 2011 to 2015

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You know the words… “I’ll be home for Christmas.”

We each know that  2020 isn’t exactly a year to come home to. And, because there was no massive elementary holiday music concert with standing room only in the BHS gym, The Icon dug out its time machine.

After all December holiday elementary concerts are among each Icon viewer’s highlights of the year, right?

We set the dial to five of our favorite Bluffton December’s past. Like 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012 and even a rare 2011 vintage.

Mississippi Bones has wise words from the uninformed

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FROM ADA ICON - The Ada-based band Mississippi Bones is releasing a new album titled “Wise Words from the Uninformed,” according to Dusty Donley.

He told the Icon that the album cover and artwork are a spoof of old tabloids like the Weekly World News.

“The record itself comes with a full tabloid magazine,” said Donley. “Each song on the album is an ‘article’ in the magazine.”

This is the sixth full-length album and 15th release by the band since 2010. 

Her latest centers around the fictional town of "Shannon" - does it sound familiar?

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Bluffton residents know her as Lucinda Stratton Guthrie. She writes mystery books under the pen name Bluette Matthey.

Today she lives in Béziers in the south of France with her husband and, as she puts it, two demanding cats. (As an additional Bluffton connection, her brother is Rodney Stratton.)

The former Blufftonite and BHS grad says she grew up reading mysteries and being frightened to death as a child watching Alfred Hitchcock on Friday nights. The result: “Two Murders Too Many,” Bluette’s latest mystery. 

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