Page 131 - Complete Final Book2

Class Profiles
by Carol Biliczky Levandoski

Ken Nixon (continued)
Ken got into housesitting after a long career in defense contract work, developing advanced technologies in remote sensing. He got a bache-
lor’s degree in physical geography – the scientific study of the features of the earth – at Ohio State, then worked for the National Geospatial
Intelligence Agency, the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan and General Dynamics, among others. He racked up credits for an
MBA at the University of Louisville, where he taught a course in the geography department.

His work took him to several foreign countries, Mary joining him for pleasure travel at the end of his stints. When they retired in 2014 –
Mary as a human resource director for a health-care company – they sold their Michigan home and pursued travel even more vigorously. A
seven-day trek to summit Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, a Kenyan safari, trekking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru – nothing seemed
too exotic, adventurous or far away.

In 2018, the Nixons took travel a step further when they discovered house sitting. They signed on with trustedhousesitters.com, a global
platform that matches homeowners who need care for their pets and farm animals when they travel, and folks with a yen for travel on their
own. Homeowners and sitters pay an annual fee to the platform. Homeowners open their homes to the sitters, who provide security and
animal care in return. The arrangement has allowed the Nixons to live in everything from rural homes to urban apartments for a few days or
several weeks, caring for every kind of animal from placid cats to rutting red deer. Thanks to five-star ratings from their clients, they’ve
found no shortage of posts.

In February, they were ending three months of house sitting in Australia when covid struck. Concerned that borders would be closing,
homeowners wouldn’t be able to travel and they’d be stuck someplace, they canceled their upcoming assignments in Japan, South Korea,
Vietnam and Cambodia, they flew to nearby New Zealand. There was some method to their proverbial madness. The country only had one
case of covid at the time, and they had connections from earlier visits. Plus, New Zealanders speak English, helpful if they had to deal with
immigration. While the country did lock down for seven weeks, it is up and running now and the Nixons have continued to travel freely and
house sit.

In mid-December, they were on an eight-day assignment in Wellington, caring for a border collie and three cats. More house sits are sched-
uled in New Zealand through February; their visitor visas have been extended until March due to covid. Where to after that? Mary is re-
searching possible assignments, with an eye to returning to Europe in the next year. There’s almost no doubt that they will add to the num-
ber of countries that they’ve visited, currently at more than 40 on six continents, including pleasure travel.

“We really don’t have an end game,” Ken said. “As long as we’re enjoying what we’re doing, we plan to keep at it. We have furniture and
enough stuff to fill a two-bedroom apartment and a car in a storage unit in Greenville, S.C. So we will probably end up there at some point.”

TOM DOYLE

Tom Doyle was truly at sea when he left Cleveland Heights for Medina in August 1969. He did-
n’t know a soul. And he didn’t get to know many MHS ’70 classmates, as he took only two aca-
demic classes before heading off to Diversified Cooperative Training and his job as a mechanic.

But he loved the small town right away and made a life here, eventually starting a security
business and a private antique fire museum. “I enjoy Medina,” Tom said. “I love what I do.
I can’t imagine why anyone would want to leave this town.”

After high school, he worked as a mechanic at Ernie’s Garage, then at a security business
called F.M. Systems owned by Macy Hallock Jr., Deb’s older brother. In 1984 Tom launched his
own commercial and residential security business called FBN – for Fly by Night -- Systems. (“A
little liquor was involved” in coming up with the name, he said with a laugh.) He found a career
that he loves: “It’s rewarding. I like the tech aspects, especially after someone’s been burglar-
ized.”

He stumbled across old firefighting equipment in old offices and warehouses during his secu-
rity work. He tucked his treasures away, grew his collection and in 2003 bought a building on East Smith Road that once had housed Graf’s
Glass and before that a grocery store called the Little Whiz. He loved the store’s name so much that he changed the spelling to Little Wiz
and adopted it for his fledgling museum.

His unique trove includes rare horse-drawn fire engines, equipment, paraphernalia and much more. There’s a 1916 Model T fire truck made
by Deb Hallock’s grandfather and great uncle – one of only five of the original 22 that Tom knows to exist – and a smoke hood invented by
Clevelander Garrett Morgan in 1916, one of only two that Tom can place. The smoke hood had a long tube, or tail, that dangled to the floor
to provide fresh, clean air to firefighters.

Tom runs his business and lives on the second floor of the museum building. In his spare time, he volunteers as one of fifteen classmates on
the reunion planning committee, and he has offered to open his museum to classmates during the coming reunion in July 2021. If you want
to get to know Tom before then, he’d love to talk to you. Just call or text him at 330-419-0200.