Highway signs memorialize those who died
While you were driving to a relative’s house for a healthy holiday helping of turkey and the fixings, or perhaps just on your daily commute, you’ve probably noticed those brown signs along the highway with names on them.
There are more than 200 sections of Ohio roadways that are designated as memorial highways. The designation is given after Ohio representatives or senators introduce legislation before the General Assembly to honor an individual or group, which must then be approved by the body and signed by the governor.
The Ohio Department of Transportation then creates the signs — which cost about $500 each — and posts them facing both directions on the portion of the roadway to be dedicated. There is usually a small ceremony held on site to formalize the dedication, and some of the signs have American flags hung from them.
Sections of highway across the state that cross multiple county lines are named in honor of the Tuskegee Airmen, the Black fighter pilots and their crews from World War II; U.S. Spanish War Veterans and the Marine Corps League. One section of highway also honors the U.S. Army’s 37th Division, a National Guard infantry unit from Ohio nicknamed the “Buckeye Division” which was deployed to battle in both World War I and World War II.
In Franklin County, there are more than two dozen memorial highway designations, most of them for law enforcement or military personnel who have been killed in the line of duty.
Staff Sgt. Christopher L. Brown
U.S. 23 between 7th Avenue and Northwood Avenue
A Hamilton Township High School graduate, Brown, 26, of Columbus, was killed on April 3, 2012 by an improvised explosive decide in Kunar providence in northeastern Afghanistan while serving his fourth tour of duty.
Columbus police officer Thomas R. Hayes
U.S. 33 between North Souder Avenue and West 5th Avenue
Hayes was shot and paralyzed from the waist down while on duty attempting to arrest two teens for a curfew violation on Dec. 18, 1979, and one of them pulled out a handgun and shot him. Following his injury, Hayes worked as a civilian sketch artist for police. But he continued to suffer serious health issues and one of his legs was amputated in 2005. He died from his injuries in 2011 at age 61.
Army Spc. Nicholaus E. Zimmer
Interstate 270 between West Broad Street and U.S. 62
Zimmer, 20, of Columbus, was a Westland High School graduate. He died on May 30, 2004 when his vehicle was struck by rocket-propelled grenades while serving in Kufa, Iraq.
Columbus mayor Dana ‘Buck’ Rinehart
Interstate 670 between 4th Street and Interstate 70
Rinehart served as mayor of Columbus between 1984 and 1992. During his tenure, he oversaw the completion of I-670 between Downtown and John Glenn Columbus International Airport, as well as the planning and building of the now-defunct City Center shopping center Downtown, redevelopment of the Short North and Brewery districts and the development of the Martin Luther King Center. He died in 2015 at the age of 68.
Gen. Thaddeus Kosciusko
Route 257, beginning in Prospect and continuing to U.S. 33
Kosciusko, whose real full name was Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko, was a Polish-lithuanian military engineer who came to the then-british colonies in the early stages of the American Revolutionary War to help the colonists. He is credited with helping mastermind the American defeat of the British at Saratoga, N.Y., and helping oversee construction of military fortifications at what is now West Point Military Academy in New York state. He later returned to Poland, where he was considered a national hero and later died at age 71.
Master Sgt. Shawn Hannon
Interstate 71 between Stringtown Road and Route 657
A Grove City native and local defense attorney, Hannon, 44, was killed in a suicide vehicle bomb attack on April 4, 2012 in Maymaneh, Faryab province in Afghanistan, along with two other local members of the Ohio National Guard: Capt. Nicholas J. Rozanski, 36, of Dublin; and Master Sgt. Jeffrey J. Rieck, 46, of Columbus. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
Franklin County Sheriff’s deputy Marty Martin
Interstate 71 between Interstate 270 and Stringtown Road
On Sept. 6, 2008, Martin, 35, was killed in a car crash. He was working undercover with another deputy around 1:30 a.m. when their vehicle hydroplaned, hit a culvert and flipped on I-71 near I-270.
Ohio Highway Patrol trooper Frank Vazquez
Interstate 270 between Interstate 70 and Georgesville Road
Vazquez, 26, died Nov. 6, 2001, the day after he was critically injured during a traffic stop along I-270. He had pulled a vehicle over and was outside his cruiser when a drunk driver struck his cruiser and another vehicle, both of which then struck Vazquez. He had been a trooper for nearly four years.
Ohio Highway Patrol Trooper Wendy G. Everett
Interstate 270 between mile markers one and three
On Aug. 5, 1988, Everett, 25, was fatally struck by a vehicle while standing outside her cruiser taking a report from a truck driver whose vehicle had been damaged. She had been with the state patrol for three years.
Ohio Highway Patrolman Jerry R. Neff
U.S. 62 between mile markers one and two
Neff, 27, was killed on Jan. 30, 1974 when a 19year-old drove a stolen car off an overpass and the vehicle landed on top of his patrol cruiser sitting below at the Interstate 71 / US Route 62 junction. Neff, who worked out of the Circleville post, had only been a patrolman (they later changed the name to troopers) for three years.
Ohio Highway Patrol Trooper Jody S. Dye
Interstate 270 between mile markers 45 and 47
Dye, 25, was killed on July 5, 1985, when he was struck by a vehicle while placing flares at a crash scene on I-270 near U.S. 33 during a rainstorm. He had been a trooper for three years.
OANG Col. Wilber Blount, MD
Interstate 670 between 4th Street and International Gateway
Blount was the first Black person to be the most senior physician with the Ohio Air National Guard and was one of the first ophthalmologists in the country to begin using lasers while performing eye surgery. He died in 2006 at the age of 70.
Ohio Rep. Lawrence E. Hughes
Route 315 between King Avenue and the Delaware County line
Hughes, of Upper Arlington, served as an Ohio representative in the General Assembly between 1969 and 1982. During his tenure, Hughes sponsored bills that created Route 315 and the handicapped placard in Ohio. He died in 2000 at the age of 70.
Ohio National Guard Capt. Nicholas Rozanski
Interstate 270 between the southern edge of the Dublin city limits and Route 161
Rozanski, a 36-year-old Dublin native, was killed on April 4, 2012 when a bomb exploded in a park in northern Afghanistan. He was one of three local Ohio National Guard members killed in the attack.
Ohio National Guard Sgt. Jeffrey Rieck
Interstate 270 between Route 161 and Dublin’s eastern city limit
Rieck, 46, a Northwest Side native, was killed on April 4, 2012, when a suicide bomber attacked a park in northern Afghanistan. He was one of three local Ohio National Guard members killed in the attack.
Eric Joering, left, and Anthony Morelli
Westerville police officers Anthony Morelli and Eric Joering
Interstate 270 between Route 3 and Cleveland Avenue
On Feb. 10, 2018, Officers Morelli, 54, and Joering, 39, responded to a 911 hangup call in connection with domestic violence at a condominium in which a husband had been punching and choking his wife. Both officers were fatally wounded when the suspect, Quentin Smith, ambushed them and shot them multiple times.
Joering, a 16-year veteran, died at the scene. Morelli, a 30-year veteran, died later at a hospital. Smith was shot multiple times by the officers but survived. He was later convicted of the murders and sentenced to life in prison in each case.
U.S. Navy Lt. Miroslav Steven Zilberman
Interstate 270 between U.S. 33 and Route 315
Zilberman, 31, a native of Ukraine whose family resettled in the Columbus area when he was 12, graduated in 1997 from Bexley High School and became a member of the U.S. Navy. He was operating an E-2C Hawkeye over the Arabian Gulf on March 31, 2010, when one of the engines on the twin-turboprop plane with an airborne early warning control dish atop failed. Reports said Zilberman and three other crew members had been returning to the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower from a mission over Afghanistan when the engine failed. The plane was going down when Zilberman ordered the other crew to eject prior to the crash. The recovery effort was abandoned April 2, 2010, and his body was never recovered.
Marine Lance Cpl. Joshua Mcdaniels
Interstate 70 between U.S. 42 in Madison County and Interstate 270
A London, Ohio, native, Mcdaniels, 21, was killed on June 12, 2011, in an explosion during combat operations in Helmand province in Afghanistan.
Army Spc. Joseph W. Riley
Interstate 71 between U.S. 62 and Route 655
Riley, 27, was a Grove City High School graduate who entered the Army and became a member of a parachute infantry regiment. He was killed on Nov. 24, 2014 when an improvised bomb placed on a bicycle exploded into their vehicle in Kabul, Afghanistan. The blast also killed a command sergeant major from Maryland.
Marine Lance Cpl. Ryan E. Miller
Interstate 270 between mile markers 33 and 34
Miller, 21, of Gahanna, died on Sept. 3, 2006 of injuries sustained from a roadside bomb in Habbaniyah, Anbar Province, Iraq. A graduate of St. Francis Desales High School in Columbus, he was serving his second tour of duty when he was killed. An annual memorial golf tournament is held to fund a scholarship in his name at the high school.
Marine Lance Cpl. Eric J. Bernholtz
U.S. 62 between Southwest Boulevard and Kingston Avenue
A 2000 Grove City High School graduate, Bernholtz, 23, was killed on Aug. 3, 2005 when the vehicle he was in hit a bomb south of Haditha, Iraq. Six other military members were also killed in the blast.
Sgt. Jesse M. Balthaser
Interstate 70 between Wilson Road and Hague Avenue
Balthaser, 23, was killed by a roadside bomb on Sept. 4, 2010 in Helmand province in Afghanistan. A Columbus West High School graduate, he had served two tours previously in Iraq.
Army Sgt. Adam L. Knox
Interstate 70 between Wilson Road and Hilliard-rome Road
Knox, 21, of Hilliard, was a Westland High School graduate who entered the Army and became a trained psychological operations non-commissioned officer. He was killed on Sept. 17, 2006 in Baghdad, Iraq, when his patrol came under small arms fire.
Ohio Senator John W.E. Bowen III
U.S. 33 between the East Livingston Avenue and College Avenue intersection and Route 104
Bowen was the first Black man to be elected to the Ohio Senate from Franklin County. He was a state senator from 1967 to 1970. He died in 2011 at the age of 84.
Bowen III
Madison Township patrolman Dane Rowe
Route 317 between Gerling Boulevard and Wingate Road
Rowe, 24, was struck by a vehicle and critically injured while clearing an accident scene on Nov. 4, 1988. A driver had not stopped, despite warnings by another officer to stop to avoid the crash. Rowe died the next day of his injuries at Ohiohealth Grant Medical Center. He had only been on the Madison Township police force just over 9 months.
Hilliard police officer Sean Johnson
Interstate 270 between Route 161 and Cemetery Road
A Hilliard police officer, Johnson was killed during a motorcycle training crash on May 19, 2016. He was 46 years old.
Air Calvary Sgt. Joseph W. Danison
Route 317 between U.S. 23 and Noe-bixby Road
Danison, 24, was killed in combat during the Vietnam War on Sept. 13, 1969, in Tay Ninh province, South Vietnam, near the Cambodian border. His platoon was reportedly attempting to flank and come to the aid of another platoon under attack in an area heavily fortified with North Vietnamese bunkers when they were met with a secondary ambush, including a claymore mine blast and machine gun fire. He took the brunt of the explosion but held onto medics began treating him before small arms fire killed him. He was posthumously given a second Bronze Star and a second Purple Heart for his valor and heroism.
Want to know about the 0ther memorial highway designees across Ohio?
A complete list of memorial highways in Ohio can be found on ODOT’S website. bruner@dispatch.com @bethany_bruner