Scholarship Criteria:
The Scioto Foundation has announced the establishment of the Ralph L. and Louise K. Arrick Fund. The new combination fund was created by the Arricks to provide scholarships for local high school students and to benefit Grace Baptist Church in Minford.
Ninety percent of the Arrick Fund has been set up to fund scholarships for worthy students from Scioto County with preference to Valley High School graduates. Scholarship recipients will be selected by the Scioto Foundation volunteer scholarship committee with the assistance of the family.
Ten percent of the new fund will be distributed to the Grace Baptist Church where the Arricks were members for many years.
Ralph Arrick, Sr. was born in 1924 in Toledo, a son of the late Ollie Hutchison and Mary Johnson Arrick, and died in November of 2000. Arrick was co-founder and co-owner of Arrick’s Bottled Gas Company. He was a 1942 graduate of Valley High School and received his B.S. degree from Bowling Green State University.
Arrick was a former high school teacher at Valley and McDermott. Active in numerous sports and community activities, he was a basketball and baseball coach at McDermott and helped organized the Minford Little League. He was also one of the co-founders of the Lucasville Biddy Basketball League, and he coached for the Portsmouth Del Rice Baseball League for many years.
Arrick was the first fire chief at the Jefferson Township Fire Department, a member of the Lucasville Masonic Lodge and Scottish Rites, the James Irwin Post of the American Legion and the Ohio Propane Gas Association and a World War II Army veteran.
His wife Louise was born in Portsmouth in 1924, a daughter of the late Tallie and Margaret Burns Buckle. A former resident of Clarktown and then Minford during her married life, she died in October, 2008.
Mrs. Arrick was also a 1942 graduate of Valley High School. With her husband, she was a co-owner of Arrick’s Bottled Gas Company and a homemaker.
The Arricks were married on April 23, 1946. They were the parents of a three sons: Douglas Arrick, Ralph Arrick, Jr. and Dr. Ron Arrick. As of 2022, they had nine grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren.