T-L Photo/JENNIFER COMPSTON-STROUGH A display outside the Martins Ferry City Building lists the names of the honorees who have been inducted to the Martins Ferry Hall of Honor.

MARTINS FERRY — The Martins Ferry Hall of Honor will expand on Sunday with the induction of four new members.

The class of 2023 inductees include businessman Charles “Sid” Crummitt, educator Linda Heil Dowler, Mary Mayor Carl Mamone and retired chamber of commerce director Dorothy Vargo Powell. This class will be presented at 2 p.m. Sunday at Martins Ferry High School.

Unified Bank is the sponsor for the Hall of Honor. Its support has enabled the committee to purchase plaques featuring each inductee, hold the annual induction ceremony and sustain the Hall of Honor. The plaques honoring enshrinees are on display in the Martins Ferry Public Library.

Honorees are individuals who have made significant contributions to Martins Ferry or have brought positive attention to the city. To be eligible, they must have been born, lived or worked in the city.

The hall’s origins date to 2007, when then-mayor Leslie A. Douglas sought a way to honor residents whose actions and accomplishments aided, affected or brought fame to the Purple City.

Douglas named the founding members of the committee who would choose the citizens for induction into the Martins Ferry Hall of Honor.

A display listing Hall of Honor inductees can be seen in front of the Martins Ferry City Building on the corner of Fifth and Walnut streets.

The hall has inducted a new class of honorees each year since 2007, with the exception of 202 when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many aspects of life.

Among the hall’s past inductees are: Belmont County Common Pleas Judge John M. Solovan II, a member of the class of 2018; The Times Leader’s own sports editor Bill Van Horne in the class of 2016; 2008 class members Lou “the toe” Groza, a kicker who was elected to the Professional Football Hall of Fame in 1974, and Ebenezer Martin, son of the first settler in the Ohio Territory and a member of the family that founded Wheeling; and many other people from all walks of life.