To hear Jeffrey Harter describe the unofficial mayor of Orviston, he was a one-man employment agency.
Harter, a Curtin Township supervisor, remembers Kels Lomison’s talent for finding work for local people in need. He knew who to see, who to call, where to go — all for nothing more in return than the pleasure of helping someone else.
“He probably got more people jobs than most politicians do in their entire career,” Harter recalled.
Lomison, a retired state transportation worker and car dealership employee, ended a life of community service and philanthropy a week ago at the age of 77. He was the chairman of the Curtin Township Board of Supervisors, and a past chairman of the Centre County Democratic Party, but those posts only scratch the surface of his impact.
Born in Orviston, the tiny former brick company town on the county’s northeast edge, he served as chairman of the Orviston Community Reunion Committee. For years, he directed the town’s annual July festival.
But as proudly devoted to Orviston as Lomison was, his civic contributions spread beyond his hometown. As a charter member of the Howard Area Lions Club, he received a club citation in 2010 for his work with community projects. He was known for his fundraising prowess, often supporting area charities through his gospel and bluegrass band, “Kels Lomison and Friends.”
In 2009, hundreds attended “Kels Lomison Day” in Lock Haven’s Riverview Park, celebrating a selfless soul’s decades of generosity.
“Just about every organization I’m familiar with in the valley was dependent on him,” said state Rep. Mike Hanna, D-Lock Haven, a longtime friend. “He was really the guy who got it done.”
Hanna and others close to Lomison will never forget his incurable heart condition: It was so big, he couldn’t say no.
It drove him to serve on a Clinton County school board, to support area youth sports teams, and to volunteer with the Centre County chapter of Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, the Beech Creek Watershed Association and the Bald Eagle Ridge Runners Campground.
It led him to announce the Three Point Sports-men’s Club annual Fish Rodeo in Clarence, and Central Mountain High School baseball games.
And it brought him to countless conversations and friendships. A history buff, he had a steel-trap memory for names and faces. Whenever Lomison greeted Janaan Maggs, Hanna’s legislative assistant, in her Lock Haven office, he always asked about everyone in her family in his deep voice before turning to business.
“Family was very important to him,” Maggs said. “Everybody’s family was important to him.”
Family and friends said good-bye to Kelsey E. Lomison on Sunday at his funeral at Central Mountain Middle School. They paid their last respects to the pillar whose standard joking aside to a constituent while leaving supervisors meetings could have summed up his life philosophy.
“If you need me, honey, you just give me a call,” Lomison would say. “You know where I am.”
Chris Rosenblum writes a weekly column about happenings in the Bald Eagle area. Contact him at crosenbl@centredaily.com or 231-4620.
