Dr. Aaron Palmer speaks at Tiretown Scholarship Banquet at Firestone Country Club
By Marilyn Miller Paulk,
Photos by Darlene Elliott
Photos by Darlene Elliott
Tiretown Golf Club and Tiretown Golf Charities capped its 75th anniversary celebrations on Saturday, Oct. 18 at Firestone Country Club with its annual scholarship banquet.
Tiretown, which is America’s largest predominantly Black golf club, honored its 2025 scholarship recipients, young scholars from Case CLC, distinguished service award winners and this year’s club champions.
This year’s scholarship recipients are: Aunna Coteat and Lamyria D. Trammell of Buchtel, Christian D. Roebuck of Firestone and Quintin Moore and Jesse S. Pamer of Barberton High School. The Tiretown Book Award winners are Akron Public Schools graduates Keiara M. Dinkins of Ellet and Sabrina Matthews of Buchtel.
In addition, Tiretown continued its tradition of recognizing young scholars. The organization selected Case CLC students, Nathaniel Sella and Sean Borden-Moody, as this year’s recipient. The school was also represented by several teachers and Principal Matthew Doslak.
Superintendent Mary Outley of Akron Public Schools and Akron NAACP President Judi Hill both addressed the audience to deliver uplifting messages, along with Jay Curry, who serves as chairman of the Tiretown Golf Charities Board of Directors.
Ralph N. Paulk, Tiretown’s president, thanked the many sponsors, donors and partners who helped the organization raise more than $100,000. He said the contributions of partners such as Towpath Credit Union, Akron NAACP, First Tee of Akron and Northern Ohio Golf Charities were instrumental in the organization being named the 2024 PGA TOUR Champions Charity of the Year.
The guest speaker, Dr. Aaron Palmer, a neurosurgeon at Summa, talked about his close family ties, growing up in East Akron and his struggling career path journey to the goal he aspired to attain.
The East High and Walsh University in North Canton graduate grew up in a two bedroom home with his parents and five siblings, telling the audience it was not out of the ordinary in his neighborhood to share rooms and it wasn’t until he first went to college in Pennsylvania that he had his own bed.
He admitted to flunking out of college, but was accepted into Walsh after his father and high school football coach convinced the school’s administrators to reconsider his admissions application.
Palmer said he was unsure about his future before he all but stumbled into chemistry, mostly because he was pressured to declare a major. Ultimately, he would pursue a degree in pre-med, which led him to shadowing a neurosurgeon at Summa where an opportunity to experience the doctor’s work in the operating room sparked his interest and helped him decide on his specialty.
Life still wasn’t set in stone for him, nothing was handed to him. He kept dropping out of school to work because he couldn’t afford college, then would double up on his school load to catch up. At one point he was making so much money fixing cars he had to weigh doing that for a living instead of finishing school.
However, shortly before his father passed, he pledged that he would become a doctor – a promise fulfilled a few years later when he completed his residency at Northwestern University before returning home to Akron to accept a position at Summa Health.
Dr. Palmer said the competition in his field was so tough that even straight A’s didn’t give him a pass to jobs. His inspiring message was to never give up because there is always hope. “You can receive many rejection letters
when you apply for anything but it only takes one yes to open the door,” he told an attentive audience.
David E. Brown, chairman of Tiretown’s scholarship committee, and the entire 7-member team of the Fund Development Committee were honored as recipients of the 2025 Henry Mumford Distinguished Service Award. The committee members are: co-chairpersons Gwen Bryant and Marilyn Miller Paulk; club treasurer Janice McClain and secretary Glynis Miller Mitchell; volunteer committee co-chair Darlene Elliott, Kelly Edwards and Theresa Fennell, who also serves on the scholarship committee.
The 2025 Tiretown Golf Club Champions were also honored, including Low Gross champion Tony Banks. Larry Thomas was the Low Net champion, while other winners were Ralph N. Paulk (A Flight), Tim Ramsey (B Flight), and Diahnna Curtis (C Flight).
