Polston Receives State Honor

It was going to be just another Warsaw City Council meeting for Porter Polston - just like any other he's attended over the past eight years.

But when his family and friends and other local dignitaries started filling the seats in the council chambers, he began to suspect that may not be the case.

And when state Sen. Kent Adams finished reading the letter from Gov. Frank O'Bannon naming Polston a Sagamore of the Wabash, he was tearfully surprised.

"I'm still numb," Polston said of the highest state honor bestowed on him. "This was a total surprise. It's been a pleasure to serve on the council and help change some things for the better and raise our kids here."

Community and civic involvement have been the words that come to mind to people who have worked with Polston in making Warsaw and Winona Lake a better community to live in. Former Warsaw mayor Jeff Plank said Polston is a real-life inspiration, in the mode of fictional heroes.

"If you consider that Warsaw is Mayberry, you'd have to consider Porter to be Andy Griffith," Plank said.

Giving of himself to make a better city came easily to Polston. And when his term ends at the end of this year, he said, he will miss the life of service people have come to expect from him.

After moving to the Warsaw-Winona Lake area in 1953, Polston served six years on the Winona Lake Town Council, served as an active church member and leader of the Winona Lake Free Methodist Church, and was instrumental in developing the City-County Athletic Complex.

"It's been interesting and challenging," he said. "Since this is going to be my last go-round, I'm sure I'm going to miss it.

"I've done everything I could to make this a great community," he added. "I've looked back at all the reasons I first ran for a seat on the council - there were seven or eight of them - and all but one have been accomplished," he said.

That lone goal left unmet?

"It would be a second sewage treatment plant," Polston said. "But I think that's going to happen very soon."

For her part, Polston's wife, Yolanda, finds it hard to contain her pride not only in her husband but in their children as well. Children, she said, have always been a driving force behind why Polston has devoted so much time to making Warsaw the outstanding community it is.

"I'm just so proud of my husband and my family," she said. "I'm just bubbling over that all of our children have settled here, and now for him to receive this honor - it's very special."

The Polston children have taken a cue from their father, and all are involved in their communities.

Bonnie Andrew works as a registered nurse in Elkhart. Randy Polston is principal of Harrison Elementary. Terry Polston is a DARE officer for the Warsaw Police Department, and Connie Jetter is a teaching assistant at Lakeview Middle School.

The Sagamore of the Wabash was created during the term of Gov. Ralph Gates, 1945-1949. The term "Sagamore" was used by American Indian tribes of northeastern United States to describe a lesser chief or a great man among the tribe to whom the true chief would look for wisdom and advice.

"You, Porter, certainly fit that description," O'Bannon's letter conferring the honor on Polston said. "You have distinguished yourself by your humanity in living, your loyalty in friendship, your wisdom in council and your inspiration in leadership."