RIDGWAY -- When Popcorn Days returns to Ridgway, two familiar faces -- and voices -- will be honored as grand marshals of its parade on Sept. 9.
Rick Rotramel and Mark Maloney were selected for the honor this year. The duo serve as the emcees for the events at Popcorn Days. Maloney has been an emcee since 1981, and Rotramel became a co-emcee in the 1990s.
Rick Rotramel
Rick Rotramel is a Ridgway High School Class of 1971 graduate. After high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, where he was honorably discharged in 1975 as a sergeant.
He studied at Southern Illinois University before he moved to Chicago to take a job working for IBM in January of 1977, he said. He worked there for 14 years.
For the past 17 years, Rotramel has worked for Country Financial. He is the agency manager of the Illini East agency in Danville.
"I've been married to my charming and beautiful wife Cheryl for the past 33 years," Rotramel said.
Rotramel's mother, Faye Rotramel, is a longtime resident of Ridgway.
"I've lived away from Ridgway since I graduated high school, but I come back here all the time," Rotramel said. "I'm just honored to be named a grand marshal. I'm happy about it. I just love my hometown."
Mark Maloney
Mark Maloney is a Ridgway High School Class of 1972 graduate. The son of the late Patrick and Doreen Maloney, Mark Maloney went to Harvard for his undergraduate degree. He then went to Vanderbilt University to earn his law degree and later earned an advanced degree in tax law from New York University.
Maloney is a member of Blackburn, Maloney and Schuppert in Decatur, Ala., where he focuses his legal practice on tax law, estate planning and agricultural law, he said.
He has worked at the firm since June of 1980, he said.
"I'm still in my first job," Maloney said with a laugh.
His wife, Gay, is also a member of the firm. The two met while both were attending Vanderbilt.
Their elder daughter, Phyllis Johnson, lives in El Cerrito, Calif. with her husband and two sons, Patrick and Peter. Phyllis is also an attorney.
Their younger daughter, Margaret Maloney, is a third-year medical student at Stoney Brook University School of Medicine in Mineola, N.Y.
They also have an honorary daughter, Suzanna Greer, who is a student at University of South Alabama Mobile.
Phyllis, Patrick, Peter and Suzanna will be in Ridgway for the Popcorn Days parade, Maloney said.
Maloney grew up on the family farm east of Ridgway, and he and his sisters still keep the house on the farm, he said. His cousins operate family farms on both sides of the Ohio River.
This will be the 37th Popcorn Days for which Maloney has served as master of ceremonies, he said.
"When I was asked to do this, I was already living in Alabama," Maloney said. "One of my cousins, Shaun Maloney, was on the Popcorn Board back in 1981. He called me up and asked if I would be emcee, and that's how it started."
He's only missed two times since: In 1982 for Phyllis's baptism and in 1993, when he arrived at Ridgway but then had to return to Alabama to attend a funeral.
This week, he'll attend a regional Rotary International meeting in Springfield on Wednesday and Thursday before getting to Ridgway on Friday, he said.
"It's that important to me," Maloney said. "Popcorn Day is a tradition with my family and me. It started before our daughters were born. My wife pushed them in strollers while I'm doing the announcing."
Maloney and his sister, Kristi Rose Maloney, won first prize in the costume division for the kiddie parade in 1962. The parade had a Hawaiian theme that year.
"Kristi had a skirt made of popcorn leaves and we both had leis made from popped corn," he said. "I had a little ukulele that came from my grandma's closet."
This year, his grandsons will be in the kiddie parade, continuing the tradition, he said.
He was grand marshal once prior, in 2000, when it took a little teamwork to be both grand marshal and emcee.
"I was grand marshal by myself, so they had a (John Deere) Gator to take me back to the end of the stage so I could help with the announcing," he said.
