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Monday, February 2, 2009
Alter Hall of Famer Dan Meyer (Class of ‘66) dies after giving his induction speech
John Daniel “Dan” Meyer, the first scholarship basketball player in Alter High School history, died of an apparent heart attack on Friday night after being inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame.
Witnesses said Mr. Meyer collapsed minutes after his speech at the Presidential Banquet Center. He was rushed to Kettering Medical Center, where he died.
A moment of silence was observed in his memory when Alter’s Hall of Fame Class of 2009 was introduced at the Cage Classic on Saturday night at University of Dayton Arena.
According to a news release from the Hall of Fame committee, Mr. Meyer, Alter Class of 1966, lived in Florida, where he was the senior admissions advisor at Kaplan University. He had played one year of basketball for coach Billy Packer at Wake Forest University before transferring to Bowling Green State University.
Alter coach Joe Petrocelli said he, Mr. Meyer and other friends “all sat at the same table right next to where the platform was where the people went up to speak. We were having a good time socializing, had the meal and then the first inductee was Dan.
“His face was a little bit red, but we thought it was because he was from Florida,” Petrocelli added. “He got up and gave a real nice talk, came back down and we were all laughing because he was the first one up there.”
Mrs. Roxanne Desch next spoke on behalf of her late husband, Dr. Christopher E. Desch (Alter, Class of 1973), a cancer specialist who died in an airplane crash in December 2006.
“She was going through her talk and Dan just collapsed right out of the chair,” Petrocelli said. “We had four doctors there within seconds. The EMTs got there in about eight minutes, worked on him some more and then took him out on a gurney. You knew it was bad because one of the EMTs was pumping his heart as they went out the door.”
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