National Wood Carvers Association  

President Charles Sapp resides in St. Charles, Missouri with his wife, Dale. They have 3 children and 3 grandchildren. He is a graduate of the University of Kansas in Aerospace Engineering and was employed at McDonnell Douglas / Boeing for over 40 years as an engineer in Structural Dynamics and Loads. 

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Vice President Patrick Wentzel lives in Parkersburg, WV. Married to Brenda for 49 years, they have twin daughters and three grandsons.  Patrick retired from General Electric Plastics/SABIC Innovative Plastics after 41 years as an Industrial Hygiene Specialist.

 Patrick has been a member of the National Wood Carvers Association for nearly 40 years. Currently he is serving as National Carousel Association President. 

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Director S. Garth Burgon's first experience carving was a neckerchief slide he made in Boy Scouts.  He liked the scouts and advanced to the rank of Eagle. 

Garth attended Brigham Young University and graduated in business management, with a concentration in finance.  His miners are economics, accounting and statistics.  He started work at Ford Motor Co. and retired after 31 years, at age 55, from a planning and development group in the World Headquarters.  After retirement he took a contract at a large Federal University in China and taught basic business and international business classes.

Director W. Todd Martin lives in Fort Wayne, IN, and is professor of English at Huntington University where he has taught since 1999. Until he began carving, most of his time when he wasn’t in the classroom was spent doing scholarly research on a variety of twentieth century British and American authors, publishing numerous academic articles and editing several books. As part of his professional life, he served as the Secretary of the Katherine Mansfield Society, an international organization dedicated to the works of the New Zealand author, and he served as the president of the organization for three years. Once he caught the carving bug, he began looking for ways to marry his newfound passion (obsession?) with his professional skills, so he sought out opportunities to write for Chip Chats and Woodcarving Illustrated. He is currently working on a book on the Caricature Carvers of America.

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  Jeffrey L. Porter, Director, has spent a great deal of time during his life supporting the communities (personal and work) in which he lives. Now, retired the carving community is important to him.

A resident of Holland, Michigan, Jeff and his wife, Mary, spend there winters in the Sonoran Desert in Tucson, Arizona after having spent several winters along the coastal bend of Texas in Port Aransas. They have two children and two grandchildren.

Jeff received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from Ferris State University. He was self employed for 20 years and the remainder of his working life was a Transportation Director for Public schools in Michigan. He was certified as a Transportation Director by both the Michigan and National Associations.

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Cathy Frye has been the Secretary/Treasurer of NWCA since 1995.  She is responsible for the bookkeeping, payroll, withholding, tax returns, bulk mailings, and other associated administrative requirements. 

Cathy maintains the mailing list by processing current renewals, former member renewals, new members, and changes of address.

Cathy has a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Business Administration from Ohio State University. Her interests include watching and playing tennis (singles & doubles), cheering on THE OSU Buckeyes, and seasonal income tax preparation.  Cathy is married with 3 grown children, one granddaughter and resides in Madeira OH.

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Julie Potluri first started working with Chip Chats Magazine as a kid, collating the pages by hand, along with her siblings, in the basement of their Cincinnati home. She also helped by saddle stitching the collated pages together and stuffing magazines into manila envelopes.

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Steve Botkin, Director, resides in Dardenne Prairie, Missouri with his wife Valerie.  They have 3 sons of whom they couldn’t be prouder.  

Steve worked for NetApp before retiring in Oct 2020.  He was looking for a hobby and was always interested in carving and in February 2021 decided it was time to try carving.   Steve and his wife joined the St Charles Area Woodcarvers, where he has held different positions in the club.  They joined the West County Woodworkers about a year later and then Steve joined the Lake of the Ozarks Woodcarvers shortly after that.

Donna Thomas, Director, calls Nevada, Missouri home.  She has three adult children, 6 grandchildren, and two “greats”. And one terribly spoiled Coton puppy.  She is a graduate of Friends University with a Master’s in Organizational Management.  Fifty years of work experience includes administrative positions at chamber of commerce, economic development, Regional Hospital, Community Action Agency, community college branch campus, etc.   

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Keith Shumaker, Director, resides in Dover, Ohio with his wife, Cara. They have 1 son and 2 granddaughters. He obtained a BA in Math/Computer Science from Walsh College and a Masters in Organizational Leadership from Malone University.

Keith has worked in IS for his entire career, serving in many technical, business, and managerial roles.  Currently, he is employed by the J.M. Smucker Co as a Supply Chain Architect.  He is a former Jaycee and has served as a Director of Lay Ministry on his Church Council.

Keith is currently the President of the Wilderness Center Woodcarvers etc.

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Tim Crawford, Director, started carving as a Boy Scout and made it to the ranks of Eagle Scout.  He spent 36 years as an agent with Nationwide Insurance Company, and for 30 years was an elected political officeholder, most of that time serving as County Commissioner for Summit County in Ohio. 

Tim and his wife Debbie have 4 grown children, and eight grandchildren.  Tim has served

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