966 WIREMAN, WALLY the College of Law of the University of Cincinnati. He is a former president of the Kentucky Municipal Attorney’s Association and a founding member of the Chase American Inn of Court. He has received numerous awards from Thomas More College and is a former president of its Alumni Association. He and his wife, Alice, reside in Covington and are the parents of five children, three of whom are lawyers. “Covington Native Is Senior Ky. Supreme Court Justice,” Challenger, July 18, 2004, 5A. Kentucky Court of Justice. www.kycourts.net. Wintersheimer, Donald. Interview by Donna M. Bloemer, December 9, 2004, Frankfort, Ky.
Donna M. Bloemer
WIREMAN, WALLY (b. June 19, 1919, Beaver Lick, Boone Co., Ky.). Wallace H. Wireman, an inventor, an engineer, an author, and a businessman, was born to John and Augusta Wireman. He earned a BA in engineering from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and an MA in business administration from Wittenberg University in Ohio. Since 1952 he has resided in Walton, where he quietly plies his problem-solving and engineering talents at his companies, WIRED Inc. and AQW Inc. The possessor of 14 patents and two registered U.S. trademarks, he designs and manufactures many replacement parts for the U.S. military and for industry. His creative genius has played a role in the development of hundreds of modern products, such as the electronic supermarket checkout scanner, the vacuum tubes at bank teller drive-through windows, the wheeled golf club caddy, the hand-operated roller for reading credit cards, and drinking faucet filters. He owns the Walton-based AQW (Always Quality Work) Inc. and serves as engineering consultant for the firm, which he founded in the 1970s with his wife, Frances Flynn Wireman. The company has approximately 15 employees and is a government defense contractor and supplier of military parts for use in submarines, tanks, and aircraft. Its customer base includes NATO-member foreign governments and the United Nations as well as the U.S. government. Twice the federal government has honored Wireman. He received the Department of Defense Value Engineering award for development of superior cost-effective and efficient products, and he was given a Certificate of Appreciation from the Department of Defense for his contributions to the success of Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He also served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II, attaining the rank of master sergeant. Wireman probably is best known for his invention and design of desiccants, or dehydrators, which eliminate moisture from missiles, fighter planes, and military equipment. In 1972 he invented a molecular adsorber, which, operating on similar principles, removes moisture from molecules and also eliminates odors. AQW Inc. has made hundreds of thousands of these products and supplied them to the U.S. military, saving the government significant amounts of money. The
molecular adsorber is made available commercially through Wireman’s other company, WIRED (Wireman Industrial Research Engineering and Development) Inc. and is sold under the names Adzorbit and Adsorb Star. These products, which first entered the market in 1988, remove odors and gases; they can even remove cigarette smoke odors from large spaces. Using small pellets of sodium aluminosilicate, the products draw moisture and odor molecules into themselves, thereby eliminating odor from the environment rather than hiding it. Wireman holds trademarks for Adsorb Star as well as for a product called Toxic Out, which works similarly to remove toxic fumes and gases from the air. Toxic Out is currently used in the printing industry as well as in the X-ray, radiology, and pathology departments of health care facilities. Wireman has been a consumer safety advocate for most of his adult life, testifying regarding electrical safety as an expert witness at trials and before U.S. congressional hearings and committees. In 2003 he published The Call to Solve: What Every Fireman Should Know, which details his thoughts on electrical safety. Wireman showed a natural genius for engineering, electronics, and creativity, even as a child. One of his first inventions was a basic intercom system that allowed his mother to summon him by “buzzing” his attic bedroom with the touch of a button. During the days before indoor plumbing, he also laid electrical wiring to illuminate the family outhouse. He was an industrious youth, either figuring things out on his own or learning from library books about electronics and engineering. He created his own toys from unwanted parts found in junkyards, built a bicycle tire out of a broken piece of garden hose, and rebuilt a Ford Model T automobile with a friend. During his teens, he worked as a golf caddy, and this work inspired him to develop the first pull cart for golf clubs. During his youth, Wireman’s family moved from Kentucky to Cincinnati, so that his father could take a job as a laborer with the Frank Taylor Company. The move allowed Wireman to attend and graduate from Withrow High School in that city. Afterward, the young Wireman also began work as a laborer at the Frank Taylor Company and was quickly promoted to maintenance electrician, supervisor, and then chief industrial engineer. He is a self-proclaimed problem-solver, who enjoys inventing solutions and then seeking out the next challenge. The now 87-year-old inventor maintains a daily presence at AQW Inc. and often answers the phone there. Fulmer, Kelly F., executive vice president and chief operations officer, AQW Inc. Interview by Sarah A. Barlage, February 12, 2006, Walton, Ky. “Saving Money for Uncle Sam,” KP, February 6, 1990, 1K–2K. Toxic Out: Molecular Adzorber. www.adzorbit.com (accessed July 2, 2006). Wireman, Wally, president of AQW Inc. and WIRED Inc. Interview by Sarah A. Barlage, June 28, 2006, Union, Ky.
Sarah A. Barlage
WISENALL, BERNARD T. (b. September 4, 1869, Maysville, Ky.; d. July 16, 1942, Covington, Ky.). Bernard T. Wisenall was the son of John Bernard and Jane Eckmann Campbell Wisenall. In April 1893 he formed a partnership with Louis E. Dittoe, to create the architectural firm of Dittoe and Wisenall. The firm’s architects designed a number of buildings in Northern Kentucky, including the Covington City Hall (on E. Third St. between Court and Greenup Sts., demolished), the Kentucky Post Building, the First Christian Church, Covington, and an addition to the Citizens National Bank Building. They also designed the Pugh Building (later called the Polk Building) in Cincinnati. In 1900 Wisenall married Emma Rambo of Newport. The partnership of Dittoe and Wisenall was dissolved in 1910, when Dittoe took a teaching position at the Ohio Mechanics Institute in Cincinnati. Wisenall continued to design buildings in Covington on his own, including an addition to the Kelley-Koett Company’s building. With architect Chester Disque, he drew the plans for the John G. Carlisle Junior High School and the Third District School and was the project architect for the 1917 Dixie Highway Beautification Project. In 1924 he designed the Ben Adams Insurance Building on the northwest corner of Fift h St. and Madison Ave. Three years later, he drew plans for the Girls Friendly Building at the Trinity Episcopal Church. He was a staunch supporter of the Covington YMCA. Wisenall died at age 72 at his home, Hathaway Hall, at 1210 Highway Ave. in Covington. Funeral ser vices were held at the Trinity Episcopal Church, and he was buried at Highland Cemetery in Fort Mitchell. “Covington Architect,” KP, January 2, 1917, 1. Kenton Co. Public Library. “Covington Biographies: Bernard T. Wisenall.” www.kenton.lib.ky.us (accessed September 24, 2007). “New Building on Way,” KP, May 15, 1924, 1. Tenkotte, Paul A. A Heritage of Art and Faith: Downtown Covington Churches. Covington, Ky.: Kenton Co. Historical Society, 1986.
WITHERS FAMILY. The Withers family, merchants residing in Covington in 1861, found themselves “caught in the middle” when hostilities broke out in the Civil War. Descended from a longestablished line of colonial Virginians, the proSouth Withers family were tobacco merchants. Their company’s suppliers certainly had Southern sympathies, and to a lesser extent the same was true of customers in the markets they served; but the Withers family operated their tobacco business in a region that was predominantly pro-Union. The patriarch of the family was Charles A. Withers, who was born in Stafford Co., Va., on June 10, 1800. His wife, Matilda Lynch, was born in Lynchburg, Va., on September 6, 1811. They arrived in Northern Kentucky about 1836, and Charles became a partner in the Withers & Carpenter Company, tobacco manufacturers. The business was located in Cincinnati, but the family lived in Covington at Greenup and Market Sts. (Park Pl.). Charles A. Withers was a founder of Trinity Episcopal Church, a member of the