Frackville to recognize Chuma at borough council Monday
By Kaylee Lindenmuth | [email protected]
FRACKVILLE – Frackville borough council is set to recognize a Vietnam veteran and dedicated community volunteer on Monday at their regular council meeting.
John Chuma, a Frackville native, will receive the honor of having the borough’s teener baseball field named after him. According to Mayor Kim Phillips, he coached four Schuylkill County championship teams, including three in a row from 2015 to 2017.
Normally, council meetings are held on Wednesday evenings at the borough building, but council moved their time and venue to 7:00pm Monday at the Elks in anticipation of a crowd.
Chuma, a 1967 North Schuylkill grad, played a variety of sports in Frackville, including baseball from Little League through the teener and legion levels to high school. He also played basketball at Frackville High.
A few years after graduation, in 1969, he completed a year of duty in Vietnam before battling cancer at the Walter Reed Army Hospital.
Following his discharge from the army, he completed a degree at Penn State Schuylkill to teach electronics at vocational schools.
In 1972, he married the late Susan Hinkle, and through their 29-year marriage, they had three kids — John, Angela, and Kris — and seven grandchildren.
He was also a business owner in Frackville, operating John’s TV Repair from ’73 to ’88, and Dynamark Security from ’79 to ’06. John sold the security business in ’06, and it continues today as DM2 Security.
Chuma is an avid community volunteer, and has coached teener baseball for four decades. Since the 1970s, he’s als umpiring little league games, coached little league, teeners, and biddy basketball. He was a part of the Frackville Little League’s first District 24 title, and assisted in a multitude of championships in teeners and legion baseball.
In the community itself, he’s a past vice president of Frackville borough council, past president of Frackville Biddy Basketball, Frackville Midget Football, North Schuylkill Football Halftime Club, and North Schuylkill Basketball.
He remains active in the Elks, the VFW, AMVETS, American Legion, and on the Frackville Flag Community. He was also a member of the Frackville Jaycees, Rec Board, and Lions Club.
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