Wilson Ishida Family Fund

The Wilson Ishida Family Fund was created in 2024 by Millie Stockdale to honor her father and her family’s legacy in Marion, Ohio. This field of interest fund supports youth programs and animal welfare causes in Marion.

This fund’s namesake, Wilson (1917-2006), was ahead of his time in promoting a “shop local first” attitude. He was a businessman who loved and supported Marion in all ways possible. He moved here from Fresno, California, in 1939. He married Sally Yokoyama (1920-1998) in 1942, and raised a family here – two sons, Rick (1945-2011) and Larry (1942-2014), and daughter Millie. He owned and operated several businesses, most notably the Ishida Concrete Company.

A graduate of the Chicago School of Photography, he took movies of the Harding High School football games for many years. He combined his love of photography with a passion for flying, taking aerial photographs for Marion County Conservation. He held his pilot’s license and owned several Cessnas over the years.

Wilson was an avid sportsman, as a participant and a baseball coach. He was president of Marion’s Baseball for Youth for many years and coached the Isaly and American Legion teams. He coached his sons’ baseball teams from Little League to post-high school and regularly attended their college games at Indiana University and Otterbein College. He pulled his daughter’s horses to shows from the time she was 7-years-old to adulthood.

Off the field, he loved fishing – winters in Florida and summers in Canada and on Lake Erie. He was an experienced and accomplished Ham Radio Operator and loved travel – throughout the United States, Mexico, and Japan.

Both Wilson and Sally were supportive parents throughout their lives, which their family honors through this charitable fund at Marion Community Foundation.