TWHS Distinguished Alumni

Distinguished Alumni of Worthington Schools 2006 Honorees
	Dr.George H. Bonnell, Jr. (1913-1997) – 1931 graduate – was a WWII veteran who returned to Worthington and joined his father in the practice of medicine, with their offices in front of the family home on the SE corner of the Village Green. In 1975, Dr. Bonnell closed his Worthington office and became the first faculty member in the new Department of Family Medicine at the OSU College of Medicine. Dr. Bonnell served on the Worthington Board of Education beginning in 1952. During his 20 years of service, he was instrumental in the growth of the district by eight new buildings. Dr. Bonnell served on the WHS Athletic Board from 1952-1972, was a team doctor for WHS for two decades, and was a founding board member of Swiminc. Dr. Bonnell’s widow, Betty, still resides in the home where they raised their six children who all graduated from WHS - Sally Fullerton ‘59, George III (Spike) ’61, Susie ‘64, Jeff ‘66, Nick ‘69, and Amy Young ’73. Home Page
	Bob Foster – 1948 – is a Korean Conflict veteran and spent his career in Public Service. He graduated from OSU in 1955. For thirteen years, he was on the Distinguished Foreign Visitors and Presidential detail of the Secret Service, where the expectation is that you will step in front of any bullets or take out anyone intending to harm those you are protecting. He was with the Kennedy children in DC when JFK was shot in Dallas, and in the films of the funeral procession, he can be seen walking behind the family. After retiring from the Secret Service, he was appointed U.S. Marshall for the southern district of Ohio. After 13 years as Marshall, he was appointed Sergeant of Arms for the Ohio House of Representatives, serving in that position for six years. Bob currently is a resident at First Community Village.
	Bob Hill – 1967 – is an NBA veteran and is in his first full season as head coach for the Seattle Sonics. He joined the Sonics staff with 30-plus years of basketball coaching experience including stints in the NBA, CBA, NCAA and international competition. Bob graduated from BGSU in 1972 and served as an assistant coach for several universities. From 1994 through 1996, Bob led the San Antonio Spurs to a record of 121-43, won two division titles and guided his team to the Western Conference Finals in 1995. In his five full seasons as an NBA coach, Bob and his teams reached the playoffs each year. Bob has inspired both players and coaches throughout his career and is the author of the book, “Coaching for Success and Beyond.”
	John P. McConnell – 1972 – is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Worthington Industries. Since being named to this position in 1993, John has launched a strategic plan based on the company focusing on its core strengths in the steel industry. He has positioned the company for worldwide growth through numerous international acquisitions and recently unveiled a new brand identity program. His impact in the company through the years has contributed to the company’s recognition by Fortune Magazine as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For.” Worthington Industries operates under the philosophy of “We treat our customers, employees, investors and suppliers, as we would like to be treated.” John has authorized the support of Worthington Industries for Summer Institute, high school weight rooms, Summer School, PCC, the Worthington Bicentennial, and the Gary Smith Classic, to name a few. He has served on numerous boards including Leadership Worthington and the Worthington Educational Foundation.
	Betty Montgomery – 1966 – graduated from BGSU in 1970 and the U. of Toledo College of Law in 1976. Betty has spent her entire career focused on protecting Ohio’s most vulnerable citizens. She has prosecuted criminals, helped victims, protected taxpayers, reshaped Ohio law, and continues to work as Ohio’s first woman Auditor of State. She has also served the public as a criminal prosecutor, Ohio State Senator, and Ohio’s first woman Attorney General. She has been recognized for excellence in service and advocacy including receiving the Best Brief Award for briefs filed with the U.S. Supreme Court for an unprecedented six years in a row. She received four national awards for the innovative WebCheck background check program and was awarded the Consumer Agency Achievement Award from the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators. Betty is currently seeking the position of Ohio Attorney General.
	Claire Shipman – 1980 – began her broadcast career as a production assistant and intern at CNN’s bureau in New York. Claire holds a graduate degree in international affairs from Columbia U. and a B.A. in Russian studies, also from Columbia. Claire’s Moscow coverage helped CNN earn a National Headliners Award and her reporting on the aborted Soviet coup and 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union won the network a coveted Peabody Award. She also received a Dupont Award and an Emmy as one of the key contributors to CNN’s coverage of the 1989 Tiananmen Square student uprising. In 1997, Claire began as a White House correspondent for NBC News. She regularly reported on presidential policy and politics for the NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw and for the Today show. In 2001, Claire joined ABC News’ Good Morning America as the show’s senior national correspondent and also serves as a substitute anchor on the news segments of Good Morning America.
	Paul Snouffer – 1939 – was influenced by then Principal H.C. McCord to enroll in the OSU School of Architecture. While attending OSU, he was an Army reservist and was called to service in WWII. After the war, he completed his degree from OSU in 1948 and went on to form Lawrence and Snouffer Architects that designed and remodeled many buildings and additions including Colonial Hills, KMS, Brookside, Worthington Hills and Dow Nelson Field House. Paul served as a member of the committee to incorporate the City of Worthington in 1953 and was an early leader of the Worthington Cardinal Boosters. He also served as president of the Worthington High School Alumni Thirty Year Club. Paul and his late wife, Harriet, also a WHS graduate, raised three sons who graduated from WHS- Dan ’62, Stan ’65, and John ’70. Paul still resides in Worthington.
	Carl Wick – 1956 - is a retired executive of NCR Corporation where his most recent position required him to be responsible for the training and development of 4,500 product development engineers in over 20 NCR plants worldwide. After graduating from OSU, he began his work in education as a science teacher and high school basketball and football coach. Bob was appointed by Governor Bob Taft to the Ohio State Board of Education in 2001 and currently co-chairs the State Board’s Capacity Committee, the State Board’s Quality High School Committee and the State Board’s Quality High School Task Force. He was awarded the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Citation of Honor for leadership contributions to engineering education and career development.

Distinguished Alumni of Worthington Schools 2007 Honorees
	George T. Harding IV, M.D. – 1946 – graduated from La Sierra University in 1949 and received his MD from Loma Linda University in 1953. He continued his postgraduate psychiatric education at The Ohio State University and Harding Hospital. George served as a psychiatrist in the US Army Medical Corps from 1955-57. He joined his father, uncles, brother and nephew in the operation of Harding Hospital which his grandfather had established in 1919 in Worthington. He served as Director of Residency Training from 1962-1981 and was President and Medical Director from 1973-1994, further developing the integration of spirituality and religion within the Bio-psycho-social-spiritual approach to Psychiatric treatment. He was a founding member of the Franklin County Mental Health and Retardation Board, the first in Ohio, and an ongoing advocate for mental health and the mentally ill. He served as President of the Ohio Psychiatric Association and was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the Board of Regents, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. George has been a clinical professor of Psychiatry at The Ohio State University since 1975 and a professor of Psychiatry at Loma Linda University in California since 2004. He negotiated the merger of OSU/Harding in 1998 which integrated the operations of Harding Hospital into The Ohio State University Medical Center. George has authored numerous scientific papers and publications. He and his wife, Joan, have five daughters, all of who attended Worthington High School. They currently maintain residences both in Worthington and California.
	Herndon P. Harding, M.D. – 1948 – attended LaSierra College for his undergraduate work and graduated from Loma Linda University Medical School in 1957. He completed his internship at The Ohio State University Hospital and his residency in Worthington in Psychiatry. Herndon joined the United States Public Health Service as a service obligation, caring for coastguardsmen who needed mental health care. One of his major assignments was to interview all individuals seeking Peace Corps assignments. Upon returning to Harding Hospital, which his grandfather had established in Worthington in 1919, Herndon established an addiction program for men and women of all ages and all types of addiction. During his 35 years of practice at Harding Hospital, he served as staff psychiatrist, Director of Addiction Services, Director of Residency Training, and later Associate Medical Director. In his practice, he worked with the senior population and also taught medical students at The Ohio State University Medical School for over 30 years where he held the appointment of Assistant Professor of Psychiatry. He served as the president of the Central Ohio Psychiatric Society and President of the Medical Forum of Central Ohio. His three children all graduated from Worthington High School. Herndon and his wife, Belinda, reside on a farm in Centerburg, Ohio, and work with as many as 30 children per week who have special needs from a variety of handicaps, using specially trained horses in their therapy.
	Lawrence “Pete” Fields (1932-1999) – 1950 graduate - was an athlete who excelled in baseball, basketball and football. He earned a B.S. in Education from Otterbein College and a M.S. Degree in Education Administration from The Ohio State University. He played many years of amateur and semi-pro baseball in the Columbus area. For over 41 years, Pete was known throughout Ohio as an umpire. He was one of the first African Americans to officiate in the Ohio Conference. Pete was a lifelong member of St. John A.M.E. Church in Worthington. After serving in the U.S. Army, 3rd Infantry Division, Pete was employed by the Columbus Public School District, where he taught 5th and 6th grades at Eleventh Avenue School from 1958-1968. From 1968-71, he was a teacher on special assignment in the Department of Special Program Development and continued in that department from 1971-1989 as Supervisor in the Department of Federal and State Programs and as Fiscal Officer. He retired from the school system in 1990 after 32 years of service. His employment also included being a part-time instructor in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation at The Ohio State University. His numerous civic activities included: Advisory Boards of: Oakley Baptist Church Boy Scout Troop, J.J. Ashburn Youth Center and St. Charles Preparatory School. He volunteered for Neighborhood House, J. Ashburn Youth Center, The Sideliners, Golden Glove, Beatty Recreation Center, and the 11th Avenue Recreation Center. He and his wife, Rosanna, are the parents of three children, all of who graduated from Worthington High School, and the proud grandparents of two grandsons.
	Charles F. “Chic” Dambach – 1962 - earned a BA degree from Oklahoma State University and an MBA degree from Wake Forest University. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia from 1967-1969 and elected Peace Corps Volunteer Leader for the region. He was President and CEO of the National Peace Corps Association from 1991-1997 and created an Emergency Response Network to link former Peace Corps Volunteers with the non-government organizations and government agencies to meet special needs throughout the world. The first major project sent dozens of volunteers to help the UN and several agencies in the aftermath of the Genocide in Rwanda. In 1998 Chic formed a team of returned Peace Corps Volunteers to work informally with the leaders of Eritrea and Ethiopia to help end their border war. Prime Minister Meles of Ethiopia recognized their team for “creating the momentum and the spirit which made the historic achievement of the peace treaty possible.” He was invited to the treaty signing ceremony. Chic was an official U.S. delegate to the United Nations World Food Conference in Rome in 2000, and in 2001 received the “Global Coalition Peace Award” from the International Platform Association. Chic served for eight years as Chairman of the Coalition for American Leadership Abroad, a network of 50 major international affairs organizations which co-sponsors nationally televised “town meetings” on foreign policy issues with the US Department of State. In 2005, he became President and CEO of the Alliance for Peacebuilding, a network of 50 leading organizations worldwide dedicated to reduce violence and foster peace and security. Chic has three children and lives with his wife, Kay, in Crownsville, Maryland.
	Dana Tyler – 1977 – graduated from Boston University’s School of Management with a degree in marketing and broadcast journalism. She began her career at WBNS-TV in Columbus before moving to WCBS as a weekend anchor and reporter. In 1990 she became a part of history when she and the late Reggie Harris became the first African-American anchor team in the New York market on WCBS-TV. Throughout her tenure at WCBS, she has worked among the most famous and some of the most legendary faces in New York City. In 2003 Dana received Emmy Awards for coverage of an Instant Breaking News Story for anchoring the “New York City Blackout” and for Outstanding Single Newscast, “CBS 2 News at 11: City Hall Shooting.” In 2006, she received a New York Association of Black Journalists Award for her reporting on “The Color Purple.” An integral part of the CBS 2 news team for more than 16 years, Dana was honored by McDonald’s at the Museum of Television and Radio as one of the 2007 Black Broadcast Legends. She also has received numerous Emmy nominations for her work. Dana participates in numerous station and charity events. After several years as a classroom volunteer, she is a member of the Board of Trustees of Learning Leaders, the nearly 15,000-member volunteer organization dedicated to New York City’s 1.1 million public school students. Dana currently co-anchors the CBS 2 News at Noon and 6 PM weeknights with Jim Rosenfield. In addition to anchoring, Dana takes viewers inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art in her weekly report “CBS 2 at the MET” every Sunday morning.

Distinguished Alumni of Worthington Schools 2008 Honorees
	Kaye W. Kessler, Class of 1941, went to work at the Citizen after graduating from high school. After serving in World War II, he returned to the newspaper in 1946 and was a sportswriter for 40 years at two Columbus newspapers. Kessler was on the scene for most of Jack Nicklaus' record 18 victories in the major championships. He also covered the career of Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes and the OSU basketball team that won the NCAA championship in 1960. He received the Memorial Golf Journalism Award for 2002, the PGA of America's Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism and was inducted into the Ohio Golf Hall of Fame. Kaye resides in Littleton, Colorado, and continues to work for the International golf tournament and still covers the Memorial Tournament in Dublin.
	Kay (Atkinson) Ball, RN, PhD(c), CNOR, FAAN, Class of 1967, is a perioperative nurse educator and consultant working with perioperative nurses, professional organizations, healthcare facilities, industry, and legislative groups. She has served as the Laser Program Director for Mount Carmel Heath and Grant Medical Center in Columbus. In 1997, Kay was inducted as a Fellow in the prestigious American Academy of Nursing. Kay has served on many nursing boards and in 2003 was the recipient of the AORN Award for Excellence and the Ohio Nurses Association's Excellence in Political Action Award. She has authored the book, Lasers: The Perioperative Challenge and planned and assisted with the first laser surgery on a dolphin at Sea World. Kay lives in Lewis Center, Ohio, and lectures in the United States and throughout the world on laser, surgical, healthcare, and nursing issues.
	Jim Kammerud, Class of 1978, is a director, writer, producer and animator. He began his career by co-founding the Character Builders animation studio in Columbus in 1986 with Jeff Smith, where he worked as an animator and storyboard artist for Bebe's Kids as well as Space Jam. In the late 1990's, Jim began working for Disney and directed and designed the new characters in The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea. He co-wrote and co-directed 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure and served as co-writer and co-producer of Tarzan II (2005). Recently he directed The Fox and the Hound 2, an all-new sequel. He won a DVD Exclusive Award for Best Director of a DVD Premier Movie for 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure, and was nominated for Best Screenplay as well. He also was nominated for an Annie Award for Outstanding Writing in an Animated Feature Production for the same film. Jim resides in Worthington, Ohio.
	Jeff Smith, Class of 1978, is a cartoonist best known as the creator of the self-published comic book series Bone. He co-founded Character Builders with classmate Jim Kammerud. During his years there, from 1986-1992, Jeff was consumed by the idea of creating a comic based on telling a long story. Bone is a comic fantasy that has been translated into 23 languages and has sold more than three million copies. Jeff has won numerous awards for Bone and 7 Harvey Awards as Best Cartoonist. While attending The Ohio State University, Smith created a daily four-panel strip for the student newspaper, The Lantern. Recently his artistry was displayed in an exhibition at the Wexner Center for the Arts, at The OSU, featuring 75 of his drawings. His newest works are Shazam! series for DC Comics and Rasl. Warner Bros. recently purchased the film rights to Bone. Jeff currently resides in Columbus, Ohio.

Distinguished Alumni of Worthington Schools 2009 Honorees
	Marilyn Landis Fagerstrom, Class of 1948, made her mark as a volunteer firefighter in Colorado. After working at the University of Nebraska as a PE professor for 25 years, she and her family moved permanently to their Colorado summer home in 1985. Marilyn took hundreds of hours of rigorous training to become a firefighter and joined the fledgling Lefthand volunteer fire department as a way to give back to the community. At the Yellowstone fire of 1988, she was the only woman in a 16-person crew, most of whom were much her junior. In 2000, she spent six straight weeks in the field on wildfires, including the monster at Mesa Verde National Park. In 2002, at age 71 and a grandmother of six, Marilyn ran the Olympic torch through Boulder and was honored by the U.S. House of Representatives for her spirit, service and tenacity as a firefighter. Marilyn has made firefighting her life because it allows her to experience camaraderie, adrenaline-laced physical challenge and the reward of helping others.
	Thomas C. Sawyer, Ph.D., Class of 1963, is President of Opinion Consultants, a national market research and communications consulting firm which he founded in 1997. After earning his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, he began his career in 1972 as Minority Counsel of the U.S. House Communications Sub-Committee in Washington. He became Executive Vice President of the Ohio Association of Broadcasters in 1975 and returned to Washington in 1983 to accept the position of Vice President, Washington Operations, NBC, Inc. Tom has taught part-time at several universities and co-authored two textbooks on communications. He did his undergraduate and masters work at The Ohio State University and was named Outstanding Senior Man at OSU in 1967. He was Chairman of the Board of the OSU Alumni Association from 1995-1997 and served on the Advisory Council to three OSU Presidents. Tom and his wife, Debbie, reside in Columbus.
	Pete Kight, Class of 1974, is considered a pioneer in financial services technology and today is vice chairman of Fiserv, Inc., a Fortune 500 company. Upon graduation, Pete left for California to become a college decathlete and in 1981 returned to Worthington to found CheckFree in his grandmother’s basement on Alrojo Street. In 2007 that business was sold to Fiserv for $4.4 Billion. Today if you pay bills online, access your accounts online, direct deposit your paycheck or use an ATM, chances are you are using an infrastructure that his company built. In 2007, Kight received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and was the first recipient of the Peter J. Kight Lifetime Achievement Award from Bank Technology News. He is a member of the Board of Directors of a variety of organizations. In recent years, his interest in wine and the science of grape growing led him to acquire an estate winery in California. He and his wife, Terri, are primary supporters of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta, where they currently reside.
	Dimitrious Stanley, Class of 1993, is currently a sports analyst for Buckeye Football Fever. During his years at The Ohio State University, he was a stand-out wide receiver helping the Buckeyes win four bowl titles including the 1997 Rose Bowl where, after running 72 yards in the third quarter, he caught two third-down passes as part of the remarkable final one minute fourth quarter drive and touchdown that put the Buckeyes on top 20-17. After graduating from Ohio State, Dimitrious played for the NFL Miami Dolphins and AFL New Jersey Reddogs. In 2000, he created the non-profit organization Camp Mind Games. Driven from the discipline he learned through years of coaching and hard work, he shares his wealth of knowledge as a personal trainer with Snap Fitness in Grandview Heights. For the past seven years, Dimitrious has served as the commentator for the Battle of Worthington, the basketball game between selected middle school students and Worthington Special Olympic Stars. His compassion, enthusiasm and humor make the event a truly joyous and moving experience for players and spectators.