Oklahoma CareerTech Hall of Fame
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This list of distinguished career and technology education supporters includes men and women who have demonstrated a lifelong commitment and support of career and technology education in Oklahoma.
Currently, the award is given to individuals who, through their outstanding professional and personal achievements, have brought honor and distinction to career and technology education in Oklahoma.
The Oklahoma CareerTech Hall of Fame is sponsored by the Oklahoma Foundation for Career and Technology Education.
2007
- Charlotte Edwards is a retired Executive Director of the Oklahoma Association of Career and Technology Education. She taught Distributive Education at Muskogee High School, served as an assistant director at the W.P. Bill Willis Skills Center in Tahlequah and lead lobbyist for OkACTE for more than 20 years. On the national level, Edwards lobbied successfully for grants and advocacy for the Carl Perkins Act and served as president of the National Association of Executive Directors in Career Tech.
- Senator Ted V. Fisher was elected to the Oklahoma Senate in 1986 and sponsored the legislation that provided funding for the Training for Industry Programs, authored the Welfare Reform Act, established regional centers of the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics and now works as an economic development director for his hometown of Sapulpa.
- Mike Stephens, an agricultural education teacher and FFA adviser for 36 years, taught at Guthrie and Chickasha High Schools. His Chapters won the National Gold Emblem Chapter 17 times. FFA chapters that Stephens advised also claimed 12 state officers, one national officer and three State Star Farmers of Oklahoma.
- Ron Wilkerson, retired chief communications officer at the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education, joined the staff as assistant career information officer in February 1973. He led the evolution of the agency’s unified communications and marketing force that includes a communications or public relations professional at nearly every technology center and coordinated the first statewide marketing campaign for CareerTech.
- Elmer L. “Tex” Williamsonbegan his career at the Hodgens Correctional Center, later renamed the Jim E. Hamilton Skills Center, part of the CareerTech system working as a counselor and retiring 31 years later as a student services specialist. Tex worked to transform the Skills Centers from “inmate training” to a credible school system focused on industry needs and student outcomes. Among his many awards, Williamson also received the Region IV Educator of the Year Award in the Skills Center Division from the American Vocational Association.
2005
- RL Beaty- For more than 35 years Beaty worked for the state CareerTech agency. He began as an assistant supervisor of the Finance Division and held several positions before becoming chief of staff. He retired in 2003. During his tenure the annual budget of the department grew from $6.5 million to $170 million and his influence in fiscal responsibility is evidenced throughout the United States. Many states adopted and still use a cost per program model he developed.
- Ann Benson - Benson launched her career by teaching home economics in her hometown of Coyle, Oklahoma. She served as curriculum specialist and assistant state director of ODCTE before being appointed state director in 1999. She led the initiative for basic skills integration in CareerTech courses to strengthen academic performance. In her first year as state director, she championed the system’s name change from vocational education to career and technology education to more accurately reflect how career and technology education is delivered. She retired in 2003.
- Sam Combs - Combs taught vocational agriculture at Wheatley High School in Beggs before being hired by the Soil Conservation Service. He retired from SCS in 1990. He was a champion of high school vocational agricultural programs and co-founded the Retired Educators for Agriculture Programs (REAP) to address the shortage of African-American role models in agricultural-related occupations. Today REAP works to increase minority participation in FFA, provide mentors, locate college scholarships and encourage young African-Americans to train for careers in agriculture. Combs died in 1999.
- Chuck Hopkins - Hopkins earned national recognition by developing and teaching Management by Objectives to career and technology educators throughout the United States. He was employed by the State CareerTech Department (formerly Vo-Tech) for 30 years in planning, evaluation, curriculum, federal programs, equity and career information and guidance before retiring as an assistant director in 1999. He helped develop a major portion of the 1984 Federal Vocational Education Carl D. Perkins Act for the American Vocational Association.
- Frosty Troy- Troy, editor of The Oklahoma Observer, is an ardent support of CareerTech education. He worked for newspapers in McAlester, Muskogee and Lawton before becoming associate editor of the Tulsa Tribune. He and his wife, Helen, purchased the Oklahoma Observer in 1970 and changed it to a journal of commentary on politics, government and social issues. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and shared the Walter Cronkite Faith and Freedom Award with ABC’s Peter Jennings.
2003
- Arthur Foster is a former community banker and president of the board for Central Technology Center in Drumright/Sapulpa.
- Dr. Clyde Knight is Dr. Clyde Knight, a former trade and industrial education professor at Oklahoma State University.
- DeAnn Pence is a vocational family and consumer sciences instructor who taught at Chandler High School for more than 30 years.
- Dr. J.W. Weatherford is a former professor from the University of Central Oklahoma who taught vocational teacher education for 27 years.
2001
- Gus Friedmann
- Ruth Killough
- Roy Peters, Jr
- Bill Powers
- Jean Robertson
1999
- Vic Van Hook
- John Hopper
- Dale Hughey
- Dr. Joe Lemley
- Wayne Miller
- Marvin Stokes
1997
- Dr. Roy Ayres
- Ted Best
- Dr Bob Brown
- Dr Willa Combs
- Dr Coaken Jones
- Ernest Muncrief
1995
- Edna Crow
- Jess Banks
- Bruce Gray
- Ralph Dressen
- Hugh Lacy
- Mary Randall
1993
- Larry Hansen
- Bill Harrison
- Don Ramsey
- May Rollow
1991
- Arch Alexander
- MJ DE Benning
- Dick Fisher
- Gus Friedman
- Ruth Killlough
- Lucille Patton
- Jean Robertson
- Dr Roy Peters
- Bill G Powers
- Wes Watkins
1990
- Dewey Bartlett
- Otha Grimes
- Caroline Hughes
- Byrle Killian
- George Nigh
- J.B. Perky
- Robert Price
- Roy Stewart
- Lela O’Toole
- Francis Tuttle
Links
See also
- Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education
- List of school districts in Oklahoma
- List of private schools in Oklahoma
- List of colleges and universities in Oklahoma
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