The 14th class of the Wall of Honor at Hutchinson High School includes foster parent and a community volunteer, a businessman and an educator and musician.
The 2012 honorees are Carol Strickland Howell, foster parent and community volunteer; Randy Johnston, technology consultant and businessman; and Sherman Gunn, educator and musician.
The trio will be honored during the annual Wall of Honor Banquet at 6:30 p-m, May 7 in the Events Center at the Hutchinson Career and Technical Education Academy, 800 15th Circle. Tickets are on sale and cost $20 each with proceeds benefiting district programs through the Hutchinson Public Schools Endowment Fund.
Reservations can be made by contacting Chris Weiser at (620) 615-4122 or via email at weiserc@usd308.com.
The project, a joint venture of the HHS Student Council, the Renaissance Club and the HHS Alumni Association, recognizes three outstanding graduates of Hutchinson High School each year.
Plaques honoring the alumni are located in the lobby of the Salthawk Activity Center. For more information, contact David T. Patterson, director of the Hutchinson Career and Technical Education Academy, at (620) 615-4123. Brief biographical sketches of the 2012 class follow.
Carol Strickland Howell
Carol Strickland Howell, foster parent and community volunteer, graduated from Hutchinson High School in 1967. Nominated by many ladies in her graduating class, Mrs. Howell has touched the lives of over one hundred and twenty foster children by providing a home for troubled children.
Mrs. Howell began her service as a CASA volunteer many years ago, and approached her husband, Mel, about taking in a child who was slated to be removed from his home. Mr. Howell was able to secure an emergency license from the judge, and the next day the couple began training in foster care and taking in children.
After her husband’s death, Mrs. Howell continued to take in foster children through Youthville. Most of these children returned to their families after being given love and discipline in her home, but she adopted children as well.
In addition to providing structure, stability, boundaries and an example to live by for these children, Mrs. Howell has worked with teachers, case managers, social service personnel, health care providers and the birth families. She has trained to be a leader for PS-MAPP classes, an informational program for foster parents.
Mrs. Howell also shares her energy with senior citizens who need help with housework. She is known as being humble and has touched many lives across many cultures and generations. Mrs. Howell is a professional and detail-oriented role model and works tirelessly to maintain the Youthville mission, “Giving Children Back Their Childhood.”
Randy Johnston
Randy Johnston, local business owner, author, and nationally-renowned consultant, graduated from Hutchinson High School in 1973. A graduate of Hutchinson Community College and Kansas State University, Mr. Johnston earned his master’s degree in computer science from Wichita State University.
Starting his career on an IBM mainframe, he eventually gained vast experience as a programmer, college instructor, author, entrepreneur and consultant. At one time, he received the first IBM PC in Kansas and the first Compaq portable computer in the state.
Eventually Mr. Johnston became involved with the development of local area networks, computer aided design, desktop publishing and wide area networks. Mr. Johnston continues to consult with some of the country’s most progressive accounting firms as well as many other industries including banking, manufacturing, and distribution, and a broad range of computer software publishers and hardware manufacturers.
Mr. Johnston is the husband of Pam Johnston, also an HHS graduate, and the proud father of four children, also alumni of HHS. He also has found time to enjoy family, golf and playing the bass clarinet in the Hutchinson Municipal Band, for which he has served as president. Mr. Johnston served on the USD 308 Board of Education and was vital in the development of a plan to update outdated technology district wide. He also enjoys writing and has published a number of books over the past thirty years, including programming texts and computer introduction books.
Published or quoted in hundreds of magazines, newspapers and journals over his career, Mr. Johnston has been recognized as one of the Top 100 influencers in the accounting industry from 2004-2011. Mr. Johnston has been invited to speak at more than 50 state, national and international conferences each year.
Sherman Gunn
Sherman D. Gunn, musician, educator, and administrator, sums up his experiences with these words: “from Hutch High School to Carnegie Hall to Las Vegas. That was it in a nutshell.”
Graduating from Hutchinson High School in 1958, Mr. Gunn’s first memory of HHS is playing trumpet with his father, the band director, in front of his students, at the tender age of 4. He was involved in every musical group possible in his high school years as well as enjoying stints with the Sky Riders Drum and Bugle Corps. He attended Hutchinson Community College and the University of Texas for his bachelor’s degree, and earned a master’s in education administration at the University of Nevada.
Mr. Gunn has played for the Dallas Symphony, recorded jingles for television commercials, played with the Glenn Miller Orchestra in New York and recorded albums with Glenn Miller and others. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1963, and played in the NORAD Band in Colorado Springs with the finest musicians in the Air Force and Navy.
Mr. Gunn spent the next 30 years in Las Vegas, playing showrooms and lounges with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Don Rickles at Caesar’s Palace. He and his first wife raised their children there and during those years, Mr. Gunn recorded on RCA records with Elvis Presley and toured with Ray Charles.
In the middle 1970s, he became director of jazz studies at Westminster College in Salt Lake City and enjoyed playing for the ice shows, the Ringling Brothers Circus, several jazz festivals, and the Donny and Marie Osmond Show.
Later, Mr. Gunn formed his 18-piece big band and a music booking agency that still exists today.