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Page 1 of 3 Wall of Honor
To perpetuate our tradition of excellence and inspire current students, outstanding alumni are selected annually by the Olathe District Schools Alumni Association for Wall of Honor recognition. The purpose of this prestigious award is to recognize Olathe School District alumni for their lifetime achievements.
Candidates must be Olathe School District graduates, must have graduated at least 20 years prior to the nomination, and must have attained a high level of achievement in at least one of the following areas: personal and/or professional life; community/ humanitarian service; or lifelong commitment to educational excellence.
The first class of honorees was inducted in 2007. Additional graduates will be selected each year by a committee of the Olathe District Schools Alumni Association. Nominations are accepted on an ongoing basis.
The association plans to have a wall of plaques honoring each inductee in the lobby of the district's Education Center, 14160 Black Bob Road, Olathe, Kansas.
2009 Honorees
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Lena Bell
Olathe High School Class of 1890
(March 1875 – Dec. 25, 1922)
Out of 20 applicants, Lena Bell was chosen as Olathe’s first librarian. Appointed in 1910, she established the library in two rooms at City Hall with 300-400 books. With a gift from the Carnegie Foundation, the new library opened with several thousand volumes on the shelves in February 1914. Bell’s library career was especially characterized by her work with children and with the women’s clubs’ program committees. During World War I, she worked with the Red Cross gathering reading material for the soldiers and helping with Liberty Bond drives. She presided over the library until her untimely death in 1922, at which time she willed her personal collection of more than 100 books to the library.
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James Henry Brady
Olathe High School Class of 1880
(June 12, 1862 – Jan. 13, 1918)
James H. Brady was a dominant figure in the Republican Party in Idaho for several years. In 1900, he was appointed as a delegate to the Republican National Convention. He went on to serve as Idaho’s Governor from 1909-11. During his tenure, direct primaries were instituted, appropriations were secured for the initiation of the Idaho Children’s Home Finding and Aid Society (which is 101 years old and is currently called Children’s Home Society of Idaho), local option liquor laws were passed, Idaho’s sanitary and pure food department was advanced, and the Boise Chapter of National Council of Women Voters was organized. He served as U.S. senator from 1913 until his death in 1918. As a U.S. senator he was chairman of the Committee on National Banks. He was a member of the Committee on Disposition of Useless Executive Papers.
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Dorothy (Brenner) Francis
John P. St. John Memorial High School Class of 1944
(Nov. 30, 1926 - )
In 1948, Dorothy Brenner was the first woman at the University of Kansas to graduate with a bachelor of music degree with a major in trumpet. She was also the first woman from KU to travel with a professional dance band, The Ruth Coleman all-girl orchestra. Francis sold her first book, Adventures of Riverton Zoo, in 1966 and since then she has published 74 books for children and adults. Her writings cover many genres: short stories, picture books, children’s books, mysteries, romance, novels, and non-fiction. In 1982 and 1987 the Florida State Historical Society awarded two of her books, Captain Margana Mason and The Tomorrow Star the Charlton Tebeau Award for best children’s book. She won the Derringer Award in 1999 for the short story When in Rome as the best short story of the year.
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Larry A. Haskin
John P. St. John Memorial High School Class of 1951
(Aug. 17, 1934 - March 24, 2005)
Larry Haskin identified himself as a teacher, geochemist, physical chemist, planetary scientist, and sometimes farmer. He devoted much of his distinguished career to studying the moon. His prestigious honors and awards include a Guggenheim Fellow at Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg, Germany (1966-67); NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Award (1971); Ralph E. Morrow Distinguished University Professor (1986); Fellow, Meteoritical Society (1986); President, Geochemical Society (1987-89); Outstanding Faculty Member Award, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis; and NASA Group Achievement Award, Mars Exploration Rover Science Operations Team. In 2005, a prominent ridge on the east side of the Husband Hill summit on Mars was named “Haskin Ridge” in his honor. On Jan. 22, 2009 he was bestowed another galactic honor with the naming of “Haskin Crater” on the moon.
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Peter A. Martin
John P. St. John Memorial High School Class of 1950
(Oct. 12, 1932 - )
Pete Martin’s perseverance for moving Olathe from a town to a city is evident in the list of accomplishments during his tenure as the 38th mayor of Olathe. He was president of his senior classes in high school and law school. A prominent trial lawyer, he served as Olathe city commissioner in 1967 and mayor from 1968-1970. During his tenure, Olathe expanded city boundaries from 9.7 square miles to more than 33 square miles, which allowed planning of infrastructure for inevitable growth; widened Santa Fe; helped initiate major city services; passed the first fair housing law in Johnson County; initiated a high rise for the elderly and low-income housing; and strove to affect urban renewal and implement a Model Cities Program. Martin moved to historic Village of Redstone, Colo., in 1984 and served as a commissioner and chair of the Pitkin County (Aspen) Planning and Zoning Commission from 1997-2004. He is currently serving as vice chair of the Redstone Historical Preservation Commission and president of non-profit Redstone Historical Society. He said he’s living the family slogan "Your community rent is never paid; it's a continuing obligation".
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Lois (Mann) Taylor Roath
John P. St. Paul Memorial High School Class of 1944
(Jan. 26, 1926 – Sept. 17, 2006)
Lois Taylor Roath served as the City of Olathe’s first female mayor in 1985-86. She worked with her husband, Roy, who owned and operated Taylor Drug Store. She became interested in politics by attending town meetings, and became a city commissioner in 1983. At that time Olathe was under the City Commissioner form of government. In 1985, she was asked to become the first female mayor of Olathe; she accepted and was the 50th mayor for the city.
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Don Temple
John P. St. John Memorial High School Class of 1945
(Aug. 19, 1927 - )
Don Temple is a prominent entrepreneur and philanthropist in the Long Beach, Calif., area. He is an innovator in the development of the self-storage industry and was inducted into the “Wall of Fame” for the National Self Storage Association in September 2009. He has been credited with building the first ground-up, multi-story storage facility in the United States. He is an accomplished private pilot, participating with 21 planes in a 1992 “Around the World” flight in his twin-engine Cessna 421/C, landing by invitation in Moscow to become the first private plane pilot to land there after the overthrow of communism. His dedication and financial support established the Temple Family Cancer Center at Long Beach Community Hospital. He served in both World War II and Korea.
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