The Austin School District Board of Trustees has named eight outstanding alumni to its newly-created Alumni Hall of Fame. They will be honored at the School District's 125th Anniversary Gala on Saturday, August 26.

Trustees acted upon the recommendation of the 125th Anniversary Steering Committee in approving the inductees on March 27.

The Alumni Hall of Fame honorees are:

• Ada Anderson, educator & civic volunteer.
• Liz Carpenter, author.
• Ben Crenshaw, professional golfer.
• The Honorable Lloyd Doggett, United States Congressman.
• Michelle Madison, record company executive.
• Gloria Moreno, educator and civic volunteer.
• Cactus Pryor, broadcaster and raconteur.
• The Honorable Sam Sparks, U.S. Federal Judge.

"These first inductees into the Austin School District's Alumni Hall of Fame are outstanding graduates who are distinguished in their chosen business, profession, or life's work. We are proud to note that the education they received in their Austin schools laid the foundation for their life's accomplishments. I join our Trustees in saluting and thanking them for their wealth of contributions to Austin and to the world beyond," Dr. Forgione said.

In January, the Austin School District asked the community to nominate worthy individuals for the Hall of Fame. Approximately 150 nominations were received and considered by the 125th Anniversary Steering Committee.

The Austin School District will celebrate its 125th Anniversary during the 2006-2007 school year. The School District was founded on September 12, 1881. The purpose of the celebration is three-fold:

1. To celebrate a significant milestone in the history of the District on a districtwide and citywide basis.
2. To increase community knowledge of, and appreciation for, AISD's contributions to the history, development, and vitality of Austin.
3. To offer curricular opportunities that increase students' awareness of, and knowledge about, the history of their schools and of their contributions to our city.

The 125th Celebration is being planned by a committee of volunteers tri-chaired by Mrs. Ada Anderson, Mr. Tommy Cowan, and Mr. Gus Garcia.

Austin Independent School District Alumni Hall of Fame Inductees 2006

ADA ANDERSON

Ada Cecilia Collins Anderson has dedicated her life to creating educational opportunities for youth, advancing racial equality, and promoting the arts.

A former national corresponding secretary and South Central regional director of Jack and Jill of America, Incorporated, Mrs. Anderson helped to found the Austin chapter of this noteworthy organization in 1953; since then, the chapter has furthered the aims of its parent organization by providing constructive educational, cultural, civic, recreational, and social activities and programs for African American youths in the Austin community.

Mrs. Anderson's exemplary work with Jack and Jill is one of her many notable civic and professional accomplishments. After graduating from Huston-Tillotson College, she completed the coursework for a master's degree in library science, but because she was African American, she was denied opportunities for the program's required fieldwork as well as admission to the state library. She continued her education, however, and went on to earn a master's degree in educational psychology from The University of Texas at Austin and completed graduate courses in business and finance at Northwestern University.

Accomplished in the fields of education and business, Mrs. Anderson taught public school, served as a psychometrist for Austin ISD. She also co-owned a real estate and insurance firm with her husband.

While achieving a successful professional career, Mrs. Anderson also contributed to innumerable civic organizations and educational institutions, including the Austin Community College Board, and the UT College of Education Foundation Advisory Council. She served on the University of Texas Centennial Commission and is a life member of the University's Development Board as well as the National Council of Negro Women.

An avid supporter of the arts, Mrs. Anderson was on the Board of Trustees for the Laguna Gloria Art Museum for 15 years, and served as the Board's chair. She was a founding board member of the Austin Lyric Opera and the initiator of that organization's LEAP program, a highly successful endeavor that has provided hundreds of minority youth exposure to area cultural resources. Among the numerous other groups that have benefited from her leadership are the Texas Women's History Project Advisory Committee, the Grand Jury Association of Travis County, the Austin-Travis County Mental Health Association, St. David's Health Care Foundation, and United Way Capital Area.

This esteemed graduate of the Austin School District has been honored with numerous awards over the years, including election to the Texas Black Women's Hall of Fame in 1986 and the African American Women's Hall of Fame in 1990; she has received the Scroll of Honor from the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs, the Achievement in Education Award from the National Council of Negro Women, and the Leadership Award from the Austin Chamber of Commerce Business Committee on the Arts. Recent honors include the H. L. Gaines Human Relations Award from AISD and the Whitney M. Young, Jr., Award from Austin Area Urban League, both in 2001, the Leadership in Civil Rights Award from UT's LBJ School of Public Affairs, Austin's Most Worthy Citizen Award from the Austin Board of Realtors, both in 2004, and the Henry B. Gonzales Award for Human Rights from the Texas Civil Rights Project in 2005.

LIZ CARPENTER

At age 80, Liz Carpenter Ñ a sixth-generation Texan Ñ is a political artifact, a longtime feminist, an author, and a lecturer. She began her lifelong writing career in Washington in 1942 as a reporter covering the Roosevelt Administration. From 1945 to 1960 she and her late husband, Leslie Carpenter, operated the Carpenter News Bureau in Washington, D.C.

Under President Lyndon B. Johnson, she served as executive assistant to the vice president and later as White House staff director and press secretary to First Lady Lady Bird Johnson. Under President Gerald Ford, Mrs. Carpenter served on the International Women's Year Commission, and President Jimmy Carter appointed her Assistant Secretary of Education for Public Affairs. In naming her to the advisory committee of the White House Conference on Aging, President Bill Clinton is the fourth president to appoint Carpenter to a position of trust.

She wrote the best selling book Ruffles and Flourishes, and, in 1977, the Ladies Home Journal named her Woman of the Year in Government and Public Affairs. She is a founding member of the National Women's Political Caucus, chaired a national organization that fought for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, served as an assistant secretary in the Department of Education, was a consultant to the LBJ Library, and has distinguished lectureship at the University of Texas named after her. Mrs. Carpenter was also a speechwriter and the author of one of the most memorable speeches of the 1960s Ñ a 58-word, seven-sentence text that Lyndon Johnson delivered at Andrews Air Force Base after he stepped off the plane carrying the coffin of John F. Kennedy back to Washington. She is also a prolific author of magazine articles and books. Getting Better all the Time, Unplanned Parenthood, and Conversations of a Seventy-Something Surrogate Mother have made her an unofficial spokesperson for the aging American population.

Mrs. Carpenter is a University of Texas journalism school graduate and a recipient of the University of Texas' Distinguished Alumnus Award and is a member of the Texas Women's Hall of Fame.

BEN CRENSHAW

Ben Crenshaw was born on January 11, 1952, in Austin to Pearl (Johnson) Crenshaw, an elementary school teacher from Tazewell, Virginia, and Charles Edward Crenshaw IV, an attorney who had worked as an assistant to State Attorney General Price Daniel. The Crenshaws gave Ben his middle name in honor of Daniel, who later became a United States senator and governor of Texas. A scratch golfer himself, Charlie Crenshaw introduced his son to the game at the Country Club of Austin. Ben learned those lessons quickly, winning his first tournament - the Casis Elementary Open - in the fourth grade with a score of 96. Continuing to improve, he shot a 74 for eighteen holes when he was ten, and three years later qualified for the state junior tournament - a major event in Texas - with an impressive score of 69. At fifteen he won that championship, a feat he repeated in 1968, as well as the first of three consecutive Austin City championships, and in 1968 he took his first national title when he outperformed the field at the Jaycees Junior Championship.

At Austin High School, Crenshaw did not limit his activities to golf: he broad jumped and played guard in basketball, quarterback in football, and catcher in baseball. But golf continued to exert the strongest pull on him, and throughout high school he played up to thirty-six holes a day, ten months a year. His hard work paid off when he was a senior. Although an attack of bursitis kept him from competing in the U.S. Amateur, he finished thirty-second in the field at his first U.S. Open - ahead of such seasoned professionals as Gary Player, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus - and tied John Mahaffey for the low amateur medal. After that stunning performance, Lee Trevino, with whom Crenshaw had been paired for a round in that tournament, termed him "the best eighteen-year-old golfer (he had) ever seen." Crenshaw then went on to win eighteen of the nineteen tournaments he entered that year.

Awarded a golf scholarship, Crenshaw entered the University of Texas in 1970 with the intention of majoring in business administration. His presence and performance served as a catalyst for his Longhorn teammates at the four-day National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament at the Tucson National Golf Club. Playing a whirlwind round of golf on the final day, he led his team past a University of Florida squad that seemed to wilt under the Longhorns' pressure, and he captured the individual title - the first freshman ever to do so - with a record fifteen-under-par 273 for the tournament. He went on that year to win five other championships, to place fifth at the U.S. Amateur, and to tie for twenty-seventh at the U.S. Open against stiff professional competition. For his accomplishments, he was named to the 1971 All-American collegiate golf team.

Impressed by his abilities, critics of the game classed him with Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. Crenshaw justified the critics' high praise at the 1972 NCAA tournament at Cape Coral, Florida, where he sank a thirty-foot putt on the final hole to share the first-place prize with his teammate and rival, Tom Kite. In addition to capturing ten more championship titles in 1972, including the Trans-Mississippi Amateur and the Porter Cup, Crenshaw scored a 288 at the U.S. Amateur to tie for second place and was named to the U.S. World Amateur Cup team. He fared almost as well against the pros, placing 19th and winning low-amateur honors at his first Masters Tournament and fighting to an amazing tie for third at the Heritage Classic in South Carolina that fall.

Nevertheless, he hesitated to join the pro tour before finishing his studies because he wanted a college degree in case his golfing skills failed him. But after clinching his third NCAA title at Springwater, Oklahoma on June 23, 1973, and winning ten other championships that year, Crenshaw could no longer resist the temptation to turn professional. In August 1973, he entered the mandatory PGA Players School competition, and, three days later, overwhelmed the field with a twelve-stroke lead during the 144-hole qualifier to receive his approved player's card.

Although some professional golfers have won more major tournaments and others have collected more in winnings, Ben Crenshaw remains, after 29 years on tour, one of the most popular and talented players on the grueling PGA circuit. In 1991 Ben received the highest honor the USGA bestows when he received the Bob Jones Award. In recent years Crenshaw has spent considerable time away from the PGA Tour developing his golf course architecture business. Along with partner, Bill Coore, the firm of Coore & Crenshaw has done restoration work on some of the finest courses in the country. In October, 1997, the PGA of America named Ben to captain the winning 1999 U.S. Ryder Cup team. Ben looks forward to the next few years with great anticipation. He continues to work with his design partner Bill Coore on two or three projects annually. In January 2002, Ben became eligible for the senior tour.

THE HONORABLE LLOYD DOGGETT

U.S. Congressman Llyod Doggett was born, raised, and educated in Austin. He earned a B.B.A. in business, first in his class, at the University of Texas at Austin, 1967, and was President of University of Texas Student Body. He then earned a Law Degree, Juris Doctor with Honors, University of Texas, 1970, and was Associate Editor of the Texas Law Review. He has served as President of the Texas Consumers Association.

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SERVICE

• Elected to Congress from Texas, November 1994
• Senior Member, House Committee on Ways and Means, Health Subcommittee, and Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee
• Co-founder, House Information Technology Roundtable
• Member, Congressional Task Force on Tobacco and Health

JUDICIAL SERVICE

• Justice, Texas Supreme Court, 1989-1994
• Chair, Supreme Court Task Force on Judicial Ethics, 1992-1994

AWARDS

• Voted Best Elected Official in the Austin Chronicle's Best of Austin 2005 Readers' Poll. This was the third consecutive year that he has received a Best of Austin award.
• *Ranked six times as a top deficit hawk by the non-partisan Concord Coalition for his commitment to ensuring fiscal responsibility and seeking a balanced federal budget
• Consistently ranked as a top Treasury Guardian by the independent government watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, with #1 ranking among House Members in 2002 and 2003
• Elected Public Official of the Year by the CenTex Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration (2004)
• Public Interest Champion by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (2003)
• Friend of the National Parks by the National Parks Conservation Association for three consecutive Congressional sessions (Since 1996)
• Friend of the Earth Award from Friends of the Earth (2002)
• Award of Appreciation for Outstanding Achievement from the Sierra Club of Austin (2000) and recipient of the Sierra Club, Austin Regional Group's John Muir Award for 2005.
• Recognized by SafePlace for 20 years of commitment to reducing domestic violence (1997)
• Freshman All-Star Òby a landslideÓ in Washingtonian Magazine's 1996 Congressional rankings
• Outstanding Judge in Texas, Mexican-American Bar of Texas, 1993
• Adjunct Professor, University of Texas School of Law, 1989-1994
• James Madison Award, Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, 1990
• First Amendment Award, National Society of Professional Journalists, 1990
• Outstanding Young Texan, named by Texas Jaycees
• Arthur B. DeWitty Award for outstanding achievement in human rights, Austin NAACP
• Honored by Planned Parenthood of Austin, American Institute of Architects, and Disabled American Veterans

TEXAS SENATE SERVICE

• Began serving in the Texas State Senate, 1973, at age 26 and served until 1985.
• Senate author of 124 state laws, and Senate sponsor of 63 House bills enacted into law, including Texas Commission on Human Rights to prohibit discrimination in employment.
• Outlawing "Cop Killer" bullets and strengthening Crime Victim Compensation Fund
• Generic Drug Law to allow the purchase of less expensive "generic drugs";
• Standards for Medicare supplemental insurance policies; and
• Texas Sunset Act, requiring periodic review to modify or abolish ineffective state laws and bureaucracies

MICHELLE MADISON

Michelle Madison is Vice President, Urban Promotion for Universal Motown. Previously, she was Vice President, R&B Promotion at the Elektra Entertainment Group, Warner Music Group Company. Ms. Madison was named R&R Urban Executive of the Year in 1998 and 1999. In 2002, Ms. Madison won the Impact Award for Excellence.

Ms. Madison has worked with numerous award-winning artists through the years, including Missy Elliott, En Vogue, Busta Rhymes, Tracy Chapman, Anita Baker, Gerald Levert, Keith Sweat, Yolanda Adams, Lil Mo and others.

A graduate of Austin's Anderson High School and Clark Atlanta University, Ms. Madison began her career in the music business at her college radio station WCLK. Ms. Madison later went on to expand her radio career in the Austin and Dallas markets. Ms. Madison currently serves on the Board of NABFEME, a mentoring and empowerment organization for women of color in the entertainment industry. Universal Music Group is a unit of Vivendi Universal, a global media and communications company.

GLORIA MORENO

Gloria Gutierrez Moreno was born in 1931 in Taylor, Texas, daughter of first and third generation Mexican immigrants. Gloria loved school and excelled in her studies even through the loss of her father at the end of her fifth grade year. She and her mother lived in a Mexican-American and African-American community in Taylor where primary schools were segregated for both ethnic groups.

After her mother remarried, the family moved to Austin where Gloria began studies at Allan Junior High. In 1948, she graduated from Austin High School with a B average, a significant accomplishment for one of only 20 Mexican Americans graduating from the class of 500. At that time, the decision to continue studies at the university level was rare, especially for women. Gloria spent the next 16 years raising a family with her husband, Tony Moreno, a young World War II veteran. Gloria's dedication to her family was rivaled only by her passion for learning. At age 33, with two children and a part-time job with the University Interscholastic League, she enrolled as a freshman at University of Texas. She was admitted into the Pi Lamda Theta honorary society and graduated in 1969 with a B.A. in Elementary Education and a 3.88 GPA.

Gloria was eager to put her learning into practice and immediately started her teaching career as a fifth grade teacher at Casis, Elementary School. In the early 1970s, Austin ISD was undergoing court-ordered integration with African-American faculties and pupils. Gloria was one of many ÒwhiteÓ teachers assigned to all-African-American schools in East Austin. Soon after, Hispanic students were also recognized as a minority to be integrated into the school system. As a minority herself, Gloria recognized the struggle of Hispanic and African-American students in the public education system. Through her fifth grade team, she initiated a test-taking skills improvement program. Through this program the pupils made significant academic gains in just one year. The program was recognized as a success and was adopted and implemented by AISD. Gloria enrolled in the Counseling and Guidance Masters Program at Southwest Texas State University and graduated with her Masters in 1974. She later returned to Southwest Texas State University for certification as an in-school social worker.

In her capacity as counselor and social worker, Gloria developed and coordinated classroom and behavioral management programs, workshops on learning disabilities as well as crisis management skill seminars. She worked tirelessly to assist schools with crisis intervention, parent involvement and community referrals for parents, teachers, and students in need. Gloria creatively addressed the needs of the educational community. During her time at Becker Elementary School, Gloria coordinated an after-school childcare pilot program with volunteers from the YMCA. Because of the pilot program's success, funding was secured and is now known as the Extend-a-Care program that operates at AISD elementary schools.

In 1992, Gloria officially retired after 28 years of service in AISD. Gloria, however, has never retired from serving the community and probably never will. She has held the position of Sunday School teacher, Governing Elder and Presbyterian Women's Circle Moderator at Covenant Presbyterian Church. In August 2005, Gloria was honored by the Presbyterian Women's group with Lifetime Membership. Gloria is also a Board member at Manos de Cristo, a Presbyterian ministry in Austin, where she regularly volunteers in the Clothes Closet, Back to School program and English class registration. She recruits volunteers from all walks of life, always looking to share her joy in serving the community with others.

RICHARD 'CACTUS' PRYOR

Whether he is entertaining the President of the United States or just talking about good BBQ, Richard 'Cactus' Pryor always seems to have the perfect words for the moment. Cactus is a walking library of superb stories about Austin, having done the first radio talk show as well as the first television broadcast in Austin.

Cactus' radio lifetime started after World War II when this Father of Austin Broadcasting worked for Lady Bird Johnson as an announcer. He went on to work for radio stations in Alice, Texas, Corpus Christi, and Houston. In 1952, Cactus became the program director for Austin's KTBC-TV, where he hosted a 30-minute variety show broadcast live from the Driskill Hotel that featured the world's most entertaining writers, entertainers, politicians, and adventurers. In addition to radio and television work, he's been a syndicated columnist, an author, a playwright, and a movie actor. Other roles include master of ceremonies in front of six presidents, and he has produced two nationally-recognized television documentaries.

Today, Cactus' daily commentaries at 6:56 a.m. and 8:56 a.m. on KLBJ radio take you on a wonderful journey through the politics, people, and culture that make Austin a very special place.

A wide range of highly respected organizations have honored Cactus over the years for his numerous outstanding contributions to public service and broadcasting. The Austin Board of Realtors named Cactus Austinite of the Year. The Texas Associated Press Broadcasters have cited Cactus as having the best commentary in Texas on multiple occasions.

Cactus is married to Dr. Peggy Davis, has four children, and seven grandchildren and still considers Austin the ideal place to live.

THE HONORABLE SAM SPARKS

Judge Sparks was born in 1939 in Austin and attended Austin High School, and graduated in 1957 as Class President. He attended the University of Texas from 1957-63, obtaining his BA and LLB degrees.

A foreman of the Texas Cowboys, he also served as treasurer and VP of Delta Tau Delta Fraternity. He was the briefing attorney for federal Judge Homer Thornberry from 1963-65. He and his family moved to El Paso, where he distinguished himself a trial lawyer of national stature, a civic leader and President of his law firm, Grambling, Mounce. In 1991, he was appointed as a federal Judge by President Bush to serve in the Austin Division, Western District.

He has achieved every accolade that the profession can bestow, and continues to author publications, lecture and is active in civic and charitable matters. He is married to Melinda Echols Sparks and enjoys a blended family of six children and eight grandchildren. His life and career have been spent in service to others, his family, his community, and his country. Judge Sparks exemplifies professional excellence and serves an outstanding role model for AISD students.

FEDERAL JUDICIAL SERVICE

• U. S. District Court, Western District of Texas
• Nominated by George H.W. Bush on October 1, 1991, to a new seat created by 104 Stat. 5089; Confirmed by the Senate on November 21, 1991, and received commission on November 25, 1991.

EDUCATION

• University of Texas, B.A., 1961
• University of Texas School of Law, LL.B., 1963

PROFESSIONAL CAREER

• Law clerk, Hon. Homer Thornberry, U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas, 1964-1965
• Private practice, El Paso, Texas, 1965-1991