Dr. Dina M. Bennett

2022 Hall of Fame Inductee

Director of Collections & Curatorial Affairs, American Jazz Museum

After graduating from Topeka High in 1985, Dr. Dina Bennett received her B.A. in Communication Studies from Washburn University, completed her master’s in College Student Personnel from Kansas State University and a Ph. D in Ethnomusicology with a minor in African American & African Diaspora Studies from Indiana University. Bennett has over 30 years of experience in the music field. In 2021, Dr. Bennett became the Director of Collections & Curatorial Affairs of the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City. She is also an accomplished pianist.

James Wylie Gordon

2022 Hall of Fame Inductee

Retired, Laboratory Fellow, Los Alamos National Laboratory

A member of the Topeka High class of 1952, James Gordon attended the University of Chicago before his enlistment in the Navy from 1954-1957. Following his time serving his country, Mr. Gordon earned his B.S. and a Ph. D in Physics at the University of Kansas. For 20 years, he worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, serving as a staff member, group leader, and laboratory fellow. Over his career, Mr. Gordon received several accolades, including the prestigious E.O. Lawrence Memorial Award presented by the Department of Energy. In his retirement, Mr. Gordon and his family moved back to Kansas, settling in Baldwin City. Mr. Gordon passed away in March of 2016.

Ralph King

2022 Hall of Fame Inductee

Retired, Founder & Owner, Kings Management Company

Graduate of Topeka High in 1959, Ralph King was the founder and owner of King’s Management Company. An award-winning organization that operated ten McDonald’s restaurant locations in the Kanas City Metro for over 30 years. His work with McDonald’s went beyond owning franchises, Mr. King was a brand ambassador, as well as served as Co-op President. Mr. King is also a passionate and active board member with the Ronald McDonald House Charities, including serving as the Director of Ronald McDonald Children’s Charity. Before he embarked on his entrepreneurial career, Mr. King completed his degree in Political Science at Washburn University, while also working at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Since his retirement in 2019, Mr. King continues to be involved within his community and serves as a board member of his church.

Gary L. Krohe

2021 Hall of Fame Inductee

Broadcast Engineer. Gary Krohe (1971) received his B.A in Communication Arts at Washburn and then majored in electrical engineering at K-State. He has held many positions in broadcast engineering, having designed and built many television stations. Presently (since 2014) he is Director of Engineering and Technology for KTWU-TV at Washburn University, However, Mr. Krohe is best known to Trojans as author, designer, and publisher of the coffee table book Portraits of Troy: The Architecture of Topeka High School.

Steve Holloman

2021 Hall of Fame Inductee

Educator/Music Director. After high school graduation, Steve Holloman (1970) majored in music education at Washburn. From there (1975) he taught general music and choir at Boswell Jr. High School. When that school closed in 1980, he became music teacher at Robinson Middle School and assistant band director at THS. After a year, Holloman was appointed band director at Topeka High, a post he held until 2016. Among numerous achievements, he took the Trojan Marching Band to the Cotton bowl Parade in 1986 and 1989. From 1992 to 2014, the performed 11 times at Disney World.

Marian Knight Douglas

2021 Hall of Fame Inductee

Security Officer. Active in sports at Topeka High, Marian Knight (1950) was a cheerleader for the school’s black basketball squad, the Ramblers, before integration of teams in 1949. She worked for ten years at the Kansas Neurological Institute prior to being hired by USD 501. Upon acquiring a certificate from the Topeka Police Academy, Mrs. Douglas became a security officer at Topeka High (1979 – 2017).

Robert Merrell Gage

2020 Hall of Fame Inductee

Robert Merrell Gage, class of 1911, a sculptor. Born in 1892 in Topeka, after graduation from Washburn University of Topeka, Gage left Kansas to study sculpture with Gutzom Borglum, who carved the figures on Mount Rushmore, and Robert Henri, both exponents of the “American Theme” in art, in New York and France. When he returned to Topeka, he began his first public commission, the statue of President Abraham Lincoln on the Kansas Capitol grounds. In fact, he executed the likenesses of Lincoln in many stages of the president’s life, and in 1955 Gage starred in a short film, The Face of Lincoln, with that film winning an Academy Award for Best Live action Short Film. His other works include the Pioneer Mother Memorial near the Lincoln statue, the Police Memorial and Veterans’ Fountain in Kansas City, and the History of California frieze in Beverly Hills. Some have called him “the American sculptor.” He died in 1981.

 

Coleman Hawkins

2020 Hall of Fame Inductee

Coleman Hawkins attended THS around 1920, a saxophonist. Born in 1904 in St. Joseph MO, he began studying piano at age 5, cello at age 7 and the tenor saxophone at age 9. By age 14, he was playing saxophone around eastern Kansas, mostly in Kansas City. He performed with the Fletcher Henderson Big Band for 10 years in New York, jamming with jazz greats including Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman. He toured Europe and recorded for the Keynote, Savoy, and Apollo labels. He was the leader on what is considered to have been the first ever bebop recording session on Feb. 16, 1944, including Dizzy Gillespie, Don Byas, Clyde Har, Oscar Pettiford, and Max Roach. His hit song, “Body and Soul,” is an outpouring of irregular, double-timed melodies that became one of the most imitated of all jazz solos. He died in 1969. He didn’t graduate from high school but is being awarded an honorary diploma from current THS principal Rebecca Morrisey.

John Scott

2020 Hall of Fame Inductee

Charles Scott Sr., class of 1940, and John Scott, class of 1938, two of the three attorneys who filed the landmark Brown V. Topeka Board of Education case. John and Charles had suspended their law studies when they were called to serve in World War II, but returned to Washburn Law School and upon graduation, joined their father, Elisha Scott, who had been the third African-American to graduate from Washburn Law, to form the law firm of Scott, Scott and Scott. Charles and John Scott, along with Chares Bledsoe, filed Brown V. Topeka, a fight for the educational equality of all children, on Feb. 28, 1951, in the U.S. District Court of Kansas. They had worked to recruit a group of 13 families willing to challenge the school board’s segregated elementary schools in Topeka and recruited expert witnesses to testify about the psychological harm of segregation. The case was unsuccessful in district court, but the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the district court on May 17, 1954, in the famous, far-reaching decision. John Scott died in 1984 at age 65 and Charles Scott in 1989 at age 67.

Charles Scott Sr.

2020 Hall of Fame Inductee

Charles Scott Sr., class of 1940, and John Scott, class of 1938, two of the three attorneys who filed the landmark Brown V. Topeka Board of Education case. John and Charles had suspended their law studies when they were called to serve in World War II, but returned to Washburn Law School and upon graduation, joined their father, Elisha Scott, who had been the third African-American to graduate from Washburn Law, to form the law firm of Scott, Scott and Scott. Charles and John Scott, along with Chares Bledsoe, filed Brown V. Topeka, a fight for the educational equality of all children, on Feb. 28, 1951, in the U.S. District Court of Kansas. They had worked to recruit a group of 13 families willing to challenge the school board’s segregated elementary schools in Topeka and recruited expert witnesses to testify about the psychological harm of segregation. The case was unsuccessful in district court, but the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the district court on May 17, 1954, in the famous, far-reaching decision. John Scott died in 1984 at age 65 and Charles Scott in 1989 at age 67.