Michael Homan

2019 Hall of Fame Distinguished Staff

Security.

For 35 years Mike Homan was the face of security at Topeka High, making all feel welcomed and comfortable in the Halls of Troy. He graduated from Silver Lake in 1971, and soon afterwards entered the Air Force in the Air Police, stationed first at Lackland AFB, TX, then Eglin AFB, FL, and finally Lajes Field in the Azores. Returning home, after a brief stint at Kmart, Holman became a Security Officer in USD #501. As a member of Campus Police with law enforcement powers, he retired in 2013 as Coordinator of Campus Police for THS with the rank of Sergeant.

Donald E. Madl

2019 Hall of Fame Distinguished Staff

English faculty.

A native of Eudora, KS, Don Madl (1924-2005) received his Bachelor of Education degree from Pittsburg State University and his Master’s from Fort Hays State University after serving in the Army in the European Theatre, WWII, earning the rank of Master Sergeant. He began his teaching career at Plainville Rural HS coming to Topeka High in 1958, where he taught English, and later at Jardine Middle School, retiring in 1985. Over the years, like all teachers, he had added responsibilities; Mr. Madl often was either the Junior Class sponsor or the Senior Class sponsor.

Gary L. Taylor (THS 1971)

2019 Hall of Fame Inductee

Shakespearean scholar.

His activities at Topeka High demonstrated that Gary Taylor’s future lay with “words”: Debate, Pres. NFL at THS, Chief Justice of THS Judicial Council, Model UN, Quill & Scroll, World staff, World editor, and All Time Honor-T. He earned his bachelor’s degree in English Classics at KU, but for his doctorate traveled across “the Pond” to Cambridge University (1988). While in England, Taylor was a joint general editor of The Oxford Shakespeare. During this period he rediscovered a long lost work attributed to Shakespeare that earned the former Trojan international notoriety including a front page story in the New York Times. Dr. Taylor has written numerous books and articles, both scholarly and for the layman, about Elizabethan literature, as well as taught at Oxford, Brandeis University, and the University of Alabama. Presently he is the Dahl and Lottie Pryor Professor of Shakespeare Literature at Florida State University.

David H. Overmyer

Artist. David Hicks Overmyer (1889-1973) was a Topeka High student, but might not have formally graduated. That was a norm back then. What is indisputable, David Overmyer is the first in a very long line of distinguished artists from Topeka High School. Beginning his art career, he first studied under pioneer Topeka artist George M. Stone, then attended the famed Chicago Art Institute and later the Art Students’ League in New York. Overmyer became well known as a muralist with some of his best examples at Ferrell Library, K-State, and historical murals for the capitol rotunda in Topeka (1951-53). Three important works are found at THS: “Pageant of Old England” in the English Room (1936), untitled Mediterranean seascape in the Faculty Dining Room (1937), and “Pioneers” in the Woodward Library (1939). An Army veteran of WWI, during WWII he was an illustrator for both Boeing and Douglas aircraft companies. Overmyer and noted American artist Maxfield Parrish were friends (their styles quite similar), and he and fellow THS Hall of Famer, Rex Stout, were cousins.

T.C. Broadnax, Jr. (THS 1987)

2019 Hall of Fame Inductee

Public Administrator.

A Trojan winner; from the 1986 State Basketball Championship squad and 1987 Homecoming King to “king of Dallas”! After Topeka High, Mr. Broadnax earned bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and Communications at Washburn University and later a master’s in Public Administration from the University of North Texas at Denton. His career in public administration has spanned the continent beginning in Pompano Beach, FL, where he headed the city’s housing and community revitalization program. Next, Mr. Broadnax went to San Antonio as Asst. City Manager and from there to the Pacific Northwest as City Manager of Tacoma, WA, where, among other activities, he oversaw a community visioning process. On February 1, 2017, the Kansas native became City Manager of Dallas, the second Trojan to do so. George Schrader (1949) was the first. In effect, the CEO of a $3.6 billion enterprise with 13,000 employees.