Laurent Lee Gourley ’62
Patrick Jackson ’86
Lynn King ’26
Colleen Means Dempsey ’69
Paula Means Lund ’68
Roger Poston ’59
Phil Wertman ’67
Gerald Ziehe ’50
Sponsored by the Villisca Alumni and Friends Association, these people were inducted in the first class to the Hall of Fame in a ceremony held during the 2009 summer’s all-class reunion. Subsequent classes will be inducted every four years in conjunction with the all-class reunion (2009, 2013, 2017 …).
VHS family and friends were invited to nominate individuals with a written explanation of the outstanding achievements justifying the candidate’s possible induction. To be eligible a nominee must have graduated from VHS or served VHS prior to 1989. The achievements could be in – but not limited to – the field of sports, music, academics, or achievements following graduation. An emphasis was placed on alumni but former teachers, coaches, and supportive citizens of the Villisca School system were also considered.
An ongoing project of VAFA has been the sorting and displaying of the many tropies collected due to the achievements of Villisca students, musicians, and athletics through the years. In 2009, seniors sorted through stored tropies and in 2010, Mr. Peterson’s shop class restored the Fred Bryson memorial trophy case. The memorial case was originally funded by the Fred Bryson family and built by Coach Jake Grasmick. It has taken its place in the hallway at VHS. VAFA will be maintaining a rotating display of old VHS trophies. Also on display are the older sportsmanship award plaques which have been returned from storage.
With word that there were some of the class composites stored at the Armory that were deteriorating, VAFA made it a project to capture VHS class composites digitally. The composites are available by decade on DVD. A interactive display of the photographs is being planned for the Community Center. All but a handful of class photos were located and captured. Special thanks go to Peggy Vermillion for photographing the composites and Gene Behrens for getting them on the DVD