The years roll by, but alumni and friends of Historic Knoxville High School keep going strong, as proven by their 2017 all-class reunion and Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
George Jack, class of ’36, a resident of NHC Farragut, turned 100 on April 3 and was the oldest KHS alum in attendance.
Eight Knoxville High alumni were inducted into the Hall of Fame during a recent ceremony at Bearden Banquet Hall. An audience of around 170 people applauded the inductees, who were introduced by KHS Alumni Association president Harvey Sproul.
Present for the honor were Bill Broome, class of ’47, past president of the Knoxville Board of Realtors and a member of the 900-Mile Club, which includes those who have hiked all the trails in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park; Bill Lawhon, ’47, whose work in contracting and building supplies prepared him for many years of volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, and who has served as a volunteer with a number of other civic groups;
Chris Pannell, ’40, a flight and squadron leader who flew 301 combat hours over Europe during World War II, and who became a mechanical engineer and worked for TVA and Rohm & Haas; and Barbara Wayland, ’45, a University of Tennessee graduate who taught school, raised a family, worked in real estate, retail and market research, and helped create the Lenoir City Arts & Crafts Festival.
Honored posthumously were the Rev. Jack Brown, ’51, the final drum major for the KHS band, a United Methodist Church minister from 1958 to 2006 and a noted photographer; John Burkhart, ’37, who practiced general medicine in Knoxville 1949-94 and served in many positions in local, state and national medical associations, and who was elected to the Knoxville Board of Education 1958-65 and served as chair during the peaceful desegregation of the city’s schools;
Pollyanna Creekmore, ’38, who earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from UT and her master’s degree in library science from Columbia University in New York and worked for Lawson McGhee Library, as a circulation assistant and then as head of the McClung Historical Collection, which she built into an unparalleled treasure trove, becoming a nationally renowned researcher, archivist and genealogist in the process; and James L. King Jr., ’44, a UT graduate who passed the Tennessee Bar in 1952 and worked for USF&G before retiring and becoming a Worker’s Compensation Specialist and Rule 31 mediator for the state, while also serving 10 consecutive terms on the Sullivan County Court and then Board of County Commissioners for a total of 41-plus years.
Rick Dover talks about the work being done at the Historic Knoxville High School building.
In addition to the Hall of Fame, the event included an update from Rick Dover, general manager of Dover Development Corp., which is renovating the 107-year-old KHS building at 101 E. Fifth Ave. and turning it into an active-senior living facility. Dover, who was named an honorary alumnus at the 2015 reunion, told the crowd the building would be ready for tours this fall.