Five Oklahomans were inducted into the Oklahoma CareerTech Hall of Fame on Oct. 24 in Oklahoma State University’s Conoco-Phillips OSU Alumni Center, Stillwater. The Oklahoma Foundation for Career and Technology Education is sponsoring the event.
Induction into the Hall of Fame is the highest honor bestowed by the Foundation, said Phil Berkenbile, director of the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education (ODCTE).
“The award is given to recognize outstanding professional and personal achievements that have brought honor and distinction to the Foundation and to career and technology education in Oklahoma,” he said.
Forty-six Oklahomans have been inducted into the CareerTech Hall of Fame since it was created in 1990. Previous inductees include two governors, college deans and professors, business leaders, educators and state CareerTech agency staff members.
This year’s inductees are RL Beaty, Ann Benson, the late Samuel Combs Jr., Charles Hopkins and Frosty Troy.
For more than 35 years Beaty worked for the state CareerTech agency. He began as an assistant supervisor of the Finance Division and held several positions before becoming chief of staff. He retired in 2003. During his tenure the annual budget of the department grew from $6.5 million to $170 million and his influence in fiscal responsibility is evidenced throughout the United States. Many states adopted and still use a cost per program model he developed.
Benson launched her career by teaching home economics in her hometown of Coyle, Oklahoma. She served as curriculum specialist and assistant state director of ODCTE before being appointed state director in 1999. She led the initiative for basic skills integration in CareerTech courses to strengthen academic performance. In her first year as state director, she championed the system’s name change from vocational education to career and technology education to more accurately reflect how career and technology education is delivered. She retired in 2003.
Combs taught vocational agriculture at Wheatley High School in Beggs before being hired by the Soil Conservation Service. He retired from SCS in 1990. He was a champion of high school vocational agricultural programs and co-founded the Retired Educators for Agriculture Programs (REAP) to address the shortage of African-American role models in agricultural-related occupations. Today REAP works to increase minority participation in FFA, provide mentors, locate college scholarships and encourage young African-Americans to train for careers in agriculture. Combs died in 1999.
Hopkins earned national recognition by developing and teaching Management by Objectives to career and technology educators throughout the United States. He was employed by the State CareerTech Department (formerly Vo-Tech) for 30 years in planning, evaluation, curriculum, federal programs, equity and career information and guidance before retiring as an assistant director in 1999. He helped develop a major portion of the 1984 Federal Vocational Education Carl D. Perkins Act for the American Vocational Association.
Troy, editor of The Oklahoma Observer, is an ardent support of CareerTech education. He worked for newspapers in McAlester, Muskogee and Lawton before becoming associate editor of the Tulsa Tribune. He and his wife, Helen, purchased the Oklahoma Observer in 1970 and changed it to a journal of commentary on politics, government and social issues. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and shared the Walter Cronkite Faith and Freedom Award with ABC’s Peter Jennings.
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