Monticello Live

The annual Drew Central All Class Reunion is scheduled for Saturday, May 6, on the Drew Central Schools’ Campus.

Registration and fellowship will begin in the Pirate Nation Gymnasium at 10:30 a.m. followed by lunch at 11:30 in the Drew Central Cafeteria. The cost for the lunch meal is $10.00 per person.

The program will be held in the Earl Willis Auditorium beginning at 1:00 p.m. where the honorees of the Drew Central Hall of Fame and Distinguished Service Awards will be inducted.

Drew Central Hall of Fame Inductees:

1. Norman Wayne Johnson, a 1950 Graduate of Drew Central Schools grew up and attended elementary school in the small community of Ladelle, Arkansas. Norman played basketball and track, excelling in both sports, running a 10.0 flat 100 yard dash on a red dog track his senior year. His Pirate basketball skills while at Drew Central earned him a scholarship to Arkansas A & M College where he earned All-AIC honors three of his four years. After graduation from Arkansas A&M College, he was invited to play pro ball with the Cincinnati Royals NBA team. He passed on the offer with a child on the way, choosing to earn a living wage for his family. Norman continued his basketball career playing in the AAU where he was named to the AAU All-Star team after scoring 43 points and 38 points back to back in the state tournament before the three point line existed. Norman retired after 39 years as a public schools’ teacher, coach, athletic director and administrator. In 22 years of coaching high school basketball, his teams always maintained a winning record, capturing over 23 championships at the district, county, and invitational tournaments.

2. Ola Ronsen, a 1975 Graduate of Drew Central Schools, received his BA from University of Washington, a MD degree from the University of Oslo Medical School and a PhD degree in exercise medicine from the same university. He worked full time at the Norwegian Olympic Sports Center from 1992 to 2013 and is a certified sport medicine physician. Dr. Ronsen is the Chief Medical Officer for Aker Solutions AS with 15,000 employees globally and the Head of Aker Care Health Services with 9,000 members in Norway. He also holds a part time position as Chief Medical Officer for the Norwegian Ski Federation. He has published more than 20 scientific papers and authored several textbook chapters and has been an invited speaker at numerous scientific conferences and sports medicine courses. Dr. Ronsen has worked as a visiting professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at University of Texas for 2 years. His area of expertise is in exercise immunology, infectious diseases and illness prevention and management of elite athletes.

Drew Central Distinguish Service Award Recipients:

1. Cathy Lynn Edmonds graduated from the University of Arkansas in December of 1982, joining the Drew Central staff in the fall of 0f 1983. She retired in June 2016 after 33 years in education, all spent at Drew Central High School. Cathy was a special education teacher for 16 years and the high school counselor for 17 years. As a special education teacher, Ms. Edmonds traveled from San Diego California to New Haven, Connecticut and St. Paul, Minnesota to New Orleans, Louisiana coaching her students in Special Olympics. She also had one student who competed in the Special Olympics World Games in Salzburg, Austria. After receiving her Master’s Degree from UALR, in school counseling she advocated for her students academically, socially, and emotionally for 17 years. Her students received over one half million dollars annually in scholarship money with her guidance. Ms. Edmonds served as secretary and president of the Southeast Arkansas Region of Arkansas School Counseling Association and was the president of the State of Arkansas School Counseling Association in 2014-15. In 2003, she received the Master Educator Award followed by the Drew Central School Board Achievement Award in 2007.

2. Bonnie Haynes Cruce grew up in the small town of Wilmot, Arkansas. She was the seventh child of eight children to her parents, Charlotte Chambers Haynes and Vesper Haynes. Ms. Cruce is married to James (Junior) Cruce and has two daughters Meredith Shirey, an administrative assistant at Drew Central Elementary and Whitney Wilson, an athletic trainer at the University of Arkansas of Monticello. Her granddaughter Rachel Shirey will be graduating from Drew Central this year. Ms. Cruce earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Arkansas at Monticello and was stationed in Frankfort, Germany with her husband’s military assignment for one year. She retired in 2016, after 40 years of teaching, 6 years at Bellaire Academy and 34 years at Drew Central Elementary School. During her tenure at Drew Central, Ms. Cruce was an active PTO member, a SEARK Reading Council member, and served at the Coordinator of the Pee Wee Basketball program for 24 years. She was a pioneer in starting the Pee Wee Football program and continues to serve on the Pee Wee Football board. Ms. Cruce was selected as Elementary Teacher of the Year in 1993 and 2016 by her coworkers. She is an avid Razorback fan and even more an avid Drew Central Pirate fan, traveling to all home and away football and basketball games. Ms. Cruce love those PIRATES!

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 6th, 2017 at 12:41 am and is filed under Drew Central News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.