Keeping with Central tradition, alumni inducted into Hall of Fame

With a longevity stretching back over one and a half centuries, Central High School stands as of the oldest secondary educational establishments in this country. Amongst the thousands of students who have passed through its hallowed halls, Central has produced doctors, lawyers, politicians, war heroes, Nobel Prize winners and all else in between. Combining both its age and its ranks of impressive alumni, each year the Central High School Foundation honors several select graduates by enshrining them in the Hall of Fame, where they choice dozens of fellow Eagles from across the decades. This year, the 18^th annual induction ceremonies for the 2016 recipients was held on October sixth, with five more names being added to the venerable Hall of Fame.

William Baird graduated with the class of 1930, moving on to college and then graduating from law school in 1937. He would then go on to work first with his father’s law practice and then found his own, with which he also worked as a legal counsel for the Westside School District. With the advent of America’s entry into World War II in 1941, Baird served his country in the U.S. Navy, commanding gun boats in the Atlantic during the conflict. Before his passing in 1981, Baird also received the Nebraska State Bar Association’s award of special merit for his 44-year career in law and exemplary service on the bar’s ethics and chief justice nomination committees. To this day, Baird’s name is still held synonymous with the highest quality of the Nebraska legal profession.

Next to be honored was class of 1960 graduate Pamela Bartling Buffett. After experiencing the deep immersion within diverse cultures that Central provides, Buffett gained a desire to help unite humanity, and support those in need, helping them achieve their dreams through education. As a philanthropist, she and her late husband Fred Buffett started the Rebecca Susan Buffett Foundation in memory of their daughter Rebecca, in order to better support communities and organization dedicated to service. These endeavors include support to Girls Inc., the Northstar Foundation and most recently the Fred and Pamela Buffett Cancer Center. Throughout her life Buffett has faced her share of hardships, but focuses most on giving back, finding her own joy in the joy that comes from those she has been able to help.

Graduating with the class of 1967, Rick Chudacoff has been involved in the music industry for nearly three decades. He has applied his producing and song writing talents to many variable and diverse genres from pop, rhythm and blues, country and even Christian music. He co-wrote the 1995 Grammy winning song, “Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart,” and also made his first break through into the music business, working as a songwriter on Robbie Depree’s 1980 hit “Steal Away.” Other artists he has worked with include Pattie LaBelle, The Temptations and Clay Crosse. In total, over 25 million units of music he has worked on have been sold, and even today his own music company the Gouda Music Group continues to collaborate and produce tracks in all genres of music.

Dr. E. Terence Foster graduated with the class of 1959, as president of his senior class. He would then go on to earn both his bachelors and masters at MIT, finishing off with his doctorate at U.C. Berkley. After this, he would serve in the military for two years during the Vietnam War, being stationed at first the Pentagon and then the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Coming back to Omaha in 1970, Foster first worked for an engineering branch of HDR, moving on to become vice president of Union Pacific and then ultimately joining the University of Nebraska at Lincoln’s engineering staff. Foster dedicated his career to academic achievement and to the exploration of the engineering field, and in return for this, in 2014 he was given the Engineering Education Excellence Award by the National Society of Professional Engineers.

The final member of the 2016 Hall of Fame was Donald T. Fox, graduate from the class of 1947. Fox went on to attend Harvard, graduating in 1951, and then earning his law degree from NYU in 1956, later also earning two more degrees from the University of Paris. Working on Wall Street, Fox helped American businesses navigate the world of international law, working to secure ownership, licensing and also purchases. During this work with legalities grossing national borders, Fox gained a passion for ensuring judicial freedoms and fairness across the globe. As chairman of the American Association for the International Commission of Jurists, Fox fight for independent magistrates and against oppressive governments, with his travels ranging from Latin America and Africa all the way over to Eastern Europe.

Graduating with the class of 1955, Robert Goldstein would go on to attend Harvard and later the University of Chicago for his graduate school, before joining the then small firm known as Proctor & Gamble, soon becoming an industry leader in advertising and business diplomacy, as he chaired the Association of National Advertisers. Goldstein was also one of the first to utilize the up and coming cable television industry in order to spread product awareness and brand names, as he served as the company’s vice president of advertising for the years leading up until death in a rafting accident in 1987. Goldstein continues to be remembered for his dedication to quality in all aspects of life and was elected to the National Advertising Hall of Fame in 1988.

Aubray Woods Orduna graduated in 1965, and has since then dedicated her life to the service of others in the medical profession. After attending Murray State University in Kentucky, Orduna later returned to Omaha in 1975 to serve as a unit nurse at Clarkson Hospital. Soon after, she was named the unit’s head assistant nurse, and then a nursing instructor at Clarkson College in 1979. Through the 1990s she continued to work in a more administrative capacity before being named the director of diversity services in 2000, where she helped to mentor minority students along their pathway to nursing degrees. Most recently, Orduna became the dean of nursing in 2009, and has also been the president of the Omaha Black Nurses Association, receiving numerous awards such as Clarkson’s Caring Kind Award and a volunteer of the year award from the Kidney Foundation of Nebraska.

Graduating in 1964, Lloyd Roitstein dedicated his life to others through the Boy Scouts of America organization. Roitstein joined the Scouts at the age of eight, eventually achieving the rank of Eagle Scout and continuing it throughout high school. He started his career with the Scouts in 1971, being promoted to Scout Executive in Illinois in 1984, soon returning to Omaha in 1992 as the President of the Mid America Council, rated number one in the nation in 2010. Roitstein also helped to lead a team of volunteers to deal with the aftermath of the tornado strike on a Boy Scout camp in Iowa, in which four young men lost their lives. Before his retirement in 2011, Roitstein was honored by the Boy Scouts with the Distinguished Executive Award, in return for his decades of service, dedication and compassion for his fellow man.

Benjamin Wiesman graduated with the class of 1949, later founding his own real estate business only six years after graduating from Central. He then went on to work with the Whirlpool Corporation to install and develop the first 800 calling system at its base of operations in Michigan. With that experience, Wiesman decided Omaha’s location in the center of the country would prove an advantageous spot for call centers of a similar design. This quest led him to designing buildings used by Ramada and Best Western hotels, as well as facilities used by car rental firms and other telecommunications businesses. In return for these efforts and his lifetime of dedication, Wiesman was presented with the Visionary Pioneer Award by Downtown Omaha Inc, and much of his work continues to remain preserved and admired to this day.

The final Eagle of excellence to be inducted into this year’s hall of fame is Clarence Wigington, graduate of the class of 1902. During his time at Central, Wigington won three first place drawing certificates during the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition held in Omaha, and then following his graduation, began working for the well-known architect Thomas Kimball, officially becoming the city’s first African American architect. Wigington soon started his own firm in 1908, with his work being seen in the rebuilding of Zion Baptist Church, and the Bloomfield and Crutchfield Apartments, which are included on the National Register of Historic Places. Soon after, Wigington moved his family to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he worked in the city architect’s office, designing city buildings, ice palaces for the winter carnival and also becoming an active member of the early civil rights movement, as he chaired the St. Paul Urban League. Although he passed away in 1967, Wigington’s achievements live on, as a structure in St. Paul that he designed decades before, was renamed the Clarence W. Wigington Pavilion in 1998.

With this year’s class of the Hall of Fame officially inducted, the torch remains to be passed down for each successive class, as Central alumni are taught to never stop living their lives the “Eagle way,” even many years after those high school years have passed.