2023 Alumni Awards Banquet Program

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CELEBRATION OF ALUMNI BANQUET

LOOK INSIDE FOR BIOS OF OUR OUTSTANDING AWARD HONOREES!


INVOCATION

The Rev. Canon Tim Sean Youmans Chaplain, Chapel of St. Edward the Confessor

WELCOME

Lawre Morrow ʼ04 President, Casady Alumni Association

RECOGNITION OF GOLDEN CYCLONES Class of 1973 Diana Mitchell Smith ʼ73

AWARD PRESENTATIONS YOUNG ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT John Vincent ʼ09

ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT Jean Akers ʼ92

DISTINGUISHED GRADUATE G. Rainey Williams, Jr. ʼ78


2023 Alumni Award Honorees John Vincent ʼ09

Young Alumni Achievement Supervisor - Robotics and Automation | Ford Motor Company

John Vincent is a respected engineer in the automotive industry. He is recognized for his contributions to technical innovation and leadership at Ford Motor Company. As an innovator, he has been awarded eight patents by the US Patent Office, with more than a dozen pending. Most recently, he leads a team of robotics engineers to develop next generation automation and robotic solutions to enhance job efficiency and worker safety. Since joining Ford in Michigan nearly 10 years ago, John has served in various roles across the company. This began in stamping, where he contributed to improvements in the production rate and quality of multiple new vehicle products. His notable projects included the first aluminum F-150, America’s bestselling vehicle for 46 consecutive years, the Ford Edge and Lincoln MkX. In his quest for progress and innovation, John transitioned to Ford’s research division, where he worked on pioneering mobility initiatives such as ride sharing, autonomous vehicles, and personal mobility devices. He led a $2 million research project in partnership with the University of Michigan to introduce a new dynamic shuttle service on the Ann Arbor campus, a first of its kind. During his time in


mobility, John’s work contributed to Ford’s strategic shift from a traditional auto company to a mobility focused company. John immigrated from China at age 15 and began his American journey as a sophomore at Casady School, where he set a foundation that set the stage for his future achievements. After graduating from Casady School in 2009, John attended Purdue University, where he received a degree in Industrial Engineering. In 2012, he proudly became a U.S. citizen. He lives in Michigan with his wife, Kellie, and their 7-month-old daughter, Soni. John is an active volunteer in his community, initiating a committee to benefit his neighbors, managing fundraising events, and creating and running the website for the association. He is an avid golfer and skier, John values quality time with his family and nature.


Jean Akers ʼ92

Alumni Achievement

Foreign Service Offices at the U.S. Department of State Jean Akers is a consular-coned Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Department of State. Her most recent position was in Washington, D.C. as the Director of the Post Analysis and Support Division in the Bureau of Consular Affairs’ Office of the Executive Director, where she led a team of 30 Foreign and Civil Service employees in providing policy and resource guidance to 230 consular teams around the globe – all of whom are charged with protecting the lives and interests of U.S. citizens abroad, providing routine citizenship services, and upholding national security while facilitating travel to the United States by issuing visas to qualified visitors, workers, and immigrants. Jean joined the Foreign Service in 2004. Upon entry, she was initially directed to an assignment at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, but in a classic example of the need for adaptability in the Foreign Service, Jean’s assignment changed, and she was sent to the U.S. Consulate General in Curacao. From 20042006, Jean was the sole consular officer responsible for providing routine and emergency services to the nearly 2 million U.S. citizens who traveled to the six islands of the Dutch Caribbean (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Sint Maarten, St. Eustatius, and Saba) each year. Additionally, as post’s General Services Officer Jean oversaw all contracting, warehouse and motorpool operations, customs and shipping, and housing. Jean’s next assignment was as consular officer in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where she provided the full range of visa and U.S. citizens services. Following her tour in Phnom Penh, Jean returned to Washington from 2009-2011 to serve as a Career Development Officer in the Bureau of Global Talent Management,


where she counseled and assigned new FSOs to their first and second tours. In 2011, Jean volunteered for a one year assignment in Kabul, Afghanistan as the deputy consular section chief providing services to U.S. citizens and foreign national visa applicants in an active war zone. She led her team’s response to multiple crises, including a day-long siege against the Embassy during which the consular waiting room took a direct hit from an RPG. Upon returning to Washington in 2012, the Bureau of Consular Affairs asked Jean to help build a new team focused on bureau-wide innovation, leadership, and management excellence, eventually called “1CA.” Jean served as 1CA’s inaugural communications and training coordinator, training more than 3,000 Department professionals in techniques designed to enhance collaboration, operational effectiveness, and efficiency. In 2014, Jean was selected for service at the Department’s training center, the Foreign Service Institute (FSI). She was charged with overseeing the flagship Basic Consular Course which provides training to hundreds of entry-level Foreign Service Officers each year prior to their initial consular assignment. Jean returned to Bureau of Consular Affairs’ headquarters in 2016 to manage consular staffing and assignments, working with her team to ensure consular sections worldwide had the human resources they needed to effectively carry out their mission. From there, Jean went to FSI as a student – to polish off the fair-to-middling French she learned at Casady – as preparation for her 2019 assignment as Consular Section Chief at the U.S. Consulate General in Montreal, Canada. Jean’s tenure in Montreal was marked by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the unprecedented closure of the U.S.-Canada border, and a complete reimagining of how to perform consular services amid a global pandemic.


In August 2021, Jean flew into Kabul, Afghanistan, where for 12 days and nights she led a team of consular officers at the airport while working with the U.S. military, fellow diplomats, and other allied partners to facilitate the largest evacuation in U.S. history, with over 120,000 U.S. citizens and vulnerable Afghans airlifted to safety. Jean described this experience in the March 2022 edition of the Foreign Service Journal, and it remains one of the most consequential events of her life. Jean has been recognized for excellence throughout her career, within the Department and beyond. In 2022, the Secretary of State awarded Jean and her fellow consular officers the Department’s Award for Heroism for their service during the Afghanistan evacuation. In 2015 Jean received Chief Learning Officer’s Innovation Award for her work at FSI leading the redesign of the Basic Consular Course. She is the recipient of numerous Superior Honor Awards, as well as recognition from colleagues in other agencies. She speaks French, Khmer, and Dutch. After graduating from Casady in 1992, Jean worked in the restaurant business in Oklahoma City for three years before attending college at the State University of New York (SUNY) in New Paltz, NY. After earning a Bachelor’s degree in History, Jean moved to The Netherlands, where she earned her Master’s in International Relations from the Universiteit van Amsterdam just months before joining the Foreign Service. Jean is grateful for the love and support of her mother Barbara, her brother Danny and his husband Jerry, the entire Akers family, and many wonderful friends around the world.


G. Rainey Williams, Jr. ʼ78 Distinguished Graduate

President of Marco Capitol Group A Limited Partnership G. Rainey Williams, Jr. is president of Marco Capital Group A Limited Partnership, a privately owned investment partnership operating in Oklahoma, Texas, and the Southwestern United States. Marco has been an active private investor over the last 25+ years, investing in a broad number of private equity, real estate, and other alternative investments. Rainey has led Marco since it and its predecessors were established in 1989. Rainey serves as lead independent director of BancFirst Corporation and has served on the boards of numerous private companies such as American Trailer Works Inc., Benham Investment Holdings and Titan Spine, Inc. Currently, he serves as chair of the University Hospitals Authority and Trust, is Chair of OU Health, Inc, and serves as Chair of the Investment Committee of Presbyterian Health Foundation, Inc. Rainey has served as an adjunct professor in the graduate program (MBA) at Price College of Business at the University of Oklahoma. He is a former chairman of the YMCA Retirement Fund in New York, the YMCA of Greater Oklahoma City, the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma and has served as Senior Warden of All Souls’ Episcopal Church. He has also held significant offices and/or board positions for numerous charitable organizations on and off the Oklahoma Health Center campus including Dean McGee Eye Institute, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, the United Way of Metro Oklahoma City, and the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce.


Rainey earned a B.B.A. degree in Finance from Southern Methodist University and a law degree from the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Rainey and Casey Williams were married in Casady Chapel in 1989. They are the proud parents of three children who collectively attended Casady for a combined total of 40 years! Rainey III is now a practicing physician at Mercy Health in Oklahoma City, having graduated from Casady in 2009, Southern Methodist University in 2013 and the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine in 2020; Sam is a Vice President at New York City based private equity firm Rhone Capital, having attended Casady through 2009 and graduating from Vanderbilt University (Magna Cum Laude) in 2015; Grace is a Registered Dietician at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, having graduated from Casady in 2014, Texas Christian University in 2018 and earning her Masters in Science from Rush University College of Health Sciences in 2020. Rainey and each of his parents have served on the Casady Board of Trustees, and his siblings were each lifers at Casady. The entire family have been enthusiastic supporters of the school for many years!


DISTINGUISHED GRADUATES 2022 Scott McLean ʼ74 2021 William R. Pape ʼ68 2020 Dr. Kent Sepkowitz ʼ71 2019 Kent Hoffman ʼ69 2018 Robert Clements ʼ67 2017 George Corbyn ʼ66 2016 Eff Martin ʼ66 2015 Charles L. Oppenheim ’77 2014 William M. Cameron ʼ78 2013 Hunt Lowry ’73 2012 E. Carey Joullian ʼ78 2011 G. Jeffrey Records Jr. ’77 2010 Michael S. Samis ’72 2009 Dr. John R. Bozalis ’57 2008 Clayton I. Bennett ’78 2007 Timothy C. Headington ’68 2006 Robert G. McCampbell ’76 2005 Margaret Lytle Griner ’54 2004 Walter C. “Derby” Wilson ’54 § 2003 William H. Leney ’53 2002 The Hon. Richard Bohanon ’53 § 2001 William S. Price ’66 2000 Robert H. Anthony ’66 1999 Rodman A. Frates ’54 § 1998 Linda Polk Klos ’68 1997 Dr. Dale R. Brown ’67 1996 John R. Porter Jr. ’53 § 1995 J. Edward Barth ’55 1994 Christy Gaylord Everest ’69 1993 Gordon F. Rainey Jr. ’58 1992 A. Max Weitzenhoffer Jr. ’57 1991 Dr. Daniel F. Keller ’51 § 1990 J. Larry Nichols ’60 1989 Edward H. Cook ’53 1988 George J. Records ’52 1987 James R. Tolbert III ’53


ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT 2022 Dr. Anureet Bajaj ʼ87 2021 Dr. Marion Garrett Parke ʼ00 2020 Dr. Aneesh Mehta ʼ95 2019 Kristina Kloberdanz ʼ89 2018 Elaine Paul ʼ85 2017 Susan D. Russell-Stewart ’66 2016 Leslie V. Batchelor ’84 2015 The Rev. Richard D. Stansberry ’79, C. Joseph Williams ’74 2014 Sarah Mason Sears ’88, Christopher A. Lower ‘74 2013 Nancy Latting Spelman ’63 2012 Bridgit A. Finley ‘82 2011 Judith Cheek Hays ’66, Richard B. Hays ’66, R. Todd Currie ’93 2010 Mary B. Woolsey ’73, Laura Love-Aden ’89 2009 Dr. Marcia E. Meiring ’75, Teresa Stuart Forst ’72 2008 John H. Montgomery ’58, Charles E. Nelson II ’88, Robert H. Nelson II ’93 2007 Jay L. Price ’87 2006 James J. Gold ’82 2005 Robert Lee Maril ’65, Carolyn Ridge Baer ’90 2004 Pamela Harrison McCullough ’64, C. Wesley Lane ’74 2003 W. Rowland Denman ’54, Dr. James D. Thomas ’73 2002 Michael S. Samis ’72, Megan Mullally ’77 2001 Odilia Russo Dank ’56, Forrest H. Armstrong ’61 2000 Gray Frederickson ’55 1999 Ann Connolly Henry ’59 §, Marcy Head Benson ’69 1998 G. Dean Luthey Jr. ’73, Linda Petree Lambert ’58 1997 “The Charter Lifers:” Dr. Daniel F. Keller ’51 §, A. Paul Murrah Jr. ’51 §, T. Guy Spencer ’51, Christopher Brauchli ’52, R. Houston Hall ’52, Robert H. Lingenfelter ’52, W. DeVan Sharbrough ’52 §, The Hon. Richard Bohanon ’53 §, Edward H. Cook ’53, Kathryn Keller Powell ’53, Ernest R. Ledbetter Jr. ’53, William H. Leney ’53, Charles H. Mee Jr. ’53 §, J. Robert Porter Jr. ’53 §, Charles Rountree ’53, James R. Tolbert III ’53, Walter C. Wilson ’54 §


1996 Dr. Roland A. Walters ’61, Laurie Davis Fuller ’71 1995 William M. Robertson ’55, Nancy Burch Wilkinson ’60, Gary W. Bricker ’55 1994 Scott J. McLean ’74, Beth Jopling Shumway ’64 1993 Hunt Lowry ’73, Lynn Smiser Bowers ’68, Harley Brooke-Hitching ’63 1992 Susan Hoffman ’62, Coe Crum London ’67, John H. Kennedy Jr. ’72, Michael Woolsey ’77, Honorary Member 1991 Jay L. Bernstein ’55, Marilyn Mee Meade ’56, C. Joseph Williams ’74 § - Deceased


YOUNG ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT 2022 Max Blumenthal ʼ11 2021 Carleigh Berryman ʼ15 2020 Tori Fenton ʼ08 2019 Caitlin Clements ʼ07 2018 Alexa Cook Sherman ʼ06 2017 Charlotte Huffman Hinkley ’03 2016 Emily Fleischaker ’01 2015 Kathryn M. Fox ’03, Macey Stapleton ’03 2014 Erik R. W. Sallee ʼ00 2013 Jonathan Fowler ’00 2012 John S. Solomon ʼ98 2011 S. Chandler Sims II ’99 2010 Dr. Winston Fong ’95 2009 Mary Payne Moran ’99 2008 Margaret L. Wizenberg ’97 2007 George Back ’97 2006 Margaret Enis Spears ’91 2005 Amanda Wendelken ’99 2004 1 Lt. Stephen K. Gardosik ’98 2003 Matthew Denmark ’99 2002 Seth C. Vannatta ’92


GOLDEN CYCLONES Class of 1973

William Darsie Allstetter James Paul Linn II Blake Calvin Arnold Linda Lee Littell Ann Ellinghausen Augstkalns § Albert Hunt Lowry William Cobb Aven Laurence Jordan Lucas James Rex Bell Graydon Dean Luthey, Jr. Nichols Burwell Berry Christopher Whitcomb Marble Dan Sloan Brown Edward Lee Maxwell Lisa Lee Brown Kyle Leonard McLain Russell Lemuel Brown, Jr. Elizabeth Lee Merrill Marjorie Parry Callahan Nancy Webber Moore Grant Clinton Carpenter, Jr. Harvey Dean O’Mealey II Angela Sprague Clearwater Reynolds West Patterson Virgil Ray Cloer Dale Calvin Petty Karen Ann Cochran § Lisa Davis Pierce John Palmer Colmore, Jr. § Randel Jay Polk Debra O’Toole Cox Jacques Maurice Guy Reding Kathleen Frances Craig Mark Barry Riley William Douglas Cushing James Philip Robertson Susan Marchant Davis Mark Briscoe Rumsey Kim Dregallo DeAngelis Ruth Shang Deborah Wood Donaghue John Winsor Shawver III Deniz Ege Lon Strong Shealy III Carolyn Nesbitt Fiegel Steve Edwin Shelley Beverly Baker Gariepy Diana Mitchell Smith Jennifer Wall Gibbens Alden Williams Snipes Mary Stone Glass Thomas Sprague Taggart Virginia Corff Griffin James David Thomas William Walter Harmon John Peter Thurmond II Holly Cox Healey Teresa Louise Tidwell William Sheridan Hector Joann Barton Vaughan Janet Elliott Henthorn Jane Butkin Wagner Michael James Johnson Lisa Wasemiller-Smith Hightower Kathy Cunningham White Paul Ross Jackson Mary Bedford Woolsey Nancy Erickson Jones Joanne Olson King Thomas Crowell Lawson Bruce Andrew Le Doux Dale Alan Lewis Donna Sue Lilly § - Deceased


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THURSDAY, OCT. 19 Upper Division Night Rally | 5:45 p.m. Celebration of Alumni Banquet | 6:00 p.m.

FRIDAY, OCT. 20 All-School Pep Rally | 2:00 p.m. Varsity Field Hockey vs. ESD | 4:00 p.m. Fall Fest | 5:00 p.m. Athletic Hall of Fame Induction | 5:30 p.m. Varsity Football vs. Guymon | 7:00 p.m.

SATURDAY, OCT. 21 Varsity Field Hockey vs. Greenhill | 11:00 a.m. Alumni Field Hockey Game | 2:00 p.m. Upper Division Homecoming Dance | 9:00 p.m.


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