Nominations for the 2018 Wall of Fame may be submitted by online form, found at the bottom of this page.  Nominations will be accepted until April 15, 2018.

What is the Covington Alumni Association Wall of Fame? 

The Covington High School Alumni Association hopes its first Wall of Fame will inspire and encourage today’s students.

“This is to establish role models for the students,” said Harry Hoagland, who’s on the association’s advisory council. “It’s good for the students, the school and the community.”

The five honorees were inducted during the association’s annual banquet at on June 3, 2017 at the Beef House Banquet Center. The inductees are: Georgeanne Bodine Ford of Indianapolis and Clarence Davan of Englewood, Colo., and, posthumously, Leonard R. Orr II, Gen. David M. Shoup and Thomas Charles Sidwell Bennett.Hoagland, a 1953 graduate of Covington High, said the alumni association has been in existence for several years. It’s been meeting once a year for alumni to renew acquaintances.

In 2014, Hoagland came up with the Wall of Fame idea and spoke to Kirk Booe, superintendent of the Covington Community School Corporation. Booe said he supports the idea, noting that a lot of now-successful people have walked the high school’s hallways.“Here are people from a small town who have gone on and done fantastic things,” Booe said. “There are some neat stories out there. They get forgotten over a period of time. These stories need to be told.”Booe especially likes the idea that the Wall of Fame is alumni-driven, and that makes it unique. The high school has seen more than 100 graduating classes, and this is one way to highlight their accomplishments, he said. In order to establish the Wall of Fame, the association first had to come up with a set of bylaws, which were approved at the June 2016 meeting. The inductees’ biographies and photos will be displayed in the main hallway of the school, on the south wall. This wall was finished in January 2018. Nominations were taken from the community for the first class of honorees, and a five-member anonymous selection committee chose five people through secret ballot.The wall recognizes Covington High Alumni of 20 years or more. Candidates who no longer live in the community must have distinguished themselves with excellence nationally or internationally within a particular field or in service to humanity. Candidates who remained in the area must have distinguished themselves within a particular field or service to the community or have been actively involved in the local community and later moved away.According to the bylaws, the number of honorees should not exceed five the first year; next year, three will be chosen; the following year, the number will not exceed two; and then two people every year. The idea of limiting the number is so that it doesn’t turn into a popularity contest, Hoagland said. Those chosen should have “aided and abetted humanity above their vocations.” In a separate matter, the association had been funding scholarships from year to year, with funds paid out of the treasury. Scholarships now will be funded by an endowment through the Western Indiana Community Foundation. Donors were sought to raise $10,000 to establish the foundation, and the amount is now $20,000. The best part is that the scholarship fund will be perpetual, Hoagland said, with it funded through interest earnings on the endowment.“It’s exciting to know it’s always going to be there,” he said.

2017 WALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

Following Georgeanne Bodine Ford’s graduation from Franklin College in 1947, she was hired as a physical education teacher at Covington High School. She pioneered the school’s first volleyball team and actively promoted equality for female sports. She instilled in her athletes the ability to walk off the court with Trojan pride. In 15 years of coaching, her record was 207 wins, 85 losses. In 1999, she was selected to the Indiana Coaches’ Girls Sports Association Volleyball Hall of Fame. In 2012, she was inducted into Franklin College Wall of Fame.A 1948 graduate of Covington High School, Clarence Davan received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Purdue University in 1952. He served as a U.S. Naval officer from 1952-57 during the Korean War. At that time, he developed a top secret naval task force to pass three atomic bombs to the 7th fleet carrier in 1954. He later was promoted to naval captain in the Naval Reserves. In 1959, he received a PhD in agriculture economics and management from Purdue, and became a senior research economist with the USDA. His greatest achievement was developing “Alzheimer’s Guidelines for Caregivers” and started caregiving schools in six states and Honduras.A 1921 graduate of Covington High School, Gen. David M. Shoup won the Congressional Medal of Honor for gallantry above and beyond the call of duty in the battle Tarawa. The Marine was modest about his achievements. An entry in his notebook says: “I realize that I am but a bit of chaff from the threshings of life blown into the ages of history by the unknown winds of chance.” Shoup was selected by President Dwight Eisenhower as the 22nd commandant of the Marine Corps in 1959. In 1960, the bridge crossing the Wabash River at Covington was named in his honor.A 1954 graduate of Covington High, Thomas Bennett received a bachelor’s in aeronautical engineering at Purdue University in 1958. He was commissioned as second lieutenant of the Air Force at Purdue in 1958. He received a master’s of systems management at the University of South California in 1969, and received pilot wings in 1960. He served two tours as a combat crew member in the Vietnam War (1965-67). He flew 135 refueling missions over Vietnam. He was strategic air command headquarters development program member of the B-2 stealth bomber in 1980-81 in Offutt Air Force Base, Omaha, Neb. He also served as deputy chief and chief of the National Emergency Airborne Command Post as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1981-85, and became commander. The so-called Doomsday Machine and all personnel were Bennett’s responsibility for four years. He retired as Air Force colonel in 1985.• A 1971 graduate of Covington High, Leonard R. Orr II received a bachelor’s degree in 1975 and a master’s of science and education in 1978, adding secondary administration and supervision in 1988 and educational specialist degree in 2004. He also earned his doctor of philosophy degree. Orr served as superintendent of Southwest Parke Community Schools from 2004-16. In 2016, the Wellness for Life Clinic was renamed to honor him.Banquet tickets are $27 and include hors d’oeuvres. Call make a reservation. Deadline is June 1. People may buy tickets at the door.  This event welcomes Alumni, Family, and Friends. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. EDT, and the dinner is at 6:30 p.m. at the Beef House Banquet Center. The Covington High School Alumni Association has a Facebook page @covingtonhighschoolalumnibanquet