OCEANSIDE: High school to induct seven to Hall of Fame

By STACY BRANDT - Staff Writer | Saturday, October 18, 2008 2:57 PM PDT ∞

OCEANSIDE ---- Oceanside High School alumni will celebrate the success of seven of their schoolmates Saturday in a Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

This year's inductees include an Olympic gold medalist, a cartoon animator and a jazz clarinetist. They will join the 21 people inducted into the school's Hall of Fame in the past two years.

Pat Kimbrel, who's organizing Saturday's event, said he hopes students at Oceanside High will be inspired when they see how successful some of the school's graduates have been.

"We're trying to present them with some role models that they can follow," said Kimbrel, a retired teacher and graduate of the 102-year-old school.

A nominating committee made up of parents, students, school officials and alumni picks the winners each year based on recommendations from the public, Kimbrel said. Their pictures will be on display in the trophy case in the school's senior hall for a year, then put on the wall there with the previous year's winners.

"We all leave a little fingerprint when we're there," Kimbrel said. "It's amazing how powerful that fingerprint can be."

The event is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. Saturday. After the ceremony will be an open house for former students, which will include student performances and self-guided tours of the campus, at 1 Pirates Cove.

The inductees, as described by the Oceanside Unified School District, are:

---- Willie Banks, class of 1974

Banks is being recognized as a world-class athlete and three-time Olympian.

While attending Oceanside High School, Banks won two state championships for the triple jump.

In 1985, he set the world record for the triple jump, leaping nearly 60 feet. His record held for a decade.

He competed in the Olympics three times between 1980 and 1988 as part of the track and field team, winning two gold medals.

He was inducted into the USA Track and Field hall of fame in 1999. After setting the world record, he was named sportsman of the year by the U.S. Olympic Committee.

He is serving as president of the U.S. Olympians Association.

----Tad Calcara, class of 1989

Calcara will join the other inductees for his contributions to the world of music.

Calcara started playing piano when he was 5 years old and took up the clarinet in junior high. By the time he was a high school senior, he was good enough at those instruments to earn the John Philip Sousa and Louis Armstrong awards.

His grandfather, former band leader Carl Calcara, introduced him to jazz when he was young.

He is now playing clarinet for the Utah Symphony. He became the symphony's principal clarinet player 10 years ago. Before that, he played with the New World Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra.

Throughout his career, he has recorded for a variety of record labels and has been featured on several radio programs.

He fronts a 16-piece band called Calcara's New Deal Swing Band, which plays jazz hits of the 1930s.

---- Larry Hatter, class of 1962

Hatter is being recognized for his years of community service, including spearheading Oceanside Unified School District's $125 million school bond measure in 2000.

He has lived in Oceanside since he was 4. Over the past four decades, he has worked to help a variety of groups and causes.

He served four years on the Armed Forces YMCA board of management, eight years on the Oceanside Library board of trustees, and eight years on the board of directors of the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce. He's overseeing Oceanside Unified's education foundation and is president of the MiraCosta Foundation.

---- Russell Holmes, class of 1970

Holmes was chosen because of his success as a physician.

He was the valedictorian and class president of his graduating class. After leaving Oceanside High, he went to college and earned a medical degree from UC San Diego's School of Medicine.

He moved to Illinois after getting his degree to practice medicine for families in the U.S. Air Force.

In 1984, he returned to North County, becoming a staff physician at Tri-City Medical Center, where he has worked ever since. In the past six years, he has won seven awards from the hospital for his bedside manner and communication, among other things.

He has also served as team physician for the Oceanside High School varsity and junior varsity football squads.

---- Jack Rosenquist, class of 1950

Rosenquist will be inducted into the Hall of Fame posthumously for his decades of public service as a firefighter and volunteer.

After graduating from Oceanside High, Rosenquist served in the Korean War. He returned to Oceanside in 1954, becoming a firefighter and eventually working his way up to fire chief. While chief, he brought the ambulance service and paramedics into the fire department.

Rosenquist retired in 1983, but stayed involved with local schools, working with fire-prevention programs, lecturing and counseling. He also served as a board member of the Oceanside Boys and Girls Club and was involved with local youth sports programs.

He died in 2002 at age 71.

---- Harlan Stelmach, class of 1963

Stelmach was selected for the Hall of Fame for the work he has done as a lifelong educator and learner.

Stelmach is a tenured professor and head of the humanities department at Dominican University of California in San Rafael, teaching courses in ethics and philosophy.

Before taking that job, he taught at St. Mary's College in Moranga and the University of San Francisco.

He earned a bachelor's degree in international affairs and Latino American studies from Whittier College, a master's degree in theological studies from the Divinity School at Harvard University, and a doctorate in religious studies, social ethics and social theory through a joint program with the Graduate Theological Union and UC Berkeley.

---- Art Vitello, class of 1971

Vitello was chosen for the Hall of Fame because of his contributions to the arts as a lifelong animator.

As a young child, Saturday morning cartoons sparked his interest in animation. He started working as an animator while he was still a sophomore at the school.

Upon graduating, he moved to Los Angeles, working his way up from animator to director. Throughout the '80s and '90s, he worked as a director, writer and producer on a variety of television shows and movies, including Steven Spielberg's "Poltergeist" and television's "Tiny Toons." He won an Emmy for his work on "Tiny Toons."

Contact staff writer Stacy Brandt at (760) 901-4009 or sbrandt@nctimes.com.