Hall of Pride inductions this week
Contributed
The Tallassee High School Alumni Association 2022 Hall of Pride induction ceremony will be Friday, March 4, at 10 a.m. at First United Methodist Church.
The 2022 inductees are Colonel Jesse Charles (Jake) Bush, Jr., Class of 1941, Coach Howard Dean Tippett, Class of 1953, and Dr. Boyde Jerome Harrison, Class of 1970. The Service Award will be presented to the late Russell Hill Stokes.
Colonel Bush enlisted in the Army Air Corps (now the USAF) when he was 20 and, after radio operator training at Sioux Falls Army Airfield in South Dakota and basic and advanced pilot training at Columbus Army Airfield in Columbus, Mississippi, he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant and received his aeronautical rating (pilot wings).
He went on to have an illustrious career in the military, participating in the Berlin Air Lift (1948-49), flying with the Europe Air Transport Squadron, and serving in the Air Force Special Mission, which took him to Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama, and Dobbins Air Force Base in Georgia where he transported high-ranking military officials.
As a logistics officer for the U-2 Wing, he served during the Cuban missile crisis. He also was professor of air science in the ROTC program at Auburn University from 1954 to 1958.
Colonel Bush’s many honors include Legion of Merit, Air Medal with 3 oak leaf clusters, USAF Commendation Medal with 2 oak leaf clusters, Medal for Humane Action (Berlin Airlift), and the USAF Outstanding Commander, 7th Aerial Port Squadron. In 2019, Auburn University honored Colonel Bush at a football game in Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Colonel Bush is the oldest living graduate of Tallassee High School.
Coach Howard Dean Tippett has the distinct honor of owing a Super Bowl ring. Coach Tippett’s final position was with the St. Louis Rams, who defeated the Tennesse Titans in 2000 to win the title.
Coach Tippett played four years of football, basketball, and baseball at Tallassee High School and received 13 varsity letters. In 1952-53 he was elected captain of the football and basketball teams.
A 1958 graduate of East Tennessee State University, Coach Tippett majored in Physical Education and Political Science and lettered all four years in football and baseball. He was elected captain of the football team in 1958 and most popular male student in 1957.
Coach Tippett began his coaching and teaching career at the high school level in Lexington, Kentucky, at LaFayette High School. After five years at the high school level, he took a position with Tulane University in New Orleans in 1964. His college coaching jobs included stints at West University, the University of Houston, Wake Forest University, Mississippi State University, the University of Oregon and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).
His extraordinary professional football coaching career of 22 years began in 1975. He coached in the 1981 NFL Pro Bowl while he was with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He coached many Hall of Fame/Pro Bowl players, including Kurt Warner and Barry Sanders.
Dr. Boyde Jerome Harrison is a medical doctor serving Haleyville, Alabama.
During his time at THS, he was a member of the Long Blue Line and played the piano for his parents’ gospel quartet (grades 7 to 10) and played football his junior and senior years. He was elected class president and Mr. THS his senior year. He worked on a farm baling hay and in the cotton mill on the third shift during high school to help pay for college.
Dr. Harrison earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Birmingham-Southen College in 1974, attended graduate school at Tulane University (biochemistry), and graduated from the University of Alabama School of Medicine in 1980.
He has been in private practice for 40 years and is co-founder of the Alabama Medical Directors Association. He has also served as president of the Alabama Academy of Family Physicians, the Medical Association of the state of Alabama, and was chairman of the Rural Health Scholarship Board. He is a member of the Alabama State Board of Medical Examiners and the Alabama State Committee of Public Health. Dr. Harrison has served as chairman of both those organizations.
Dr. Harrison has also served on the Governor’s task force on opiod use, the Alabama Task Force for Medicaid Transformation, and the Alabama Medicaid Drug Utilization committee. He has been a delegate to the American Medical Association and is the only physician to serve on the Winston County Hospital Board. He received the 2016 Garber Medical Political Award from the UAB School of Medicine Alumni Association in 2016 and was selected as “Top Doctor” in Birmingham Magazine in 2020 and 2021. In 2018, he was inducted into the Alabama Healthcare Hall of Fame.
Mr. Russell Hill Stokes was born in Fort Deposit, Alabama, and graduate from Lowndes County High School.
He joined the Army after high school and served for three years as a paratrooper in the Airborne Infantry. After his discharge from the Army, he joined the National Guard and retired in 1996 after 42 years of service, achieving the rank of Chief Master Sergeant.
Mr. Stokes received a bachelor’s degree from Troy University. His first and only job in the field of education was with the Tallassee City School system, where he served 31 years as a teacher, assistant coach, principal, and interim superintendent. During his career at Tallassee, he earned a master’s degree from Auburn University.
During his time with the Tallassee City Schools, Mr. Stokes was also active in the community. He served on the Little League, Babe Ruth, and Dixie Youth Baseball boards and was instrumental in establishing a Babe Ruth league in Tallassee. He helped build the first Babe Ruth field, located in Carrville, and served on the Tallassee Parks and Rec Board. He spent many hours volunteering for the children and youth of Tallassee, including keeping the clock at almost every home game for the Tallassee Tigers basketball teams.
Many students remember Mr. Stokes for his unique way of disciplining students, including putting them in the “sweat box” or making them hold up the outside wall of the gym at Southside Jr. High (now Southside Middle School).
The public is welcome to the event. |
