STHS set to induct 3 more to Worthy Hall of Fame

Three more names will be added to the Worthy Hall of Fame during an induction ceremony that starts at 5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, at Streator Township High School.

The ceremony is run entirely by students in Rob Tyne's Western Civilization class. The current class will run the ceremony; the videos and research to be displayed during the ceremony are the work of the 2014 graduating class. The current class will begin work on its projects in January.

The students, working in groups, sort through public nominations, conduct research and make an eight-minute documentary on each subject. The students present these videos to the STHS Educational Foundation, who pick three inductees.

While this year's class has not started its own research, students are excited to learn from 2014 inductees.

"I think it is important for us to research and find out about people who have succeeded that are probably on the same course that we are on, going from Streator and then to college and succeeding," said Tyne's student, Jake Knox.

Another student, Daniel Rashid, added these inductees can be an inspiration to current students because they can draw parallels to themselves.

"They were here in this building in these seats at one time," he said.

Tyne added the students will glean a lifetime of learning from this project and hopefully a sense of pride in coming from Streator.

"There is a rich line of history here," he said. "You never know where the world is going to take you from Streator, Ill., but you never lose that connection."

This year's inductee's are Doriot Anthony Dwyer, from the Class of 1939, Gerald D. Jaynes, 1965, and William Jungers, 1966.

Dwyer was nominated for her "star-studded career as a flutist and the strides she made for women in the music world." She was the first woman to hold a principal chair for a major U.S. orchestra. She attained first chair level at the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1952 and retained the position until 1990 at age 68. In high school, Doriot played in the band all four years. She made the National High School Orchestra her sophomore year, First National Division Flute and piccolo her sophomore year and all-state orchestra her sophomore and junior years.

Jaynes is being inducted for his activism for the plight of African-Americans and his career as an economist at Yale University. Jaynes was born and raised in Streator. During his high school years Jaynes played football, basketball and baseball and was an avid reader his entire life.

Upon graduation he spent three years in the Army before returning to school and graduating with a bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. in economics in 1976, also from the University of Illinois. In 1976 Jaynes was hired as an assistant professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania. A year later he would become an assistant professor at Yale, he was named a full professor of economics and African-American studies at Yale in 1977. He remained at Yale throughout the duration of his career. Jaynes has testified before Congress on numerous occasions and served on federal and state agencies.

Jungers was selected for his work as an author, professor and anthropologist. Currently he is working in Madagascar studying lemurs, which was what most of his career has focused on. Jungers wrote in an email to Tyne's class that if technology allowed he would try to video conference with them during the ceremony.

Jungers is the distinguished teaching professor and chairman of the Department of Anatomical Sciences and professor in the Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences at Stony Brook University Medical Center in Long Island, N.Y. He has written more than 130 peer-reviewed articles and books and participated in the studies of Lucy, the 3.4 million-year-old fossil, and the 5.9 million-year-old Millennium man.