By Andy Furman
NKyTribune reporter
Make room. Six more are being added.
The Dayton High School will be adding six inductees – the total now grows to 40 – to The Wall of Distinction for outstanding alumni.
The sixth class will be introduced at the Highland Country Club, Friday, April 28.
The Honor is bestowed on alumni and associates of Dayton High School who have brought honor and attention to the school by their actions in various walks-of-life.
Robert DeMoss
The 2023 Class of Inductees:
• Robert DeMoss, Class of 1944: Dayton High School athlete
He served as the head football coach at Purdue University from 1970 to 1972, compiling a career record of 13- 18. In 1949 he played professional football for the now-defunct New York Bulldogs.
• John Hundemer, Class of 1952
Graduate of the First Class at the U.S. Air Force Academy, 1959 served in the Strategic Air Command until 1965; served as a commercial pilot and trained pilots until retirement.
• Charles Edward Brown, Class of 1962
Charles was appointed Chief of Winter Haven, Florida in April 1979 where he served for almost 20 years. During this period, he also served as Deputy City Manager and served one-year as Interim City Manager.
Brown began his career in the Fire Service in June, 1962. He was trained as a USAF Fire Protection Specialist at the Air Force Fire Training School – then he was assigned to Air Force bases in Germany, Mississippi, Korea and Illinois. In the Air Force he served as a Structural Firefighter, Aircraft Crash Rescue Specialist and Firefighter; a crash truck driver and fire crew chief, and a Fire Inspector. He was assigned to the Air Force Air and Sea Rescue Unit where he served as an Aerial Firefighter/Rescue on an HH-43B helicopter for 18 months. The last three years, he served as a Fire Training Instructor at the Air Force Fire Training School in Illinois.
And after leaving the Air Force, he went to work as a Firefighter at Walt Disney World, and was soon promoted to Supervisor of Code Compliance (Fire Marshall). After leaving Disney World’s Fire Department he became Fire Chief at Winter Haven, Fla. He served the city of Winter Haven until his retirement.
• Patrick Dougherty, Class of 1969
Patrick Doughtery
Internationally known as “Potter” he was Instructor of Ceramics at Xavier University (1982-83) and from 1986 he was self-employed at Dougherty Clayworks studio artist.
He also served in a similar capacity with Ceramics at Northern Kentucky University; served as Vice-President, Rookwood Pottery AWARDS Purchase Award; Feats of Clay, Lincoln, Calif. (2010), Museum Purchase Award, San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San
Angelo, Texas.
He won a first-place award in Ceramics at Summer Fair, Cincinnati (2008). Other notable awards and prizes include: Kentucky Arts Council Al Smith Fellowship; Juror’s Merit Award, Water Tower Annual; Second-Place Clay Award, Winter Park Art Festival; Early Times Scholarship, Kentucky Arts and Crafty Foundation and Summer Fair Grant in Cincinnati and Best of Show, Mt. Adams Art Festival.
• Diane Gunning Huff, Class of 1971
The Northern Kentucky State College graduate (1974) earned her BS in Mathematics and graduated from Xavier University with a Rank-1 certification in School Counseling. She taught Mathematics at Dayton High School; and began the program to teach Algebra I to accelerated students in the eighth grade – which is still in existence. Huff was awarded Middle School Teacher of the Year three times; served as Dayton High School’s Guidance Counselor and was responsible for grades seven through 12; as well as responsible for scheduling classes and class changes for all Middle School students.
She offered NKU classes for high school juniors and seniors; managed the DHS Scholarship Funds – responsible for ILP — Individual Learning Plans in grades seven through 12. And from 1975-80 served as Dayton’s girls’ basketball coach — and as the school’s slow-pitch softball coach, winning several NKAC Class A Championships. She also served on the committee to have the KHSAA recognize Slow-Pitch Softball as a state sanctioned sport and coordinated the Dayton DEVILFEST — a weekend tournament at Gil Lynn Park for baseball, Softball and tennis for all Northern Kentucky teams. In 2011 she was inducted into the Dayton High School Sports Hall of Fame.
• Tracy L. Ferguson Lloyd, Class of 1997
She was a Cum Laude graduate of Miami University and later was commissioned as a 2 nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. She served the first of two assignments with the Air Force Space Command where she excelled as an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile operations instructor and the Weapons and Tactics (W&T) Flight Commander for a multi-billion dollar protected satellite communications constellation. She graduated from the USAF Weapons School – one of the most academically rigorous schoolhouses in the world where she studied some of the real problems faced by the Department of Defense.
Tracy Lloyd
Following Weapons School graduation, she deployed as the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) Theater Space Integrator where she crafted ground-breaking solutions for electromagnetic interference as well as the most detailed plan ever for USCENTCOM’s top priority. She was recognized as Combined Forces Air Component Commander’s No. 1 integrator.
She built the NRO’s Weapons and Tactics program, applying a fully-integrated, enterprise approach to space protection with a first-ever space protection playbook initiative. She was part of the initial cadre to stand up to the National Space Defense Center, where she designed a revolutionary approach to synchronize commercial and government organizations.
As the Director of Operations, she led an 800-member team in delivering 82,000 national intelligence requirements per-month. Lloyd was awarded the NRO Medal of Distinguished Performance for her lasting and critical contributions to the mission of the
NRO.
She is currently the Commander of the 147th Combat Communications Squadron (147 CBCS) and the San Diego Air National Guard Station. He team supports CADOMOPS, California Domestic Operations Missions; and is also charged with establishing, maintaining and defending communications for their joint warfighters in austere locations around the globe.
