2024 Hall of Fame Members
Doug Brecht (Athlete) Class of 1968, Deceased in 2012
Doug excelled on the golf team at Hale and went on to become a member of the OU golf team and graduated from OU in 1972. In 1976, he won the South Central Section OK PGA Championship. He became the Ladies Golf Coach at OU from 1981-83 and then was the Assistant Pro, then Head Pro at the OU Golf Course for 19 years. He was the first Oklahoman to obtain the PGA "Master Professional" status. In 1993, he left OU to become a LPGA rules official. His final position was the LPGA Director of Rules and Competition. He also served as a member of the PGA Rules of Golf Committee from 2006-2011. His death was felt throughout the golf community.
Doug's widow and sister will be in attendance to receive this award and recognition.
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John Ghostbear (Attorney at Law & Native American Activist) Class of 1961,
Deceased in 2023
John was very proud to be Oglala Sioux and Cherokee. John went to the University of Tulsa for his Bachelor degree in History/Political Science and then on to earn his Juris Doctorate. John's love and specialization was in Federal Indian Law and led to many legal triumphs. One of many triumphs was leading a group of attorneys that sued the Nixon administration in 1972 to free up $18 million, frozen by this administration. These funds were to be used for Indian Education. John's team won and this case is still referred to in "Sovereign Schools" (2019) by Martha Hipp,University of Nebraska.
John's widow and sister will be in attendance to receive this award and recognition.
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Joe Pacetti (Entrepreneur, Gemologist & Philanthropist) Class of 1973
Joe was born to an unwed mother then adopted and raised in Tulsa. Joe's first job was as a shoeshine boy at Eastgate shopping center. Joe started working at Zale's Jewelry at the age of 20 and 2 years later made the move to establish his own business - J. Pacetti's Precious Jewels, where he now has a worldwide following. His motto is "It isn't how much you have, but how much you give away". He has now touched over 180 charities with the main focus being orphanages, the arts, animal aid, AIDS/HIV education and children with special needs. Joe has chaired fundraising events globally. He has been given the Croce de Oro Maltesee Cross for his aid to orphans. He is a long standing patron of the Arts in the Vatican Museum, self funding many projects. Joe has been in over 70 publications, noted for his generosity.
Joe will be in attendance to receive his award.
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Lynn Seaton (Jazz Musician) Class of 1975
Lynn started his music journey on classical guitar at age 7 and then started upright bass at Hoover Elementary at age 9. At Hale, he played bass in the orchestra, jazz band, and Hale Marching 100 on sousaphone. Lynn has a highly active career in performing and recording that co-exists with teaching young professionals. His current appointment as Regents Professor at the University of North Texas started in 1998 following 6 years in Cincinnati then 13 years of a professional career in New York. He has performed with world-renowned jazz musicians including Woody Herman, the Count Basie Orchestra, Tony Bennett, George Shearing, Diane Schumer, Tim Hagans, Maria Schneider, Jeff Hamilton, John Fedchock, Kenny Drew Jr., Bobby Shew and Monty Alexander. Prof. Seaton has performed in 35 countries and 49 states. Recording credits include over 125 albums or CDs (one affiliated Grammy, two affiliated Grammy nominations). Those credits include five recordings as a leader: Solo Flights, Bassman's Basement, Live!!!, Puttin' on the Ritz and Zoom Blewz. 46 of these recordings have been released since his 1998 arrive at UNT. His book, "Jazz Solos for Bass, Vol 1" has been in continuing reprint for over 25 years. The signficance of his career is recognized in magazine reviews and notable history books including: The Grove Dictionary of Music, The Penguin Guide to Jazz, The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz, Leonard Feather's Encyclopedia of Jazz and several references in The All Music Guide. He has been honored to be placed in both the Cincinnati, OH and Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, named as Sammons Artist of the Year, Sigma Alpha Iota National Arts Associate, and selected to be a Fulbright Scholar to teach and perform in Riga, Latvia. Alumni of Prof. Seaton's teaching studio are spread across the globe. Many are now university professors, bandleaders, in military bands, and playing on Broadway, touring with Jazz, Hip Hop and Pop acts.
Lynn will be in attendance to receive his award.
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Randall Smith (Computer Scientist) Class of 1972
Randy was the co-valedictorian of the class of 1972. He went on to graduate from Yale University (1976) with a BS degree in Computer Science -- the first year this 4 year degree was offered. Randy is best known for his seminal creation with co-authors of the mobile robot algorithm called SLAM "Simultaneous Localization and Mapping", though it was named this by others 10 years after his papers were published. This algorithm has been used in underwater autonomous vehicles (including mapping the Titanic wreck), self-driving cars, Google street-mapping vehicles, drones, commercial home cleaning robots, and has applications in planetary rovers. Upon graduation, Randy was part of a start-up in Silicon Valley in 1977 designing an associative memory board for 8-bit computers. He then joined SRI International's Artificial Intelligence Center in Menlo Park, CA in 1979 where the SLAM work was done. In 1986, Randy joined General Motors Research (GMR) where he and colleagues created a laboratory for large scale Virtual Reality research. He won GM's highest technical award in 1999 for that work and became a Technical Fellow - retiring in 2008.
Randy and his wife, Cathy, will be in attendance to receive his award.
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