BOWEN HIGH SCHOOL HALL OF FAME
Joni James - Class of 1948
At Bowen, Joni sang in the school choir, became feature editor of the Bowen Arrow, and packed cookies at a local bakery for
eight dollars a week. Half of the money went toward ballet lessons and the other half to helping her family. Her name was
misspelled in the school paper so she changed it to "Joni." She was offered a scholarship to study journalism at Northern
Illinois Teachers College (now NIU), but turned it down to study dance. Joni was active in the Civic Opera Ballet in Chicago and
joined a local dance group on a tour of Canada. She then took a job as a chorus girl at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago.
She decided to pursue a singing career when her dancing was curtailed by appendicitis and she agreed to fill a singing
engagement for a friend who was honeymooning . Some executives at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) spotted her in a television
commercial for Zenith, and she was signed by MGM in 1952. Her first hit, "Why Don't You Believe Me?" sold over two million
copies. She had a number of hits following that one, including "Your Cheatin' Heart" (a cover of Hank Williams' hit) and "Have
You Heard?"

Joni James had seven Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. "Why Don't You Believe Me?" (#1 in 1952) "Have You Heard?"
(#4 in 1953) "Your Cheatin' Heart" (#2 in 1953) "Almost Always" (#9 in 1953) "My Love, My Love" (#8 in 1953) "How Important Can
It Be?" (#2 in 1955) and "You Are My Love" (#6 in 1955) as well as sixteen other Top 40 hits from 1952 to 1961. She has sold more
than 100 million records.

Joni came back to Bowen during our Freshman year in 1953 and performed for the Junior and Senior classes. George Beloz
remembers meeting one of her brothers, Angelo, that day.
His parents were very religious and had groomed Gene for the priesthood. He spent his grammar school days at various
parochial schools and upon graduation went to St. Joseph's College for a brief year. Gene's drive to drum was too strong and he
gave up the idea of becoming a priest. In 1921, while still in grammar school, Gene joined his first band "The Frivolians." He
obtained the drumming seat as a fluke when the regular drummer was sick. The band played during summers in Madison,
Wisconsin. Upon entering Bowen High School in 1923, Gene became buddies with the "Austin High Gang", which included
many musicians which would be on Gene's first recording session: Jimmy McPartland, Jimmy Lannigan, Bud Freeman and
Frank Teschemacher. Gene left school before graduating to pursue a professional career as a musician.

Gene has often been considered to be the first drum "soloist." Drummers usually had been strictly time-keepers or noisemakers,
but Krupa interacted with the other musicians and introduced the extended drum solo into jazz. His goal was to support the
other musicians while creating his own role within the group. Gene is also considered the father of the modern drumset since
he convinced H.H. Slingerland, of Slingerland Drums, to make tuneable tom-toms.

Gene moved to New York in 1929 and was recruited by Red Nichols. He, along with Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller,
performed in the pit band of a new George Gershwin musical "Strike Up the Band." Gene had never learned to read music and
"faked" his parts during rehearsals. Glenn Miller assisted him by humming the drum parts until Gene got them down. Benny
Goodman urged Gene to join his band with the promise that it would be a real jazz band. The Goodman group featured Gene
prominently in the full orchestra and with the groundbreaking Goodman Trio and Quartet. The Trio is possibly the first working
small group which featured black and white musicians playing together. On January 16, 1938, the Goodman band was the first
jazz act to play New York's Carnegie Hall. Gene's classic performance on "Sing Sing Sing" has been heralded as the first
extended drum solo in jazz.

Gene died October 16, 1973 of a heart attack. He had also been plagued by leukemia and emphysema. He was laid to rest at the
Holy Cross Cemetary in Calumet City, Illinois.
Gene Krupa - Attended 1923-25
Ed "Chicago Ed" Schwartz - Class of 1964
Ed "Chicago Ed" Schwartz was a popular, late night radio
personality in Chicago during the 1970's and 1980's. Ed was
born in Chicago on May 5, 1946 and died February 4, 2009 in
a Waukegan, IL nursing home of renal failure and heart
disease. He was on WIND AM-560 from 1973 to 1982. Ed
moved to WGN AM-720 in 1982 and remained there until
1992, when he left in a contract dispute and moved to WLUP
FM-97.9 "The Loop". His tenure at WLUP was not as
successful due to a younger audience and he left in 1995. He
later became a columnist for the Lerner newspaper chain. At
the height of his popularity on WGN, he had a listening
audience of over 380,000. When he was a senior at Bowen,
WLS-AM program director and radio legend Clark Weber
hired him to answer the switchboard on Dick Biondi’s show.
The teenager’s enthusiasm for radio was evident, his talent
for the medium less so, Weber said. “He was an excitable
know-it-all,” Weber said with a laugh. “He had a terrible
voice, and it got worse over the years.” After graduating
from Bowen, Ed attended Columbia College where he
studied radio. He then worked in off-air positions on WLS
AM-890 and WIND, where he became a music librarian in
1966 before getting his own late night show.
During his programs, Schwartz led discussions on local Chicago issues, inviting listeners to call in with their problems so that
Schwartz and the listening community could offer some assistance. He frequently telephoned aldermen in the middle of the
night to inform them of listener complaints, and he held open forums on racism, poverty, and health care. In 1980, he
successfully lobbied the Chicago City Council to raise the minimum nighttime temperature in rental apartments to 63 degrees
from 55. Two years later, upset about how much Mayor Jane Byrne spent to light up the city’s bridges and other items he
considered frivolous, he started the "Good Neighbor Food Drive" which raised thousands of dollars and several tons of food
annually to feed the homeless.

He had a deep bench of sources whom he would call at any hour, and was steeped in news and trivia to carry his show through
the long night. At home and in his car, he tuned to police and fire scanners to keep track of what was going on the city’s streets,
according to a 1982 Tribune article. “He was a special person, somewhat of a recluse. He lived [alone] in his apartment and
was a media junkie,” said Mitch Rosen, a producer on Mr. Schwartz’s show for seven years and later a program director at
WSCR-AM. “It was a 24-7 job for him.”
Giovana Carmella Babbo a/k/a Joni James was a top selling,
popular recording artist in the 1950's and 1960's. Born on
September 22, 1930, Joni was the oldest of four children born
to an Italian immigrant father, Angelo Babbo, and Mary
Tareso, a first generation Italian-American. Joni was not yet
five years old when her father died of cancer at the age of
36, leaving his wife five months pregnant. It was during the
Great Depression and times were very hard for Mary and her
four children. James recalled, "She would cry a lot" and
make games out of poverty to make life less grim for her
children. James attended St. Peter and St. Paul Elementary
School where she sang in the school choir at daily mass,
vocalized Gregorian chants, and realized she was poor when
the nuns would ask for money to pay for books and she had
none. The family spoke Italian in their home and as a child,
James began to learn Italian folk songs. During the
summertime the facilities at a nearby public park were used
to provide free dance lessons to children. The lessons
stimulated James' passion to become a dancer.
The year 2009 marked the 100th anniversary of Gene Krupa's
birth. He is considered to be the pre-eminent drummer of the
Swing Era. Gene Krupa was born on January 15, 1909 and was
the the youngest of Bartley and Ann Krupa's nine children. His
father died when Gene was very young and his mother worked
as a milliner to support the family. All of the children had to
start working while young, Gene at age eleven. His brother
Pete worked at "Brown Music Company", and got Gene a job
as chore boy. Gene started out playing sax in grade school but
took up drums at age 11 since they were the cheapest item in
the music store where he and his brother worked. "I used to
look in their wholesale catalog for a musical instrument -
piano, trombone, cornet - I didn't care what it was as long as it
was an instrument. The cheapest item was the drums, 16
beans (dollars), I think, for a set of Japanese drums; a great
high, wide bass drum, with a brass cymbal on it, a wood block
and a snare drum."
John "Jack" Ivancevich - Class of 1957
Jack was born August 16, 1939 in to Mike and Ann Oganovich
Ivancevich, and he died October 26, 2009 in Spring, TX after a
15-year battle with cancer. In his Bowen days, he was an
excellent student and a three sport athlete. Jack is survived by
his wife of 37 years, Margaret (Pegi), a son Daniel, a daughter
Jill, and many grandchildren.

Jack received hs BS from Purdue, and went on to earn an
MBA and DBA from the University of Maryland. He also served
in the army as a 1st Lieutenant. His first teaching position was
at the University of Kentucky (1968 - 1974). This led to
becoming a lifelong Kentucky "Wildcat" basketball fan.

In 1974, Jack moved to the University of Houston where he
remained on the business faculty for the next 35 years. In 1979
he was selected for the Hugh Roy and Lilly Cranz Cullen Chair
of Organizational Behavior and Management. He said that this
was the highlight of his career.
Most comfortable in the classroom where his reputation as a tough teacher was softened by his appreciation of a student's
balancing act of desire for education, fulltime job, and family, he became a reluctant but dedicated administrator as UH
Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, and Business School Dean, Associate Dean and Chairman. Among
Jack's most valued honors were the Ester Farfel Award for Research, Teaching, and Service Excellence, the highest
honor bestowed to a UH faculty member, and his selection into the Academy of Management Fellows Group and later induction
into its Journals Hall of Fame as charter member. Jack enjoyed his role as a mentor to younger students by serving on 80
Doctoral and Master's Committees, and as mentor to his younger colleagues in establishing their research and writing
discipline. Jack was a best selling author and co-author of 88 books on a variety of subjects.

Read a tribute to Jack Ivancevich originally published on the University of Houston, Bauer College of Business website.
Eli Grba - Class of 1952
Eli Grba was a pitcher appearing in 135 games for the New
York Yankees (1950 - 1960) and the Los Angeles Angels
(1961-1963). Signed by the Boston Red Sox in 1952, he was
traded to the Yankees in 1957. He pitched in the 1960 World
Series (NYY vs Pittsburgh Pirates), and was the Opening Day
starter for the Angels in 1961, which was their first Major
League season.

Eli's minor league record was 82 Wins - 57 losses with a 3.53
Earned Run Average. He started his professional career in the
Red Sox farm system with Salisbury in the Class D Tarheel
League in 1953. He spent 1954 with Corning in the Class D
PONY League, and 1955 with San Jose in the Class C
California League where he had a 17-6 record. 1956 saw him
pitching for the San Francisco Seals in the Pacific Coast
League. A stint in the Army took him away from baseball for 2
years.

After the trade which brought him to the Yankees, he spent
1959 - 60 pitching for Richmond a NYY Triple A affiliate. He
made his first appearance with the Yankees on July 10, 1959.
Grba appeared in 43 games with the Yankees, starting 15 and
finishing with an 8 - 9 record. His only appeareance in the
1960 World Series was in Game 6 as a pinch runner. The
Pirates won the Series in 7 games.
The Los Angeles Angels were added to the Major Leagues in 1961 as an expansion team along with the Washington Senators,
who replaced the original Senators team that relocated to Minnesota as the Twins. Eli Grba, who was not protected by the
Yankees in the December 1960 expansion draft, became the first player chosen by the Angels. He was their 1961 Opening Day
starter and won 7-3 aginst the Baltimore Orioles. In hias career with Los Angeles, he appeared in 97 games with a record of 20 -
24 and an ERA of 4.40. His last appearance was on August 4, 1963. He finished his paying career in the minor leagues from 1963
- 1969, spending time as a pitiching coach and manager. In 1989 at age 54, he returned to baseball as the Manager of Class A
Lodi in the California League, and in 1990 managing Princeton in the Applachian Rookie League.

More recently, Eli has been invited to attend the annual New York Yankees "Old Timers" game twice...in 2007 and 2008. Read
an interview with Eli Grba published in the New York Post on 8/1/08 on the occasion of his appearance at the Yankees 2008 Old
Timers game.
Sue Ontiveros has probably one of the wackiest double jobs around. She writes a column on the Saturday editorial pages and is
the editor of the Sun-Times' Food section. (She also is a regular contributor to the She Said columns in the paper's Lifestyle
section.) She is quite passionate about both duties, which is about the only thing these jobs have in common. The column on the
editorial page, which appears biweekly, — or weekly when she can't keep her mouth shut about something any longer — deals
with social issues, especially those impacting women, Latinos and children. Sue has worked in newspapers for 29 years, as a
reporter, copy editor and editor. For the last 23 years she has been with the Chicago Sun-Times, where she has held a variety of
positions. Sue has her bachelor's and master's degrees in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern
University. A native of Chicago, Sue lives in the city's Rogers Park neighborhood.

Sue wrote of her Bowen years, "It was at Bowen that the teachers made me realize I had talent to match my desire when it
came to newspapers. (Thank you, Mr. Sorkin, Ms. Phyllis Schwartz, Mrs. Ford and too many more to mention.) I was the editor of
the Bowen Arrow, and took Ms. Schwartz’s journalism class."

"A graduate of Bowen, Gary Goodfriend, came back and talked to us during my junior year. He said the Medill School of
Journalism at Northwestern was the best place to go if you wanted to work on newspapers. Knowing no one in newspapers and
having no family who graduated from college, I decided to follow his advice (I knew his brother Neal, so I figured he was okay).
I applied only there, even though my counselor was sure I wouldn’t get in so she made me agree to apply to U of I as well. (I
said I would, but didn’t. What a stupid gamble.)"

"Anyway, I got into Medill and now, 37 (!!!) years since I graduated from Bowen in 1972, I have had a long and successful career
in newspapers. Today I write a social issues column on the editorial page and am the deputy features editor at the Chicago
Sun-Times."

"Dr. Hare, my chemistry teacher, worked so hard with me, but I really wasn’t getting it. She tried and tried and I was just
average in that class. I frustrated her, I know. Years later, when I had to teach myself to bake and cook, I understood it perfectly
because then, finally, the lessons of chemistry kicked in. I never took one cooking class but became an excellent cook and
baker, which helped me land a job at the paper, Food editor, a position I held for 10 years"

Suzanne "Sue" Ontiveros - Class of 1972
Karl Wirsum - Class of 1957
As a member of the notorious Chicago artistic group, The Hairy Who, he helped set the foundation for Chicago's art scene in the
1970s. Wirsum is primarily a painter though he has worked with prints, sculpture and even digital art. Karl received a B.F.A.
from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1961.

Wirsum and his contemporaries were a part of the charged Chicago art scene that emerged in the 1960s. The rise to
prominence of the Hairy Who and Chicago Imagism began in the late 1960s, when the Hyde Park Art Center organized a series
of milestone exhibitions in 1966, 1967, and 1968 which went from the Hyde Park Art Center to the Whitney Museum in NY. These
shows introduced audiences to a vibrant generation of young artists. The first exhibition, entitled Hairy Who, presented works
by six artists: Karl Wirsum, James Falconer, Art Green, Gladys Nilsson, Jim Nutt, and Suellen Rocca. They set the tone for what
was to come in subsequent presentations at the Center.

Although these exhibitions displayed a diversity of styles, former Chicago Sun-Times art critic Franz Schulze discerned enough
common ground to dub the artists the “Chicago Imagists.” This "group" later expanded to include Ed Paschke, Roger Brown
and Barbara Rossi, among others. Influenced by Pop art which was already established earlier in the decade in New York and
Los Angeles, Chicago Imagism was nonetheless highly original in expression. It was a fantasy art of brilliant color and
underground cartoon-like satires that spoke to the political and social foibles, violence, and whimsy of contemporary life. With
none of the deadpan irony and sophistication of New York Pop artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, the
homegrown art of the Chicagoans was brash and irreverent–thoroughly Midwestern in its straightforwardness; offbeat
congeniality; and goofy, punning titles. It was also emblematic of the decade’s youth movement and counterrevolution that
championed flower power and a deep questioning of authority.

All of these Chicago artists were native to Chicago and all were students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where
they were influenced by the Institute’s superb collection of Surrealist art. Two hallmarks of Imagist style–a graphic linear
strength and a complexity of composition–derive from the automatic line and layered imagery of the Surrealists.

Numerous members of the Wirsum family are involved with making art. His wife Lorri Gunn is an accomplished artist, daughter
Ruby Wirsum works in photography and ceramics, while son Zack Wirsum is a painter and was featured in New American
Paintings #59. The work of Wirsum and the artists of his generation has gone on to influence the course of art in America.
American painter Eric Fischl has credited his exposure to the non-mainstream art of the Hairy Who as "revelatory experiences"

Karl works as a Full Adjunct Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has participated in numersous solo and
group exhibitions. His work is included in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; the Krannert Art Museum at the
University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign; the Illinois State Museum; the Museum des 20, Jahrhunderts, Vienna, Austria; and
National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.

A sample of Karl's work and a list of his exhibitions can be seen on the Jean Albano Gallery website.

Clinton W. "Skinny" Orr - Class of 1928
Clinton W. Orr was born on June 6, 1908 in Chicago's south side at 78th and Marquette Avenue. He was the oldest of three
children. He attended Myra Bradwell elementary school and then Bowen High School, where he was a classmate of Gene
Krupa. He loved athletics and played baseball, football and basketball at Bowen and excelled at all of these sports. He was
on Bowen’s only city championship football team in 1926. Clinton (Skinny) Orr was an All-American High School Football
Player at Bowen. He played centerfield and first base for the baseball team, end on offense and defene for the football team.
and also played center on the Bowen basketball team.

Clinton accepted a scholarship to Northwestern University but had to turn it down due to a lack of money. He then accepted a
full athletic scholarship to Lake Forest College. Clinton won 11 letters while at Lake Forest, where he was an All American
football player. He worked as a waiter (steward) in the Dorms to earn spending money. Majoring in Physics and History he
earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in June 1932. He was inducted into the Lake Forest College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1975.
Clinton wanted to teach and coach after graduation. Since the economy hadn’t recovered from the Great Depression of the
1930’s, he had to look for other work and so he took a job as a gasoline station attendant until he could find a coaching or
teaching job.

During the early 30’s, Clinton tried out for and made the Chicago White Sox baseball team but was released after sliding into
second base where his trick knee gave out. He had damaged both his knees playing football in high school and college.

In 1937 he started working at Republic Steel at 118th and Burley and worked his way up from a Helper to the Senior Melter
position in the Open Hearth Furnaces where he finished his career. He retired in June 1973. Mr. Orr taught melting practices
at their Human Engineering Institute on Avenue "O" right outside the main gate. He was considered by his peers to be one of
the finest Senior Melters at the Republic Steel South Side plant.

He and his family moved to the East Side in 1938 and then moved to 81st & Anthony Avenue during World War II. They lived
there until 1945 and then moved to back to the East Side. Clinton Orr had four children and two of them graduated from
Bowen: Bill Orr (Class of 1956) and Sally Orr Auw (Class of 1957).

He and his wife Eva moved to Ogden Dunes, Indiana in 1972 and he died on January 13, 1978 in Valparaiso, IN.

Andrew Davis was born November 21, 1946 and is an American film director, producer and cinematographer, noted for the
action films Code of Silence, The Fugitive, Chain Reaction, Collateral Damage and Under Siege. Davis has directed several
films using Chicago as a backdrop. He is the son of actor Nathan Davis and Metta Davis.

After attending Harand Camp of the Theater Arts in Elkhart Lake, WI and Bowen High School, Davis went on to study
journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before enlisting in the Air Force as a linguist. It was not long
before his interest in civil rights and anti-war issues converged with his growing interest in film making. Davis was mentored
by acclaimed cinematographer Haskell Wexler with whom he worked on Medium Cool, and he began his film career as a
cameraman on "blaxploitation" films like The Hit Man, Cool Breeze and The Slams in the 1970s. His first feature film as a
director was the semi-biographical story, Stony Island. Davis has gone on to direct such films as The Fugitive, Under Siege,
Above the Law, Code of Silence, Holes, The Package and The Guardian. Davis also directed the cut scenes for the videogame
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory.

Davis received Golden Globe Award and DGA Award nominations for Best Director for his work on The Fugitive.

In October 2006, he told a London press conference that he's intending to make a film from a fusion of two novels: Miguel de
Cervantes's Don Quixote and Henry Fielding's Tom Jones.

Filmography
1978: Stony Island
1982: The Final Terror
1985: Code of Silence
1988: Above the Law
1989: The Package
1992: Under Siege
1993: The Fugitive
1995: Steal Big Steal Little
1996: Chain Reaction
1998: A Perfect Murder
2002: Collateral Damage
2003: Holes
2006: The Guardian
Andrew Davis - Class of 1964
Karl Wirsum (r) with Bruce Dammann & Dave Pedersen
Philip L. Engel - Class of January 1958
Philip Engel was the Valedictorian for the January 1958 class. He
also served as Bowenite Editor-in-Chief, participated in the band
and orchestra, and was a member of the R. O. T. C. Philip received
his B. S. from the University of Chicago in 1961 and a Master of
Business Administration from the U. of C. in 1980.

Philip Engel was employed by Chicago-based CNA Insurance
Companies, one of the leading insurance groups in the United
States, for 37 years. He was named President of CNA in 1992 and
retired in 1999. A Fellow of both the Society of Actuaries and of the
Casualty Actuarial Society, Mr. Engel is one of the few individuals
in the United States to be so accredited across all lines of life,
health and property-casualty insurance. He is also a member of the
American Academy of Actuaries.

Philip Engel is a member of and past chairman of the board of
directors of City of Hope National Medical Center and Beckman
Research Institute in Duarte, California, a Comprehensive Cancer
Center designated by the National Cancer Institute; a member of
the Senior Advisory Board of Kendall College; a past chairman of
the board of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater; a member of the
board of governors of the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario; a
member of the board of directors of the Chicago Sinfonietta; a
member of and past chairman of the board of trustees of the Jane
Addams Hull House Association in Chicago, and a member of the
Visiting Committee to the Division of Physical Sciences at the
University of Chicago. He is a former member of and chairman of
the board of Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago; and a member of
and chairman of the board of the MATHCOUNTS Foundation in
Washington, D.C.

Philip Engel and his wife reside in Chicago.
Arnold William (Bill) Haarlow, Jr., class of 1932, was arguably
Bowen's greatest athlete and and one of the best basketball
players of his era. He was born on May 5, 1913 and attended
Bryn Mawr School in South Shore. He played on the 1930,
1931, and 1932 Bowen basketball teams, averaging 25 points
per game, and scoring 1,928 points in his high school career.
This was in an era when the game was much slower, and team
scores were lower due to having a jump ball after each made
basket.

Bill was tall for his era...6 feet, 1-1/2" and he was the first
player to shoot one handed. This revolutionized the game. He
didn't leave his feet when he shot, although he did have a
"hook" shot in addition to his one-handed set shot. The 1930s
ball was larger and heavier than today's basketball. "I could
hold the ball in one hand" he remembered. "My coach and I
started talking about the possibility of one-handed shots. He
thought it would be...harder to defend." In the 1930s there was
no such thing as a dunk. "No one could jump that high" he
said. "We couldn't even touch the rim."

On Tuesday, January 26, 1932, in the last game of his Senior
season at Bowen, Bill scored a remarkable 51 points and
established a Public League scoring record, as Bowen
defeated Morgan Park 64-19 at home. He scored on 20 field
goals and 11 free throws. When he entered high school in 1929,
the league single game scoring record was 24 poiints.

In addition to basketball, he was captain of the baseball, golf,
and fencing teams and president of his senior class. He went
on to the University of Chicago where he played for three
seasons (1934-36) and was selected twice as an All-American
and three times All Big Ten. He ended his college career as the
all-time Big Ten leading scorer with 415 points in 34 games for
a 12.2 points per game average. Bill is in the University of
Chicago Athletic Hall of Fame.

Bill Haarlow was a Big Ten referee for 12 years and then
served as Supervisor of Big Ten Basketball Officials for another
17 years. He also wrote a book on basketball officiating.

Mr. Haarlow had a 40-year careert with Illinois Bell Telephone
Co. rising to the level of General Manager. He met his wife, the
former Margaret Noble, at Bryn Mawr School and she also was
a member of the Bowen class of 1932. Bill Haarlow died on
November 21, 2003. They had been married for 65 years.
Arnold William "Bill" Haarlow, Jr., Class of 1932
At right: Bill Haarlow's son John Haarlow and daughter
Margaret Wright accepted Bill's posthumous award at the
Chicago Public School Basketball Coaches Association Hall of
Fame induction on May 8, 2010.
Jim Chengary - Class of 1954
Jim Chengary entered Bowen High School in 1950 after
graduating from Immaculate Conception School in South
Chicago. He became one of Bowen's star athletes of the 1950s
while playing both basketball and baseball.

The 1953-54 school year saw the Bowen basketball team
competing for the Chicago Public League championship and
the baseball team competing for both an Illinois state and a
Public League championship. The 1953-54 basketball team
won the South Division with an 11-0 record, and then went on
to defeat Lane Tech 69-52 and Von Steuben 84-61 in the
Public League playoffs. Both wins were on Bowen's home
floor. In the CPL semi-final, played at De LaSalle High
School, Bowen blew a 31-24 half-time lead, losing to Lake
View 64-51 as Bowen's two top scorers, Chengary and Moreno
fouled out. Jim was voted to the All-City and All-State teams
in 1954 after averaging 29 points per game and finishing
second in Public League scoring. Playing on a sprained ankle
and seeing action for three quarters, Chengary set a
single-game school record for Bowen when he scored 57
points against Westcott Vocational.

Jim was an outfielder / first baseman for Coach Harry
Pritikin's 1954 baseball team, which won a May 20 playoff
game against Taft by a 3-1 score. The game was played
before a crowd of 3,000 students at Comiskey Park and the
win put Bowen into the state tournament in Peoria. Our team
made it to the state finals, where they lost 7-0 to Belleville,
when the Belleville pitcher threw a no-hitter. The following
month, Bowen advanced through the Public League tourney
looking for their first city title. Bowen lost to Taft 7-4 in the
semi-finals but Taft had to forfeit the win due to an ineligble
player. Bowen then met Austin on June 18 at Wrigley Field
for the Public League championship, losing 14-2 when Austin
scored 10 runs in the first inning.

After graduation, Jim received an athletic scholarship at the
University of Illinois where he was a member of the
basketball team. He then spent a year playing as a member
of the Philadelphia Spha, a team that played against the
Harlem Globetrotters and touring the United States, Canada
and Mexico. It was "Meadowlark" Lemon's first year with the
Globetrotters.

On May 8, 2010 Jim Chengary was honored by the Chicago
Public League Basketball Coaches Association by being
elected to their Hall of Fame. Jim and his wife have lived in
Mt. Prospect since 1973.
Walter Trohan - Class of 1920
The longtime Chicago Tribune Washington bureau chief and
an influential voice in the capital for Midwest readers, Walter
Trohan was born on July 4, 1903, in Mt. Carmetl Pa. Mr. Trohan
grew up on Chicago’s South Side at 71st and Drexel
Boulevard, where his father was a wholesale grocer. After
graduation from Bowen High School, he worked briefly as a
reporter for the Daily Calumet before enrolling at the
University of Notre Dame, where he graduated in 1926.

The Tribune hired Mr. Trohan on Feb. 25, 1929, shortly after he
had covered the St. Valentine’s Day massacre for the City
News Bureau. Many years later he recalled being the first
person on the scene of the carnage, in which seven members
of the Bugs Moran gang were gunned down by members of the
rival Capone gang. On that day, Mr. Trohan recalled in a 1999
conversation, he was relieving the switchboard operator when
a young reporter, John Paster, phoned in word of the
shootings. Mr. Trohan decided, "I’m going there, OK, and I’ll
take a cab." But his budget-wise boss vetoed the cab and told
him, "Take the Clark Street streetcar–it runs every five
minutes." Mr. Trohan always spoke proudly of his days as a
"City News guy," and said Paster deserved more credit for the
story than he did. At the Tribune, Mr. Trohan covered the Cook
County Building and Courts, including the investigation of the
gangland-style murder of Alfred "Jake" Lingle, a corrupt crime
reporter for the Tribune who was gunned down by a St. Louis
mobster at a loop train station. In 1934, Mr. Trohan was
transferred to Washington.

Mr. Trohan was on familiar terms with 10 presidents. For more
than three decades until he retired Dec. 31, 1971, he was a
prominent Tribune byline and Washington personality–first as
an "assistant correspondent," then as the Washington Bureau
Chief, a columnist and a WGN Radio commentator. Over the
years he became the point man in Washington for Col. Robert
R. McCormick, the eccentric editor and publisher of the
Tribune. The autocratic McCormick was prone to sending Mr.
Trohan cryptic messages such as "Fix Europe." "He was one of
the real voices in the Tribune from Washington," recalled
political commentator David Broder of The Washington Post,
who grew up in Chicago Heights.

In his 1975 memoir, Political Animals, he wryly observed,
"From the lofty beginning of police reporting, I descended into
politics. My progress has been steadily downward ever since."
1930s Washington seemed small. "I could wander all over the
White House," Mr. Trohan said, "call Cabinet members on the
telephone and they would talk to me–sometimes even ask
about what the president had told me."

Walter Trohan died October 30, 2003 in a hospital in suburban
Maryland. He was 100.
Gail Kalver - Class of 1965
Gail Kalver, an award winning and nationally recognized arts
administrator, grew up in Jeffrey Manor where she attended
Luella School. After graduating from Bowen in 1965, she
received a B. A. degree in Music Education in 1970 from the
College of Fine & Applied Arts at the University of Illinois in
Urbana, IL. Subsequently she earned a Masters Degree in
clarinet from the Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt
University in 1974.

As a clarinet player Ms. Kalver performed as a freelance
musician with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric
Opera Orchestra, and the Grant Park Symphony, and founded
the Windy City Wind Ensemble. She began her career in arts
administration when she joined the staff of the Ravinia Festival
in 1976. In 1984 she joined the Hubbard Street Dance Company
where she served as Executive Director for 23 years. During
her years at HSDC, she was responsible for the formation their
second company, Hubbard Street 2; the aquisition of the Lou
Conte Dance Studio; and the purchase and renovation of the
Hubbard Street Dance Center in the West Loop.

After leaving HSDC, Ms. Kalber became an arts management
consultant and project manager with clients such as the
Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, Concert Dance
Inc., and Ensemble Espanol. She also provided consulting for
Chicago Dance Festival, Chicago Human Rhythm Project, the
Grant Park Concert Association, and the Ruth Page Center for
the Arts. In March of 2009, Ms. Kalber was appointed Interim
Executive Director of the River North Chicago Dance Company.

Ms. Kalber received the Chicago Dance Coalition's 1988 Ruth
Page Award for service to the field of dance and she received
the award again in 2007 for Lifetime Service. She currently
serves on a number of boards of directors of Chicago area arts
organizations. In 1996 she was recognized by "Today's Chicago
Woman" as one of 100 women making a difference in Chicago.