Six community leaders who have made an impact on students are being inducted into the 2009 Hall of Fame by the Sunnyside School District Alumni Association.
The Hall of Fame honors individuals or groups for their contributions to the district, community and their profession, said Raúl Bejarano, president of the association and former district superintendent.
The association was formed in 2004, and its members include teachers, administrators and retired educators. It has awarded more than $250,000 to 238 students in scholarships, and it is under the umbrella of the Sunnyside Foundation.
This year's inductees are:
• Kirby J. Kegans, who was born on a farm between Abilene and Sweetwater, Texas, and then moved here with his family when he was a teen in 1940 because of his father's health. The family settled on a poultry farm on Tucson's south side. Kegans graduated from Tucson High in 1942 and served with the Army Air Corps, returning after World War II in 1946.
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In 1959, Kegans was appointed to the district Governing Board and was elected to four terms, serving up to 1976. He helped plan and acquire sites for future schools to meet the demands of the district's population growth. His daughter, Kathy Kegans Johnson, who is an educator in Spokane, Wash., recalled her father's support for the sports programs, and him faithfully attending the football and basketball games for decades, taking her along to many of the games.
• Susan Masek, the first principal for Sierra Middle School, who created a new school in 1984 based on the concept of putting sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students together. She applied the research and worked to refine the school every year, providing the support for faculty and staff members. In 1989, Masek was recognized as Arizona Principal of the Year, and in 1992 Sierra was labeled an A+ school by the state Department of Education.
Masek began working for the district in 1970 and started teaching in Tucson in 1958 for the Tucson Unified School District at Menlo Park Elementary School. She received a bachelor's degree in elementary education from Miami University in 1957 and a master's from the University of Arizona in 1974.
• René Rodriguez, a native Tucsonan who grew up on Tucson's south side and who retired from the district as a counselor in May after 30 years.
He received a bachelor's degree in education from Northern Arizona University in 1979 and began his career at Apollo Middle School as an industrial-arts teacher, and softball and baseball coach.
In 1987, he went to Desert View High School and coached varsity baseball and taught welding. When not coaching, he tended to the baseball field and watered the grass. He recruited volunteers, and, with donated materials, he worked on weekends to build the dugouts and batting cages at the school. In 1991, he led the team to the state championship, beating Sunnyside at a packed Hi Corbett Field. Rodriguez returned to the University of Phoenix and received his master's in counseling in 1993, moving to Sierra as a counselor, and then later to Sunnyside.
• Carol Roos, who served the district for 39 years before retiring in May as a social worker. She was hired as dean of girls for Sunnyside High in 1970 and founded the district's homebound teaching program for students with physical and emotional disabilities. She also founded a program for pregnant teens on campus and a component that worked with young mothers and fathers in school, provided care for their infants and teaching the teens parenting skills.
In addition to her job, Roos was a foster mother, a volunteer for the Special Olympics and for the Girl Scouts of America. In 1986, she received the district's Outstanding Contribution to the Education of Students award, and in 1985 was a recipient of the Jefferson Award, a program set up by the American Institute for Public Service in Washington, D.C., and sponsored by the Arizona Daily Star in Southern Arizona.
• Sue Tillis, a native of Saginaw, Mich., who is director of special education. She graduated from the UA with a bachelor's in special education and a master's in reading. She began working for the district in 1980 as a teacher for students with emotional disabilities at Santa Clara Elementary School and later at Los Niños Elementary School.
In 1989, she was promoted to coordinator of special education, and in 2001 to director of special education. The district has more than 2,700 special-education students, and nominator Kathy Laird described Tillis as having the "ability, insight and compassion to defuse difficult situations," and called her work with staff members invaluable. She has worked on committees and task forces for the Governor's Office for Children, and in 2002 Tillis was recognized for her contributions by the state Department of Education.
• María Elena Wakamatsu, award-winning teacher, author and poet, is chair of the Desert View English department and an English and creative-writing teacher at the high school. She was hired by the district in 1986 as an English teacher at Sunnyside Middle School, which is now Sierra, and later moved to Desert View. She challenges students to know the importance of their roots and their self-worth. Her students regularly are winners of the Tucson Poetry Festival's high school contest and the UA Poetry Center's corrido contest for Arizona high school students.
Wakamatsu graduated from Arizona State University in 1976 with a bachelor's, majoring in secondary education and English.
the ceremony
What: Six people who have made an impact on students in the Sunnyside Unified School District will be inducted into the Alumni Association 2009 Hall of Fame.
When: The Hall of Fame celebration will begin with a reception at 5:15 p.m. Saturday, followed by dinner at 6 and honors at 7.
Where: Gallego Basic Elementary School, 6200 S. Hemisphere Place.
Cost: $50 per person — a scholarship fundraiser.
Information: 545-2093.
