Alumni Day & Hall of Fame Awards

List of 5 items.

• Les Ballard Class of 1952

  A. L. “Les” Ballard is President of Ballard Exploration Company, Inc., headquartered in Houston, Texas.  Mr. Ballard founded the company in 1976 and grew it into a top natural gas producer in Harris and the surrounding Texas counties. Today, the company has one of the largest collections of 3D seismic data along the Texas and Louisiana gulf coast and continues to actively explore using advanced geophysical techniques to find and develop natural gas and oil in a safe, environmentally friendly manner. Mr. Ballard was born in San Antonio, attended Alamo Heights Middle School and graduated in the TMI Class of 1952. He went on to earn his Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering at the Rice Institute, where he was awarded The Schlumberger Scholarship and the Graham Baker Studentship, the highest award at Rice, for academic achievement. Les received the honor of Best Cadet of the 1955 Engineer ROTC Summer Camp, while at the Rice Institute and later achieved the rank of First Lieutenant in the United States Army.  He began his career at Shell Oil Company in 1958 and later worked for Kilroy Company of Texas before beginning operations on his own.  Mr. Ballard has served on many non-profit boards over his career and supported numerous charitable causes. He was a Trustee of Hampden-Sydney College of Virginia for four years and a Board Member of The Crescent Porter Hale Foundation in San Francisco for eight years.

• Donald Elliott Class of 1963

  Donald Gates Elliott is a prior Navy attack jet pilot and a retired FedEx pilot. At a very young age, Donald knew he wanted to be a pilot. He remembers lying in his grandparents yard in Laredo watching the military aircraft flying above him. Concerned that he showed no interest in anything but flying, his parents sent him to TMI with hopes that this would squash his love of flying. Fortunately, it did not. Donald loved TMI, though, cementing a lifelong bond with the school and the friends that he made there. 
  
  

  Donald graduated from Lamar University with a combined business economics and marketing degree. He worked while in college allowing him to earn his pilot license prior to graduation. After college, he joined the Navy flying A4 attack jets experiencing firsthand the thrill of landing on aircraft carriers. One of the aircraft carriers he landed on is the USS Lexington, which now is a museum in Corpus Christi, Texas. 
  
  

  After four years of service, Donald started with small start-up company in Little Rock, Arkansas, called Federal Express. He worked closely with Fred Smith to create a program using the new down-sized aluminum containers to carry the US mail. They both went to Washington DC to meet with the Postmaster General to sell the value of the containers versus hand-throwing the mail sacks into the aircraft. The Postmaster General not only sealed the deal with the containers still being used today at a much larger scale! He also flew the second international flight with the company once they began flying worldwide. Donald retired after flying thirty-two years with Federal Express. 
  
  

  Donald’s wife, Denise, is also a pilot, and together they continue to fly donating their time and aircraft to helping move homeless pets through a program called PilotsNPaws. Their daughter, Alexis, is a student pilot and also an alumni of TMI, and their son-in-law, Matthew, is a commercial pilot.

• Rick Smith Class of 1971

  Rick is one of 3 children of Dick and Betty Smith.  Dick was a standout athlete, 2 time All American in Basketball at Western Kentucky, a retired Air force officer and Betty was a career teacher. Rick started his TMI career as an 89er and graduated in 1971.  He played football, basketball, was in the choir and was the Drum Major for the Marching band his senior year.  His fondest memories are of the friends he made, the Fiesta activities that they participated in and being a flag bearer at the opening ceremonies for HemisFair ’68.
    

  He was accepted to Texas A&M and joined the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band as a Fish drummer, was a member of the New Tradition Singers and graduated 4 years later as a newly commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army Field Artillery.  So off to Ft. Sill and then 3 years in Wiesbaden, Germany where he enjoyed travel, German beer and wine and added a Masters Degree in Management.  He returned to Texas and spent his last year at Ft. Hood.  After leaving active duty, he remained in the active Reserves and joined the 90th ARCOM where he served in the Finance section and then served as the Aide de Camp to the Commanding General for his last active Reserve assignment.
  
  

  He joined the Connecticut General in 1979 and spent 16 years providing estate and financial advice to business owners and professionals and then founded ChapmanSchewe and Smith in 1995.  He and his partner Harry Chapman merged their firm with Higginbotham in 2013 and he continues to work with his clients for their insurance needs.
  
  

  He currently serves on the Boards of TMI, University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio Sports and has been active on various other boards and nonprofits throughout the San Antonio area.  He has been married to Judy for the past 30 years and they have 4 children, merging her daughter and son with his 2 boys, and they have 10 beautiful grandchildren.

• Dawn Bartlett Hall Class of 1991

  Dawn has just wrapped up/retired after 19 years of covering both the NASCAR racing series and the IndyCar racing series. She was both owner and host of her nationally syndicated radio and podcast program, Tracksmack Radio, a native of San Antonio. Dawn worked in both news talk and sports talk radio as an executive producer and on air personality for Newstalk 550 KTSA, 1250 ESPN Radio The Zone, and Ticket 760 Sports, iHeartRadio. While with the stations she covered the NBA, NFL, MLB and more. Dawn could be seen and heard doing interviews and covering the San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Cowboys frequently.
  
  

  Dawn attended TMI for two years and graduated in 1991 while attending TMI Dawn received numerous sports accolades. Her junior year she received multiple tournament MVPs awards in both basketball and volleyball. She was voted team MVP for both basketball and volleyball that year and was also nominated to the first team all district in both sports as well. She also ran track and field. Dawn‘s senior year she was a two-time tournament MVP in basketball. She was nominated as the team MVP that season and also made first team all district in basketball. She was ranked in the top five and three-point shooting in the city of San Antonio in basketball that season. She also ran track her senior year. Dawn was nominated as Homecoming Queen for 90-91 yr. At graduation, Dawn received several special awards and recognition which included the alumni award, the Springall Award, and the Margo H. McFee memorial award.
  
  

  After graduation, Dawn attended college at Emmanuel College in Boston, Massachusetts, where she played division three volleyball and basketball. As a freshman, she was nominated to the Division 3 tournament team for volleyball. That year, she suffered career ending injuries and was forced to end her sports days. Dawn is a mom of two boys , Caleb who is 30 years old and lives in San Antonio with his wife, Ashley, and sons Cooper Jax and Conor Jett. Her son Donovan, who is 22 lives in Maine and is married to Miles. Dawn is the proud grandma (GaGa) of 2. She lives in Anna Texas, which is north of Dallas, with her amazing husband, Craig Hall and their 2 spoiled dogs

• Distinguished Servant Leaders Award Honoree Leland Goertz, TMI Teacher and Coach

  Mr. Leland Goertz is a native of San Antonio Texas. He attended private catholic schools from first thru twelfth grade, graduating from St. Gerard Regional High School in 1979. He attended and graduated from Southwest Texas State University in 1985 with a B.S. in Education and earned his Texas Teaching Certificate with a major in Physical Education and a minor in Health and Science. Leland returned to St. Gerard’s under the guidance of his high school football coach, and now a member of the San Antonio Athletic Hall of Fame, Coach George Paterchick. During his first two years there he taught Biology and World Geography. He also assisted Coach Paterchick by running the secondary on the Varsity football team and was the head JV football coach. He also coached the freshman basketball team and ran an intense offseason program for the “Mighty Royals” football program that won the state championship in 1985 and returned to the state championship game in 1988.
  
  In 1988, Romy Vela, the head varsity basketball coach at St. Gerard’s, accepted the new Athletic Director’s job at TMI Episcopal. Romy, upon receiving the new job, came into Coach Goertz’s Biology class one afternoon in the spring of 1988 and they both drove way out to the northwest side of San Antonio to the construction of the “New” TMI campus. As they say, “The rest is history”.
  
  Coach Leland Goertz has been a member of the TMI Panther family from the fall of 1988 to the present. He has taught Earth Science for the last 36 years. Coach Goertz believes in Benjamin Franklin's quote, “Tell me and I’ll forget. Teach me and I’ll remember. Involve me and I’ll learn”. He has made it his mission to have his science students involved in his classes with activities, projects, labs and field trips. His greatest memories are the Oceanography trips down to the Texas coastline to the unforgettable trips out to the Big Bend area of Texas.

  While at TMI he has had the opportunity to teach Marine Biology, Environmental Science, General Science and Anatomy and Physiology. He is presently teaching an Astronomy and Meteorology elective course in high school. In 1989 Coach Goertz and Science Department Head Diane Beechinor organized the infamous “Science Challenge” day in the middle school. For over 30 years legendary stories were created.
  
  

  Coach Goertz and his wife Linda, were C-dorm parents in the Residential Life Community from 1988 to 2006. During his last four years, while in the dorms, he served as the Head of Residential Life Program. Being there for the students was his ultimate objective.

  During Coach Goertz’s 36 years at TMI he’s been the Head Varsity Football Coach for 9 years, coached in the San Antonio All-Star Football Game 7 different times, 2 years as the Head Middle School Football Coach, 8 yeas as an Assistant Varsity Baseball Coach, 6 years as a Middle School Basketball Coach and has had his CDL bus licenses for the past 34 years. He is presently the Defensive Coordinator for the varsity football team.