WOODROW WILSON HIGH SCHOOL HALL OF FAME CLASS OF 2014 © The information contained herein is copyrighted by Woodrow Wilson High School Alumni Association, Inc. Links to this information from other Woodrow Wilson High School-related websites are expressly authorized. However, information contained on these pages may not be copied or reproduced without the written permission of the Woodrow Wilson High School Alumni Association, Inc. Louise M. Woerner Sellers, 1930 The "unsinkable" Titanic ocean liner and Louise Woerner Sellers both launched in 1912; but only Louise is still afloat. An honor student at Woodrow, Louise was on the committee that designed the 1930 Class Ring, which she held onto for 83 years until she donated it to Woodrow in 2013. Like many of our hall of Famers, Louise did not take the easy path to making her mark. In 1941, married with one child and another on the way, the unexpected death of her husband left her widowed with children to support. To make ends meet, Louise cut grass, took in sewing, and when her new son was only 4 months old, took a secretary position at O.M. Roberts Elementary school. From there, Louise moved on to progressively better paying secretarial positions with a variety of employers including GMAC, U.S. Engineers, Burris Feed Mills, and Airmaid Hosiery, ending up at the J. Hugh Campbell Company in 1950. It was called The Flag Store and then mainly sold flags and badges. Louise did much more than secretarial work; she sewed flags and once had to sew 1,700 red satin garters for a film productions company. In 1962, she bought the company and her son soon joined her, after which they developed a very successful advertising division selling promotional products to companies such as Texas Instruments and Southwest Airlines. Louise became very active in the industry, becoming a board member and a two-term president of the Specialty Advertising Association Southwest. She became a promotional product wizard. Still, The Flag Store continued to make and sell flags and governmental bodies and schools often called needing unusual flags for hosting visiting international dignitaries. Louise often found that such flags weren’t commercially available, so she did the research and sewed the flags herself. Through it all, Louise turned The Flag Store into a nationally- known specialty business that stayed in her family until 2011. In 2013, Louise generously donated the funds needed to install the new flagpole that is located in the front lawn here at Woodrow. We believe Louise is Woodrow’s oldest living alumna and we celebrate her perseverance and vitality. Ruth Allen Mewhinney, M.D., 1933 Dr. Ruth I. Allen was a true trailblazer, and credits Woodrow for nurturing her interest in science. After graduating from SMU in 1937, she went on to become one of only three women among the 100 new doctors graduating from UT Galveston’s Medical School in 1941. After an internship at the Women’s Medical College Hospital in Philadelphia and pediatric residencies at both the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor and Children’s’ Medical Center in Dallas, Dr. Allen briefly practiced in Dallas before moving with her husband, Dr. Logan Mewhinney, to St. Louis for his Pediatric residency. While in St. Louis, she became Assistant Director of the County’s Health Department, after first serving as its Director of Maternal and Child Health Programs. After the Mewhinneys returned to Dallas, Dr. Allen resumed her practice, becoming more than a just physician – she specialized in, and revolutionized, pediatric and adolescent care for girls and became a compassionate and intelligent role model for at least three generations of women in North Texas, all while raising two children of her own, both of whom also became physicians, Dr. Anne Monning of Dallas and Dr. Hugh Mewhinney of Austin. Dr. Allen touched and changed the lives of thousands of young women during her career, challenging them to resist gender stereotypes and strive for excellence while pursuing their dreams. She has been a frequent speaker at schools to faculty and parents on timely adolescent topics. Over the years, Dr. Allen has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Distinguished Physician Award from the American Medical Women’s Association in 1998, the Mead Johnson Pediatric Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008, and the SMU Distinguished Alumni Award – 2011 History Maker, among many others. G. Mark Goode, Jr., 1938 Marquis “Mark” G. Goode, Jr. left Woodrow and began college at Texas A&M, but WWII interrupted his studies and he was called up, commissioned, and sent off to Europe, where he served as an officer in the U.S. Army. After the war, he returned to A&M, finished his Civil Engineering degree in 1947, and then went straight into what became a 40 year career with the Texas Highway Department. He had no idea then that his career was going to parallel the construction of one of the greatest interstate highway systems in the country, but it did, and Mark had a big role in making it happen. From 1980 until he retired in 1986, Mark was the Engineer-Director for the Texas Highway Department, managing the fastest period of road growth in the history of Texas Highways. Mark initiated a recruiting and training program that opened doors for women and minorities and led the Department into the age of automation. Under his leadership, the Highway Department initiated the highly successful “Don’t Mess With Texas” antilitter campaign and the “Adopt a Highway” program. During his tenure, Texas was at the forefront of highway development in the country. Mark shared Texas’ expertise and picked the brains of other highway engineers as he served on the executive and policy committees of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, which recognized his contributions in 1984 by bestowing on him its highest honor, the MacDonald Award. He also served as president of the Western Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and on the executive committee of the Transportation Research Board. In 2008, Mark was inducted into the Texas Transportation Hall of Honor for his outstanding contributions that helped give Texas one of the finest multimodal transportation systems in the world. Woodrow Wilson HS Hall of Fame, Class of 2014 Page 1 © Copyright Woodrow Wilson High School Alumni Association, Inc. Links to this information from other Woodrow Wilson High School-related websites are authorized. However, information contained on these pages may not be copied or reproduced without the written permission of the Woodrow Wilson High School Alumni Association, Inc. Pete Harris Pappas, 1938 A highly respected Restaurateur whose acumen and knowledge spawned some of the Southwest’s best known restaurants, Pete Pappas co- founded what has become Pappas Restaurants, an 80 restaurant chain that includes the Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchens, Pappasito’s Cantinas, Pappas Bar-B-Q restaurants, Pappas Brothers Steakhouses, Pappas Burgers, Pappas Seafood House, and the Yia Yia Mary’s Greek Kitchen. After graduating from Woodrow in 1938, Pete bought the Piccadilly Restaurant in Grand Prairie, but when WWII started, he sold it and joined the U.S. Army Air Corps, where he served as a Master Sergeant in the Inspector General’s Corps, leading to his lifelong love of recreational flying. After the War, Pete and his brothers (Jim, Tom, and George) heeded their father’s suggestion and moved to Houston in 1946 to open Pappas Refrigeration, a restaurant supply business, Always a tinkerer and a “Fix-it” guy, that was where Pete invented and patented a number of restaurant equipment items still in use today. However, in 1967, Pete decided, “I’ve helped build so many restaurants; I think I’m going to do my own.” So he and brother Jim left the supply business and opened the Dot Coffee Shop in Houston, followed what is now known as Pappas Bar-B-Q. Jim’s sons joined the business soon after and it continued to expand into what is now a multi-state chain of restaurants. Although a great restaurant innovator and operator, Pete’s passion was on the real estate side of the business: He had a keen sense for trends and demographics and prided himself in going with his own hunches about new locations rather than relying on industry data. In his words, he was “happiest when making a business deal.” Pete never forgot Woodrow and kept up his Dallas ties over the years. His daughter, Pam Mattingly, remembers that after having attended the 50th Reunion of his 1938 WW Class, he remarked that he had never seen so many ‘old’ people in his life! A recreational pilot who was also passionate about boats and boating, Pete died in Houston in 2005. Charles Robert “Dr. Bob” Smith, M.D., 1940 An East Dallas visionary who recognized that East Dallas needed much better access to health facilities, Dr. Bob Smith made it happen in a big way: Not only did he build and grow Doctors’ Hospital (near White Rock Lake), he also established what is now known as Doctors’ Healthcare and Rehab Center for long-term services, as well as Arcady Health Services Inc., a health care management company. Together, these entities made a huge difference in the quality and accessibility of health care not only in East Dallas, but also for surrounding counties. After graduating from Woodrow, he attended SMU, where he earned both B.A. and B.S degrees. After obtaining his M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine, he returned to Dallas for a residency in Pediatrics at Children’s Medical Center before opening his pediatrics practice near White Rock Lake in 1951.