The Class Roster and pictures are as represented in the Woodrow Wilson High School, Portsmouth, Virginia yearbook or annual of the year indicated on the page. The Roster may not be complete and pictures and names may have been removed by request of the person involved. Also, it does not offically indicate the year of graduation and/or that the party in question graduated. If you are not represented in your class, you will be added to the last page of the year and you may submit a photo to be added. John “Eddie” Lee ’68.
John Chandler Harper - golfer
(March 10, 1914 – November 8, 2004) was an American professional golfer, best known for winning the PGA Championship in 1950. He won seven times on the PGA Tour and played in the Ryder Cup in 1955.
Harper was born, raised and lived his entire life in Portsmouth, Virginia. Graduating from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1932. He was prominent in Virginia golf, winning the Virginia State Amateur three times (1930, 1932, 1934) and the Virginia State Open nine times (1932, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1952, 1960, 1967, 1968, 1970), a record which stands today. His golfing career was interrupted by service in the U.S. Navy during World War II.
Harper's competitive career lasted from 1938 to 1955; and like most professional golfers of his generation, he spent most of his time as a club professional. Harper compensated for his lack of driving distance with a strong short game; Ben Hogan said that Harper was the best putter on Tour.
After Curtis Strange's father died when he was 14, Harper became Strange's mentor. He was also a long-time friend of Bobby Jones. He was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1973 and to the PGA Hall of Fame in 1968. In 1956, Harper founded Bide-A-Wee Golf Course in his hometown of Portsmouth, and managed the course until he retired in 1992. He died at the age of 90 of complications from pneumonia.
Professional wins (21)
PGA Tour wins (7)
1942 (1) Miami Biltmore International Four-Ball (with Herman Keiser)
1950 (2) Tucson Open, PGA Championship
1953 (1) El Paso Open
1954 (1) Texas Open
1955 (2) Virginia Beach Open, Colonial National Invitation
Major championship is shown in bold.
Other wins (12)
1932 Virginia Open (as an amateur)
1938 Virginia Open
1940 Virginia Open
1941 Virginia Open
1952 Virginia Open
1954 Middle Atlantic PGA Championship
1960 Virginia PGA Open
1967 Virginia PGA Open
1968 Virginia PGA Open, Virginia PGA Open
1969 Virginia PGA Open
1970 Virginia PGA Open
Senior wins (2)
1968 PGA Seniors' Championship, World Senior Championship
Major championships
Wins (1)
YearChampionshipWinning scoreRunner-up
1950PGA Championship4 & 3United States Henry Williams, Jr.
Note: The PGA Championship was match play until 1958
Note: Harper never played in The Open Championship.
Ben Jones – actor and politician
Early life and career
Jones was born in Edgecombe County, North Carolina, near McNair's Railroad Crossing, on August 30, 1941. His father was Hubert C. "Buck" Jones, a railroad section foreman and his mother was Ila Virginia Stephens, the daughter of a railroad section foreman. Within two weeks of his birth, his family moved to Portsmouth, Virginia. The Joneses lived in a "section house", a railroad company shack without indoor plumbing and electricity. That house was next to the Pinners Point Railyard that led to the shipping piers there. He graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1959 and worked at a number of odd jobs to save money for college. In 1960 he entered East Carolina College (now East Carolina University) and in 1961 he was accepted into the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, based upon his promise as a writer.
At Chapel Hill, Jones spent summers with the railroad on a work train that contracted to various railroads throughout the South. In 1962, while at UNC, he began acting with the Carolina Playmakers and was soon earning money at it in "summer stock" and at the outdoor drama "Unto These Hills" in Cherokee, North Carolina.
During the 1960s Jones was deeply involved in the Civil rights movement. He was arrested during sit-ins, and was attacked on two occasions by the KKK.
Careers
Acting
Jones has appeared in over 100 theatrical productions, including stints at the Kennedy Center, the Berkshire Theatre Festival, and numerous regional theaters. He relocated to Atlanta in 1969 and acted there with the Alliance Theatre, the Atlanta Children's Theatre, The Theatre of the Stars, and The Winter Playhouse. He also toured for two years with Eva Marie Saint in national productions of Summer and Smoke and Desire Under the Elms. In Atlanta he appeared in numerous television and radio commercials and began landing supporting roles in films, including Smokey and The Bandit (with Burt Reynolds and Jerry Reed), The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (with James Earl Jones and Richard Pryor) and with Tim Conway in They Went That-A-Way & That-A-Way.
The Dukes of Hazzard
In the mid-1970s, he had a supporting part in an independent film called The Moonrunners, written and directed by Atlantan Gy Waldron and featuring country star Waylon Jennings doing the music and narration. That film was the basis for "The Dukes of Hazzard," which began filming in 1978 about two miles from Jones's then residence in Covington, Georgia. Jones was cast in the role of "Cooter" Davenport, the sidekick mechanic of cousins Bo and Luke Duke. The show immediately rose to the top of the Nielsen ratings. In the days before cable, satellite dishes and the internet, "The Dukes" commonly attracted 40 million viewers weekly on CBS-TV.
Jones continued to live in Georgia and commuted to Los Angeles for the continued filming of "The Dukes." He served as president of the Georgia Branch of the Screen Actors Guild and was appointed chairman of the Georgia Film Commission.
United States Congress
In 1986, he ran for Congress in Georgia's Fourth Congressional District against incumbent Pat Swindall. Although considered a long shot at best, Jones received over 47% of the vote in defeat.[3] He sought a rematch in 1988, after Swindall had been indicted for perjury. Jones won by a 20-point margin[4] and was re-elected in 1990.
In the 101st and 102nd Congresses, he served as a Democratic whip, was a member of the Committee on Veteran's Affairs and a member of the Committee on Public Works and Transportation. After re-districting took his seat, he ran against Newt Gingrich in 1994. He was defeated, but in the course of that race he filed ethics charges against Gingrich alleging that Gingrich had used tax-exempt groups for political purposes.[5] Gingrich was ultimately reprimanded by the House of Representatives and ordered to reimburse the House an amount of $300,000 for the cost of the investigation.[6] One of the last Yellow dog Democrats, Jones is now a political independent.[7]
Post-congress
After serving in Congress, Jones returned to show business and was cast in the role of Arlen Sporkin in director Mike Nichols' "Primary Colors" with John Travolta and Emma Thompson. He also appeared in Meet Joe Black and Joe Gould's Secret, in addition to reprising his role of "Cooter" in two "Dukes of Hazzard" reunion specials.
In 1998, Jones and his wife Alma Viator bought a colonial log cabin and farm in Rappahannock County, Virginia, adjoining the Shenandoah National Park. In 1999, they created a "Dukes of Hazzard" museum and theme store in Sperryville, Virginia, called "Cooter's". It was an immediate success. They now have three such franchises in Pigeon Forge and Nashville, Tennessee, and in Luray, Virginia. Jones and Viator have also produced "Dukes" reunion festivals over the years, including one in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2006 which drew over 100,000 fans from all over the world, which The Tennessean called the largest gathering ever for a "fan" event there. They have continued to keep "Hazzard Nation" growing through their stores, personal appearances and concerts. Jones also tours with Cooter's Garage Band, performing Southern Country/Rock and has recorded 11 CD projects, including 2020's "Play Me an Old Song."
In 2007, Random House published Jones' memoir, Redneck Boy in the Promised Land, a humorous but unsparing account of Jones' adventurous life and his battle with alcoholism.[1] In it he wrote, "I got sober the day before I died."
As a writer, Jones has published fiction and poetry, in addition to political commentary in outlets including The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, USA Today, and many others. He has expressed his "maverick" political views on numerous network and cable outlets over the past 40 years.
Support of the Confederate flag
In 2015, Jones announced his support of the Confederate flag, which can be seen on the exterior top of The Dukes of Hazzard signature car, the General Lee. His defense of the flag served as his response to Warner Bros.' decision to no longer manufacture any merchandise that features the flag, such as the General Lee, and the discontinuation of reruns of the show due to Dylann Roof's infamous reputation associated with the flag. Though Jones often refers to his Civil Rights activism in the 1960s, quotes Martin Luther King, cites a lifelong membership in the NAACP (an organization that has been fighting against symbols that glorify the Confederacy ), and calls for a dialog between both sides of the Confederate-flag issue, he dismisses any association between the Confederate flag and slavery. He also attributes any association between the Confederate flag and slavery to a "wave of political correctness" and calls it a "cultural cleansing."
Filmography
Film
YearTitleRoleNotes
1972Together for DaysDouglas
1972The Bagel ReportMan with Women's Panties Fetish
1975MoonrunnersFred
1976The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor KingsPlantation Foreman
1977Smokey and the BanditTrucker with the redhead
1977The Lincoln ConspiracySamuel Arnold
1978They Went That-A-Way & That-A-WayLugs
1983Deep in the HeartChuck
1984On the LineTexas Lawyer
1988DakotaMr. Dakota
1996JackMechanic(part cut from film)
1998Primary ColorsArlen Sporken
2000Joe Gould's SecretSouthern Man at the Party
2021UnbreakableBen Jones
Television
Year TitleRoleNotes
1976 Movin' OnThiefEpisode: "Living It Up!"
1977 Nashville 99Calvin BonnerEpisode: "Joldy"
1978 The Magical World of DisneySgt. BinghamEpisode: "The Million Dollar Dixie Deliverance"
1979–1985The Dukes of HazzardCooter / Jeeter141 episodes
1983 Benji, Zax & the Alien PrinceVarious roles4 episodes
1987 CBS Summer PlayhouseEmoryEpisode: "Travelin' Man"
1997 The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion!Rep. Cooter DavenportTelevision film
1998 SlidersSgt. Lou DawsonEpisode: "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?"
1999 As the World TurnsJudge ManningEpisode dated January 19, 1999
2000 The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in HollywoodCooter DavenportTelevision film
2005 SurfaceGrocery ClerkEpisode #1.3
Video games
Year TitleRole
1999 The Dukes of Hazzard: Racing for HomeCooter Davenport
2004 The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee
T. J. Jordan – basketball player
(born March 16, 1986 in Denver, Colorado) is a women's basketball player who played collegiately for Old Dominion University. She holds several ODU scoring records, and was regarded as one of the best players in the Colonial Athletic Association.
Jordan attended Woodrow Wilson High School in Portsmouth, Virginia, where she was friends with LaShawn Merritt. Along with Khadijah Whittington, she led Wilson to its first ever women's basketball state championship game in the 21st century and was named Virginia High School Coaches' Player of the Year. She was named MVP of the 2006 CAA Tournament after setting an NCAA record with ten three-pointers against Northeastern University. Jordan is noted for her adeptness at making three-pointers. Twice named the MVP of the CAA, Jordan was generally seen as the face of the Lady Monarchs during her time on the team.
During her senior season Jordan led the Lady Monarchs to their twenty-fifth consecutive NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship, leading the team with 13.3 points per game. Old Dominion defeated Liberty University in the first round on the 2008 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament, giving the Lady Monarchs their first tournament win since 2002. She had fourteen points in a second-round overtime victory over Virginia; Old Dominion faced Connecticut in the Sweet Sixteen, falling to the Huskies 78-63, with Jordan being held to three points in her final collegiate game.
While considered a draft prospect, Jordan was not selected in the 2008 WNBA draft. However, she has tried out for the United States women's national basketball team.
LaShawn Merritt – sprinter, 2008 Olympic Gold medalist (400 meters and 4 × 400 m relay)
(born June 27, 1986) is an American track and field athlete who competes in sprinting events, specializing in the 400 metres. He is a former Olympic champion over the distance and his personal best of 43.65 seconds makes him the ninth fastest of all time.
He was a successful junior athlete and won the 400 m gold at the 2004 World Junior Championships in Athletics, as well as setting two world junior records in the relays. He became part of the American 4×400 meter relay team and helped win the event at the 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships. He established himself individually in 2007 by winning a silver medal in the 400 m at the 2007 World Championships.
He came out on top of a rivalry with Jeremy Wariner in 2008 by winning in the 2008 Olympic final in a personal best time, and by a record margin of 0.99 secs. He also broke the Olympic record in the relay with the American team, recording the second fastest time ever. Merritt established himself as the World Champion with a win at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics in the 400 m and the 4×400 m relay.
Biography
Merritt is a native of Portsmouth, Virginia where he graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 2004. LaShawn spent one year as a college athlete at East Carolina University, signing an endorsement contract with Nike during his first season of indoor track, making him no longer eligible to compete in an NCAA event. He then transferred to Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. He studied business administration at Norfolk State University also located in Norfolk.
Early career
Merritt came to prominence as a junior athlete at the 2004 World Junior Championships in Athletics. He took the gold medal in the 400 meters race and set two junior world records as part of the American 4×100 and 4×400 meter relay teams. He took part in the 2005 World Championships in Athletics, his first major senior championship, and acted as the relay substitute for the men's 4×400 m. He helped the team win their heat and was substituted for Jeremy Wariner for the final, where the American team won the gold medal.
He broke into the senior ranks in 2006, and was selected for the 4×400 m relay team for the 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships. Along with Tyree Washington, Milton Campbell and Wallace Spearmon, he won the World Indoor title in the event. Outdoors, he improved his best to 44.14 seconds for a bronze medal at the 2006 IAAF World Athletics Final and was selected to represent the United States at the 2006 IAAF World Cup, at which he won the 400 m competition.
Prior to the 400 m final at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics in Osaka, Merritt stated his intent to beat all-comers. He achieved his first sub-44 second run, finishing in 43.96, and beat 2000 Olympic champion Angelo Taylor to the line. However, this was not enough to beat the reigning World and Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner, who was half a second ahead. Nevertheless, the silver medal was Merritt's first at a global championships over the 400 m. He again formed part of the United States' 4×400 meter relay team and, with fellow individual medallists Wariner and Taylor among the team, the American's eased to victory some three and a half seconds ahead of the Bahamians. With Wariner absent from the field, Merritt won the gold medal at the 2007 IAAF World Athletics Final.
Olympic champion and Wariner duels
Merritt's 2008 season was distinguished by a considerable rivalry with Wariner, who had won the 400 m at every major global championship since 2004. The 2008 IAAF Golden League provided the venue for many of their duels. He scored his first major win over Wariner in a close affair at the Internationales Stadionfest in Berlin. He confirmed his Olympic place a month later by winning at the 2008 United States Olympic Trials, again defeating the reigning Olympic champion Wariner. Later in July at the Golden Gala meeting, Wariner responded by edging a win in the 400 m by just 0.01 seconds. At the Meeting Gaz de France in Paris, the last Golden League competition before the Olympics, Wariner seemed to have the momentum behind him after a win in 43.86 seconds.
Merritt winning 2008 Olympic gold, a second ahead of Jeremy Wariner
Merritt won the 400 m at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. A close race between Merritt and Wariner was expected, though it ultimately ended in a rout. The 0.99-second margin between Merritt's first-place finish and Wariner's second-place finish was the largest in an Olympic 400 m final. His time of 43.75, a new personal best, made him the fifth fastest 400 m runner on the all-time lists, still two places behind Wariner, who is third on the all-time list of fastest runners. He teamed up with Wariner, Angelo Taylor and 400 m bronze medallist David Neville for the men's 4 × 400 m relay. The team defeated the Olympic record mark which had stood since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics by running a time of 2:55.39, the second fastest in the history of the event.
Weeks after the Olympics, he lost to Wariner by a large margin at the Weltklasse Zürich, although Wariner's winning time of 43.82 seconds was still slower than Merritt's Olympic winning run. Merritt secured his fourth win over Wariner that season at the 2008 IAAF World Athletics Final. Although the two had both beaten each other that season, Merritt had won all the most important races, ending the season as the Olympic and American champion over 400 m as well as taking home the World Athletics Final payday. He opted to miss out on the 2009 indoor season to focus on improving his running and technique.
2009 World Champion
Merritt en route to becoming 400 m world champion in 2009
With Wariner already qualified for the World Championships as the defending champion, Merritt won the 400 m at the 2009 US Championships somewhat uncontested, equalling his own world leading time of 44.50 seconds. At the 2009 World Championships in Athletics, in Berlin, he went on to win the 400 m in a world-leading time of 44.06 seconds, once again beating Wariner.
On 22 April 2010 it was revealed he had failed three drugs tests and as a result he accepted a provisional suspension. He claimed that the failed drug tests resulted from his use of an over-the-counter penis enlargement product, ExtenZe. Merritt stated that he had not read the small print to check the ingredients of the product, which contains the banned steroid dehydroepiandrosterone. He accepted a two-year ban for the infraction and stated that he had made a "foolish, immature and egotistical mistake...Any penalty I may receive for my action will not overshadow the embarrassment and humiliation I feel".
2011: Return to the track
After his two-year ban was reduced to 21 months, LaShawn Merritt finished second at the Stockholm meeting of the Diamond League series with a time of 44.74. He received a berth to the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, South Korea due to him being the 2009 World Champion for the 400 meters. At the 2011 World Championships, he set a world leading time of 44.35. He eventually won the silver medal behind teenager Kirani James of Grenada, having led most of the race, but went on to run the final leg of the United States' gold medal winning 4 × 400 m relay team having been in third place coming out of the final bend.
2012
Merritt was the number one qualifier at the 2012 Olympic Trials. Two weeks before the track and field events at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Merritt tweaked his hamstring in the Herculis meet in Monaco. As a result of this injury he pulled up in a qualifying heat of the 400m at the London Olympics and did not finish.
2016
Merritt qualified once again onto the US team for the 400 meters at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. He ran a very quick time of 43.85 but only managed to win the bronze medal behind defending Olympic champion, Kirani James of Grenada, who won the silver medal with a time of 43.76, and Wayde van Niekerk of South Africa, who won the gold medal with a new world record time of 43.03.
2017
Merritt announced his retirement following the 2017 World Championships in Athletics.
Bill Moran - Former Major League Baseball player
(born September 26, 1950) is an American politician and retired professional baseball pitcher. The right-hander stood 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) tall and weighed 210 pounds (95 kg) during his baseball career.
Born in Portsmouth, Virginia, he attended Woodrow Wilson High School, Louisburg College, and Jacksonville University. Drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the ninth round of the 1971 Major League Baseball Draft, Moran played one year in the Major Leagues, going 1–3 with a 4.66 ERA for the Chicago White Sox during the 1974 season. He appeared in 15 MLB games pitched, five as a starter, and allowed 57 hits and 23 bases on balls in 46⅓ innings pitched. He defeated the Oakland Athletics (headed for their third consecutive World Series championship that season) 3–2 on May 18 at Comiskey Park for his only MLB victory, starting the contest and allowing two earned runs in five innings. Terry Forster earned the save with four innings of shutout relief. Moran's minor league pitching career lasted for nine seasons (1971–1979), and he later worked as a scout for the White Sox.
In 2010, he ran for mayor of Portsmouth in a special election to replace recalled mayor James W. Holley III.
Khadijah Whittington – Former WNBA basketball player
(born August 5, 1986) is an American professional basketball player for the CSM Satu Mare of the Liga Națională. After graduating from Woodrow Wilson High School (where she was a teammate of T. J. Jordan), Whittington attended North Carolina State University where she became the fourth player in school history to score 1,000 points and grab 1,000 rebounds in her career. She was selected by Indiana in the second round (26th pick overall) of the 2008 WNBA draft. Her hometown is Roanoke, Virginia.
She played for Montpellier in France during the 2008–09 WNBA off-season.
Clarence "Ace" Parker - Pro Football Hall of Famer and Former MLB player
(May 17, 1912 – November 6, 2013) was an American football and baseball player and coach. He played professional football as a quarterback, tailback and safety in the National Football League (NFL) for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1937–1941) and the Boston Yanks (1945) and in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) for the New York Yankees. He was an All-American selection at Duke University in 1936. Parker also played in the Major League Baseball (MLB) during 1936 and 1937 with the Philadelphia Athletics. He served as the head baseball coach at Duke from 1953 to 1966. Parker was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a player in 1955 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1972.
Early years
Parker was the son of Ernest and Mabel Parker and grew up in Portsmouth, Virginia. He attended Woodrow Wilson High School in Portsmouth, Virginia, graduating with the class of 1933 and starring in five sports. He enrolled at Duke University as a freshman in 1933.[2]
Duke career
At Duke, Parker competed in three sports: football, basketball and baseball. From 1934–1936, he starred at running back, doing most of the running and passing for Duke. He was second-team All-American in 1935 and consensus All-American first-team in 1936. He placed sixth in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1936. Parker was a great open-field runner and one of the best punters in college football at the time. His 105-yard kickoff return against North Carolina is still a Duke school record. Parker also stood out as a baseball player at Duke, playing in 1935–1936.
In his senior season at Duke, he served as team captain for the Duke Blue Devils who went 9–1, captured the league title with a 7–0 record, and finished the season ranked 11th in the Associated Press national poll.
He was elected into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1955. He was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 1963, the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1972, and was an inaugural member of the Duke University Sports Hall of Fame, inducted in 1975.
Early pro career
Parker was drafted by the Brooklyn Dodgers as the third pick of the second round in the 1937 NFL Draft. Sammy Baugh was the only passer drafted ahead of Parker. Parker, who played for the Philadelphia Athletics of Major League Baseball beginning in 1937, originally had no intention of playing in the NFL. Baseball was the glamour pro sport at the time and the NFL had a rough, vulgar reputation. But perhaps because of his .117 batting average that year, he asked for and received permission from the A's to play football. Parker thus became a true two-sport phenomenon, playing both Major League Baseball and NFL football in both 1937 and 1938. Parker, playing various infield positions, batted .179 over two seasons with the A's, scoring 20 runs with 25 RBI over 94 games. Parker was the first American League player (and second player overall, behind National Leaguer Eddie Morgan) of only a handful of Major League Baseball players to hit a home run as a pinch-hitter in their first at bat.
NFL stardom
When Parker joined the Dodgers in 1937, Brooklyn had been a perennial NFL cellar-dweller in the East Conference since 1930. With his running, passing, and punting ability, he brought them instant credibility. He led the team in passing in 1937 and every year he played. In 1938, he led Brooklyn to a .500 record and led the NFL in passing yards with 865. When legendary coach Jock Sutherland joined the Dodgers in 1940, Parker's career took off. In 1940, he threw for 817 yards and 10 touchdowns, rushed for 306 yards, caught 3 passes, including 2 for touchdowns, and led the league in points after touchdowns. The Dodgers finished only one game out of first, with an 8–3 record, and Parker was named the NFL MVP. In 1941, Parker continued to shine, but the Dodgers again finished second to the New York Giants, despite beating their New York rivals twice during the season. Parker's NFL career went on hold in 1942, as he, like many NFL players, left football to enlist in the Armed Services. After serving for over two years, Parker returned to the NFL, this time with the short-lived Boston Yanks, but at age 33, he took on a minor role.
He rejoined the former owner of the Dodgers, Dan Topping, in 1946 as part of the New York Yankees of the new All-America Football Conference (AAFC). Coached by former Washington Redskins coach Ray Flaherty and led by Parker, the Yankees won the AAFC East, giving Parker his only division title in pro football. The Yankees met the powerful Cleveland Browns in the championship game. The Yankees played well, but eventually succumbed to the Browns. Parker was 8 of 18 passing, for only 81 yards and an interception. Parker retired after the game, completing a fine career at age 34. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1972.
Later years
After his playing days, Parker became the head baseball coach (1953–1966) and assistant football coach (1947–1965) at Duke University. He was manager of the Durham Bulls from 1949 to 1952, serving as player-manager for the first three seasons and finishing with a record of 303–266 (.533). He was Piedmont League manager of the year in 1949 and 1951. He was also a founding member of the Elizabeth Manor Golf and Country Club in Portsmouth, Virginia.
On August 13, 2008, Parker was part of the inaugural class inducted into the Hampton Roads Sports Hall of Fame, honoring athletes, coaches and administrators who made contributions to sports in Southeastern Virginia.
At the time of his death, Parker was the oldest living member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the oldest living former professional football player and the last living person to play on the same major league baseball field as Baseball Hall of Fame member Rogers Hornsby. On May 7, 1937, Parker appeared for the Philadelphia Athletics while Hornsby played one of his last games for the St. Louis Browns. Before his death, Parker and Hall of Famer Bobby Doerr were the last men to play on the same field as baseball immortal Lou Gehrig.
Parker died the morning of November 6, 2013 at the age of 101. He is the first member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame to have lived past their 100th birthday.
Dionne Price – President, American Statistical Association
An American statistician who works as a division director in the Office of Biostatistics of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, in the US Food and Drug Administration. Her division provides statistical advice "used in the regulation of anti-infective, anti-viral, ophthalmology, and transplant drug products".
Education and career
Price is African-American, and grew up in Portsmouth, Virginia; her mother was a schoolteacher. She majored in applied mathematics at Norfolk State University, earned a master's degree from the University of North Carolina, and completed her Ph.D. at Emory University in 2000. Her dissertation, Survival Models for Heterogeneous Populations with Cure, was supervised by Amita Manatunga, and with it she became the first African-American to earn a doctorate in biostatistics at Emory. After finishing her doctorate, she joined the Food and Drug Administration.
Recognition
Price was the keynote speaker at StatFest 2016, a one-day conference at Howard University organized by the American Statistical Association Committee on Minorities in Statistics to encourage statistical students from underrepresented groups. She was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 2018. She was "elected the 118th president of the American Statistical Association (ASA). She will serve a one-year term as president-elect beginning January 1, 2022; her term as president becomes effective January 1, 2023. She was elected to the 2022 class of Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Price will be the first African-American president of the ASA."
Bill Schneider – journalist with CNN
Born October 8, 1944 and raised in Portsmiouth, VA. He is a 1962 graduate from Woodrow Wilson High School. He recieved his PH.D. from Harvard. From 1990 to 2009, he served as CNN's senior political analyst. He is a Distinguished Senior Fellow & Resident Scholar at Third Way, a Washington think tank. Schneider is also serving as the Omer L. and Nancy Hirst Professor at George Mason University's School of Public Policy, and teaching at George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government. He has also been a contributing editor to the Opinion section of the Los Angeles Times.
Awards
In 2003, he was awarded the Centennial Medal for contributions to society by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. In 2001, he received the Julian P. Kanter Award for Excellence in Television from the American Association of Political Consultants. He is also the recipient of the Brandeis University Pride Award and the Alumni Achievement Award.
In 2009, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems presented Schneider with a special award "for his extensive coverage and keen insight of the 2008 United States presidential elections . . . showcasing democracy in action" to the world.
Aaron Sparrow - American football player
(born January 27, 1972) is a former American football quarterback who played three seasons in the Arena Football League (AFL) with the Nashville Kats, Grand Rapids Rampage and Carolina Cobras. He played college football at Norfolk State University. He was also a member of the Calgary Stampeders, Augusta Stallions, Buffalo Destroyers, Norfolk Nighthawks and Wichita Stealth.
Early years
Sparrow played high school football at Woodrow Wilson High School in Portsmouth, Virginia. He was the All-Tidewater Player of the Year in 1989 and 1990. He also earned Parade All-American honors and helped the team win a state championship. Sparrow recorded career totals of 78 touchdown passes and 5,182 career passing yards.
College career
Sparrow originally committed to play football for the Virginia Cavaliers but ended up transferring to Norfolk State University after failing to meet academic requirements.
Sparrow played for the Norfolk State Spartans from 1992 to 1995. He recorded 617 completions, 1,119 attempts, 8,758 passing yards and 79 TD passes in his college career. He was a 3-time All-CIAA selection, 1994 CIAA Offensive Player of the Year, 1995 CIAA Co-Offensive Player of the Year and a 2-time Division II All-American from 1994 to 1995. He was Named to the Football Gazette Division II All-America Team as a junior in 1994, when he passed for 3,212 yards and 31 touchdowns while completing what was then a school record 59.8 percent of his passes. Sparrow was also named 1st team Football Gazette and 3rd Team AP All-American as a senior. He was inducted into the Norfolk State University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2009.[8]
Professional career
Calgary Stampeders
Sparrow signed with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League (CFL) in May 1996.[9] He was released by the team on June 11, 1996.
Nashville Kats
Sparrow appeared in two games for the Nashville Kats of the Arena Football League (AFL) in 1997. He had a tryout with the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL after the 1997 season.
Grand Rapids Rampage
Sparrow played in one game for the Grand Rapids Rampage of the AFL during the 1998 season, completing 13 of 16 passes for 171 yards and two touchdowns. He also threw an interception during the game and hurt his shoulder when he attempted to tackle the returner. He finished the game but could not throw a football when he woke up the next morning. Sparrow missed the rest of the 1998 and 1999 seasons rehabbing from surgery.
Augusta Stallions
Sparrow played for the Augusta Stallions of the af2 in 2000, earning af2 Offensive Player of the Year honors after completing 335 of 513 of his passes for 4,000 yards and 78 touchdowns with a 122.94 passer rating. He also rushed for 54 yards and eleven touchdowns. He garnered First Team All-af2 recognition as well.
Buffalo Destroyers
Sparrow was signed by the Buffalo Destroyers of the AFL in October 2000. He was placed on injured reserve on April 9, 2001. He was released by the Destroyers on July 20, 2001.
Carolina Cobras
Sparrow signed with the Carolina Cobras of the AFL on November 27, 2001, recording fourteen touchdown passes on 595 yards during the 2002 Arena Football League season. He was released by the Cobras on November 2, 2002.
Norfolk Nighthawks
Sparrow played for the Norfolk Nighthawks of the af2 in 2003 and completed 239 of 395 passes for 3,006 yards and 51 touchdowns. During his time with the franchise, Sparrow was the oldest player on the roster.
Wichita Stealth
Sparrow played for the Wichita Stealth of the af2 in 2004.
Jurij Toplak - constitutional scholar, university professor and election law expert
Jurij Toplak (born 1977) is a constitutional scholar, university administrator, election law, and human rights expert. He is a recurring visiting professor at the Fordham University School of Law in New York. Since 2016, he has served as the provost and vice-president of the Alma Mater Europaea university. The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe published his legal comments.
In 2022, he solved a math problem thought by mathematicians to require weeks or months, in just three hours. Toplak is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts and serves as the co-chair of the International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL) Freedom of Expression research group.
Education
University of Maribor Faculty of Law
Ph.D. Law
Advisor Daniel H. Lowenstein of UCLA Law School.
University of California, Los Angeles - School of Law
Fulbright Scholar
2003 - 2004
Central European University
Master of Laws (LL.M.) Comparative Constitutional Law
1999 - 2000
Advisors Michel Rosenfeld and Andras Sajo.
University of Maribor Faculty of Law
Law Degree
1995 - 1999
Woodrow Wilson High School (PORTSMOUTH VA, USA)
1994 - 1995
Gimnazija Bezigrad, Ljubljana
1991 - 1994
Toplak received an LL.M. degree at Central European University in Budapest under the mentorship of Michel Rosenfeld and Andras Sajó. He served as a Fulbright Scholar at the UCLA Law School in 2003–2004, and his doctoral dissertation supervisor was Daniel H. Lowenstein.
Professional career
He was a member of the National Election Commission of Slovenia from 2000 until 2012. Since 2006, he has been a board member, and he is a vice-chair of International Political Science Association Political Finance and Political Corruption Research Committee. At the age of 23 he published his first book on redistricting, for which Slovenian Lawyers’ Association awarded him with a “Young Lawyer of the Year” award. In 2006 he published (together with Klemen Jaklic, then a lecturer at Harvard), the first translation of United States Constitution into Slovene. Together with Daniel Smilov, he co-edited a book Political Finance and Political Corruption in Eastern Europe (Ashgate, 2008). In 2011, he led a research on disability discrimination, which evaluated responsiveness of over 200 municipalities to freedom of information requests submitted by blind persons. He classified preferential voting electoral systems. Pippa Norris and Bernard Grofman are among those who referred to his works, and he is among the top ten most cited Slovenian legal scholars. He was a member of the Ombudsman's Human Rights Council[ and of the government's Commission for Equal Chances in Science.
Toplak and Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani in New York in 2022.
Toplak and Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani in New York in 2022.
As a consultant to governments or international organisations OSCE, European Union, Council of Europe, Greco, and UNDP he worked in Uganda, Canada, United States, France, Finland, Latvia, Monaco, Serbia, Montenegro, Malta, Ukraine, Romania and elsewhere.
In 2022, with David Schultz, Toplak co-edited the Routledge Handbook of Election Law. He is considered "one of the world's leading election law experts."
Notable cases
Jure Toplak led numerous successful impact litigation projects and wrote complaints and appeals to Slovenian Supreme Court and Constitutional Court, which improved human rights protection of disabled persons, candidates and voters. He is known to side with the underdog and defend victims and weaker parties in disputes, and is the most successful author of human rights appeals in Slovenia.
Based on the constitutional appeal he wrote for a group of paraplegics, the Constitutional Court ruled in 2010 that “as many as possible” polling stations need to be wheelchair accessible. Next year he wrote another appeal for three wheelchair users, and in 2014 the Constitutional Court annulled part of the election law and ruled that all polling stations must be accessible for persons with disabilities.
In 2015, when the Constitutional Court was deciding whether the parliamentary seat of a parliamentarian due to his conviction was constitutional or not, the court copied arguments from Toplak's Amicus Curiae brief. During the 2018 parliamentary election, he helped a Green Party candidate list rejected by the election commissions and the Supreme Court returned it on the ballot.
When the Constitutional Court invalidated election districts legislation in 2018, Toplak is mentioned or cited 17 times in the court's decision and judges' opinions. In 2019, the Constitutional Court invalidated the local music quota law based on the appeal written by Toplak.
In 2017, Jurij Toplak wrote a challenge to the referendum results for a voter and activist Vili Kovačič, which led to the first-ever public hearing by the Supreme Court of Slovenia and first-ever annulment of referendum results on 14 March 2018. gcuvy ft On the same day Prime Minister Miro Cerar resigned. A minute later, a leading television program Pop TV, which broadcast the resignation, referred to Jurij Toplak as “the silent winner of the court ruling.” In 2022 the Slovenian Lawyers’ Aasociation, which unites 29 legal associations, named him “The Lawyer of the Year.” Slovenian lawyers voted Jurij Toplak among 'Ten most influential lawyers in Slovenia' in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021.
In October 2021, the European Court of Human Rights issued its judgment Toplak and Mrak against Slovenia. The case concerned accessibility of polling places and voting. Jurij Toplak wrote the appeal for Franc Toplak, his uncle, and other voters with disabilities, and the Court ruled that Slovenia had violated his uncle's and other applicants' human rights. Toplak wrote a class action for the Slovenian Disability Rights Association, which asked for a review and reform of the polling places accessibility, and for a 54 million Euros of compensation for the past discrimination of persons with disabilities.
Toplak is a staunch defender of free speech and transparent government. In 2014, after two years of litigation for access to information, he obtained statistical data on schools and published it, which triggered a heated public debate.
Toplak had long publicly opposed punishing of Internet users who discussed election candidates during the electoral silence. In 2011, he wrote two successful appeals for such Facebook users. After the 2014 elections, he wrote an appeal to the Supreme Court for a voter, who was fined 100 euros for publishing a comment on Facebook on a day before elections. In September 2016, the Supreme Court dismissed the fine and ruled that comments and discussions are not within a definition of illegal propaganda.
In March 2021, Toplak disclosed in the Daily Express that the European Court of Human Rights had stopped sharing its files with the public. “After allowing access to its single-judge decisions for decades and after sending applications out for several months, the Court’s termination of access in March 2021 due to the pandemic seems unjustified. The pandemic has not worsened in March 2021," he said. Just few hours after the Daily Express published the article, the Court changed its practice and sent documents to those who requested them.
Toplak wrote an appeal for an activist Vili Kovačič who was convicted for calling the judge “a pig” in the courtroom after the judge convicted Milko Novič to 25 years for murder. In a re-trial, Novič was found not guilty, and based on the appeal written by Toplak, the Supreme Court in 2022 dropped the fine imposed on Kovačič. They argued that freedom of expression protects those who call “a pig” an unfair and abusive judge who wrongly convicts a person of murder without evidence, and claimed that “pig” is a common description of abusive rulers, including in George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Soon after the 2022 national elections, the National Election Commission of Slovenia published names of the elected parliament members. Two weeks later, it announced that six seats have been wrongly assigned due to a "computer defect." The National Election Commission's president explained that it was impossible to calculate all 88 seats correctly, because a manual calculation would take "months of work for hundreds of people." The University of Ljubljana mathematics professors said it would take "weeks of work for dozens of people." The next day, Toplak on YouTube published a video in which he with a simple calculator and a pen calculated all 88 seats correctly in less than three hours.
European Academy of Sciences and Arts
Together with the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, Toplak and his father Ludvik Toplak developed the international Alma Mater Europaea university. Jurij Toplak served as the Dean of Business Studies between 2012 and 2016. He served as the university's provost between 2016 and 2022, and currently is the university’s vice president.
In 2020, Toplak organized and moderated the first round-the-globe and round-the-clock online conference, which soon became common during the COVID-19 pandemic. The event featured 52 of the world's leading constitutional law scholars including Mark Tushnet of Harvard Law School, Oxford professor Jacob Rowbottom, Adrienne Stone, Janny Leung, Pierre de Vos, Richard Calland, Michael Pinto-Duschinsky, RonNell Andersen Jones and the ECHR judges András Sajó and Boštjan M Zupančič.
In 2021, he took over the chairmanship of the organization of the It's About People conference. Since then, the event featured speakers economist Jeffrey Sachs, the European Commission vice-presidents and commissioners Maroš Šefčovič, Mariya Gabriel and Dubravka Šuica, Oxford Law School dean Mindy Chen-Wishart, Baroness Ruth Deech, András Sajó, Dimitry Kochenov, Klaus Mainzer, and Felix Unger.
Personal life
His father is a law professor, diplomat, and university rector Ludvik Toplak, who served as the president of the Slovenian parliament's chamber during Slovenia's independence, democratisation and constitution-making. His mother is attorney Rosvita Toplak. Jurij's paternal grandfather was a grapevine producer, agricultural cooperatives' organizer Janža Toplak, who in June 1941 hosted the first anti-Nazi resistance meeting in the Ptuj region, and shortly after that Gestapo arrested, tortured, and then killed his brother Franc Toplak, a university student of agriculture.The Toplak family in Mostje near Juršinci dates back to 1610.Jurij's maternal grandfather was Edvard Sitar, an inventor, a founder and administrator of several schools, a songwriter, and a partizan poet, tortured and imprisoned by Italian fascists.
Championship
