Numerous graduates of Waterloo High School have gone on to excel in their careers, contributing to the world and their communities as doctors, veterans, charity workers and many things in between.

The Waterloo High School Legacy Society seeks to honor them.

Every year, the society’s nominating committee selects five individuals to honor on the high school’s Legacy Wall.

These individuals can include former students, staff or faculty, with the uniting factor among them all being contributions in their fields and community.

This year’s honorees are Jane Maag Hagedorn, Toni Miller, Kelly Lerch, Shelby Nugent and Nick Hopkins. A story featuring brief biographies of each honoree will be published closer to the annual ceremony planned for this fall, during which they are recognized.

Lerch is among those who helped get the society started in 2013. She explained that the group came together primarily to honor Roy J. May, well known in the community as commander of the Waterloo American Legion as well as a beloved State Farm agent who passed away last year.

As Lerch recalled, she was among the group planning the city’s annual Veterans Day program when it came to light that May never walked for his graduation from WHS, having went off to serve in World War II.

A special graduation took place for May, though this anecdote about a prominent WHS graduate led Lerch and a number of others to look deeper into the school’s history in an effort to properly recognize other notable graduates.

“We were planning that Veterans Day program, and that’s where it started,” Lerch said. “I started looking back and realizing there was so much history in the yearbooks that just sat in a closet in the library.”

Following Lerch’s retirement, WHS guidance counselor Robert Lohman joined the committee to ensure the group still had active representation from the school.

Lohman noted some particulars about the Legacy Society induction process, namely that graduates set to be honored must have been graduates for at least 10 years. Former school employees must have been retired or otherwise away from the district for five years.

He also voiced his anticipation for a new aspect of this year’s induction process.

While honorees will still be recognized during the annual ceremony, they are also invited to be featured at the school’s homecoming parade as well as the football game taking place the same week.

Lohman spoke to the overall purpose of the WHS Legacy Society. He hopes that this work helps inspire current students, making it clear to them that, as he said, “People who graduate from Waterloo High School go on to do great things.”

“We’ve had some really amazing graduates take off and do some incredible things in the fields of science, music, the military, business. There’s definitely a lot of charitable organizations, people who have devoted their lives to helping others,” Lohman said. “We want to celebrate that, normalize it, encourage it.”

Lerch echoed this sentiment, noting the pleasure she has felt seeing students looking at the WHS Legacy Wall or flipping through the collection of honorees which hangs from the wall outside the school’s library.

“I just love it when I would walk by and see high school students standing there looking,” Lerch said. “You just can’t help but smile.”

A number of other individuals with the Legacy Society also spoke about the purpose of the group and their hopes for WHS students.

Waterloo School Board Member Jodi Burton has been putting together biographies on inductees since the group began, and she noted how interesting that sort of work has been.

“It is such a treat every year to do that,” Burton said. “The stuff that we have found has just been amazing. There are treasures out there, and we have been finding amazing things about people… Every year it just seems like more people come to the surface.”

HTC President and CEO H.R. Gentsch voiced his respect for the many WHS graduates who have gone on to truly excel in their fields.

“The purpose, as it was explained to me when I became involved with the group, was to recognize various fields, including administrators and teachers at the high school, try to recognize and publicize students who have gone through the high school and gone on to be very successful in their chosen fields,” Gentsch said.

Toni Miller, who is also one of the individuals who helped put the Legacy Society together and is one of this year’s honorees, emphasized the diverse array of success among WHS graduates, also noting how current students have been very interested in hearing about the school’s history over the years.

“I think the importance of it is it can show our kids the accomplishments that have been made by former students,” Miller said. “It’s amazing what some of the people have done. There’s this whole gamut of success.”

Those who spoke with the Republic-Times highlighted a number of former honorees, from a Vietnam War veteran who served three tours to an individual who served as the dean of veterinary medicine at the University of Illinois.

Also mentioned was Scott Spock, a music producer for a number of artists who have won multiple Grammy Awards, as well as Dunkin’ Brands CEO and President of Dunkin’ U.S. David Hoffmann.