Two former Fox High principals who played key roles in the school’s athletic department and five former students will be inducted into the school’s Alumni and Staff Hall of Fame this weekend.
The inductees include former Fox High administrators Jerry O’Connor, the late Ron Sauer and former students Jim Chellew, Dana Cooper Evans, Frank Grass, David Hall and Brian Waldrop.
“I think we have seven worthy candidates,” said Joe Salsman, a Fox High School assistant principal and member of the executive board for the Fox High School Alumni Association, which oversees the hall of fame and the selection of inductees. “This year we had more than 50 nominations. Each year, (the number of nominations) keeps going up and up. Each year it takes longer for the committee to deliberate on who is worthy of going into our hall of fame.”
The seven newest members will be inducted into the hall of fame during a banquet on Saturday, Oct. 19, in the Fox High School gym, 751 Jeffco Blvd., in Arnold. Doors will open at 4:30 p.m. and dinner will be served at 5:45 p.m.
Tickets for the event cost $30 and may be purchased by going to fox.revtrak.net and clicking on high schools and then Fox, Alumni and the banquet link. Proceeds from the event benefit the Fox High Alumni Association.
“It is one of the nicest things we do at Fox High School,” Salsman said of the induction ceremony. “Everyone enjoys it, and it is great to hear inductees talk about what Fox High School meant to them and how it impacted their lives.”
Fox High has had a Sports Hall of Fame since 2005 and then in 2023, the school started honoring staff members who worked at the school for at least 15 years and students who had graduated at least 10 years earlier.
Fox High inducted two classes last year with the first six inducted in March and six more in October.
Chellew, who graduated from Fox High in 1967 and went on to work in the Fox C-6 School District as a teacher, principal, assistant superintendent and superintendent before retiring in 2009, said having the hall of fame benefits current and future students.
“They get to see examples of what they can achieve in life. It gives them something to aspire to. It may cause them to try to fulfill their potential a little harder than they would have. It is an important thing.”
O’Connor
O’Connor, 87, of Arnold worked for the Fox C-6 School District from 1960 to 1996, spending most of his time at Fox High.
From 1960 to 1970, he was a math and physical education teacher, as well as the head coach for the football and baseball teams and an assistant basketball coach. In 1966, he led Fox High to its first undefeated football season.
O’Connor was promoted to athletic director and an assistant principal in 1970, and in 1975, he was promoted to Fox High’s principal. He was named the assistant superintendent of secondary education in 1989.
“The Fox school district has been my life ever since I moved to Arnold in 1960,” O’Connor said.
“I have been so very lucky to have so many good people around me that things went really well for the 37 years I worked in the school district.”
While at Fox High, O’Connor helped open the Leo C. Peck Media Center, or library. He also was at Fox High during a time when the school had so many students enrolled they had to attend in shifts. At that time, the school had eight periods during the school day, with one group of students attending during the first through seventh periods, and another group attending the second through eighth periods.
The Board of Education named Fox High’s athletic stadium after O’Connor in 1997, and he was inducted into the school’s sports hall of fame in 2005.
Sauer
Sauer worked at Fox High for 31 years as a teacher, coach, athletic director and principal.
He started the school’s wrestling program and coached the team for six years. He also was Fox High’s athletic director and assistant principal for 15 years and started the boys and girls soccer programs, the softball and golf programs, and the boys volleyball program.
Sauer was named the Missouri Athletic Director of the Year in 1989.
He then was Fox High’s principal for seven years and was named the St. Louis Area Principal of the year in 1997.
Sauer oversaw the creation of the arts and craft fair, Renaissance program, Christmas wish drive and Fox High School Parent’s Club during his time at the school.
“He gave his life to Fox,” said his daughter, Angie Leonard. “He did everything to make it better. This shows his hard work is acknowledged. This means a lot because it encompasses everything, not just sports.”
Sauer was inducted into the Fox High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2007, and the school annually holds a Ron Sauer Wrestling Tournament.
Sauer died June 1, 2019, after a yearslong battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 74.
Sauer was married to Linda Sauer, who was a teacher in the district. The couple had another daughter, Mindy Kendrick, and four grandchildren.
“It makes us extremely humbled and proud that he is being honored in this way,” said Leonard, who will speak for her father during the induction ceremony. “I wish he were here to accept it for himself. I know he would be incredibly humbled and honored.”
Chellew
In addition to working as an educator and administrator for the Fox district, Chellew, 75, of Imperial served on the Fox C-6 Board of Education from 2018 to 2024.While Chellew was the district’s superintendent, Fox consistently received the “Distinction of Performance” designation from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and achieved National Blue Ribbon School and Missouri Gold Star school recognition.
As superintendent, he helped pass the district’s last tax levy increase, which was $1.2207 per $100 assessed valuation, in 2004 and helped secure an $18 million bond issue to build Hodge Elementary School, build an addition at Fox High and renovate several other schools.
Chellew also helped establish a Missouri Baptist University campus in Arnold and is the site coordinator and assistant professor for the university.
“It’s a tremendous honor to be recognized for making some contributions to the community that have made a difference,” he said. “Fox prepared me for life, and then they became my life’s work.”
He said he’s also proud of his work on behalf of Missouri Baptist University.
“We made getting graduate and post-graduate degrees, especially in education and higher education, more accessible in our community,” he said. “There are a lot of people who are principals and superintendents who got their credentials through Missouri Baptist University in Arnold.”
Evans
Evans, 45, of Downers Grove, Ill., graduated from Fox High in 1997. She is the regional respiratory care director for the Midwest region of Advocate Health, supporting respiratory care teams in 28 hospitals in Illinois and Wisconsin.
Evans was to be sworn in this fall as president of the American Association for Respiratory Care, a 42,000-member organization.
At Fox High, Evans was president of the drama club and was named the thespian of the year as a senior. She then went to the University of Missouri in Columbia, where she received a bachelor’s degree in respiratory care and a master’s degree in health care administration.
Evans was the respiratory care director for Advocate Healthcare from June 2022 to July 2023, after serving in the same role at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago from August 2016 to June 2022. She was the respiratory care manager at Mercy Children’s Hospital in St. Louis from November 2012 to July 2016, and she was the respiratory care supervisor at Mercy Children’s Hospital and Mercy St. Louis Hospital from January 2009 to November 2012.
Evans was a respiratory therapist at Mercy Hospital St. Louis from June 2008 to January 2009 after serving as a clinical instructor from August 2003 to June 2008 at the University of Missouri in Columbia.
She also was a respiratory therapist for University of Missouri Health Care from December 2004 to June 2008 and at the Boone Hospital Center in Columbia from May 2001 to February 2005.
“It is an honor to be recognized in this way by my high school and for the Hall of Fame Committee to consider me in that caliber of alumni,” Evans said. “I think this is a really awesome way to recognize alumni. They have had the sports Hall of Fame for a long time. I love to see this recognition for achievements outside of sports. I think this type of thing can really demonstrate to current Fox students what is possible.”
Grass
Grass, 73, of Columbia graduated from Fox High in 1969. He is a retired four-star general who was the 27th chief of the National Guard Bureau from September 2012 to August 2016.
“Fox gave me a confidence that I didn’t know I had in myself,” he said. “When I went into the military, the military confirmed everything Fox set in motion in my career.
“It was the foundation they (Fox High) gave me that made the difference. They set me in the right direction. There is no doubt about it.”
Grass enlisted in the Missouri Army National Guard after graduating from high school. While serving in the National Guard from 1969 to 1981, he earned an associate degree at St. Louis Community College, a bachelor’s degree from Metropolitan State University and master’s degrees from Missouri State University, formerly Southwest Missouri State, and the National Defense University.
In 1981, he completed Officer Candidate School and was commissioned as a U.S. Army engineer officer. He served in various command and staff positions through 2004.
He became a general in 2004 and served in various command posts before retiring on Sept. 1, 2016. During his tenure as chief of the National Guard Bureau, which also made him a member to the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, he was responsible for more than 450,000 Army and Air National Guard personnel.
“I have thought about a quote I would put in a yearbook today, and it would say, “Least likely to succeed, but the Fox High School faculty and staff believed in me and gave me the tools for success.”
Hall
Hall, 74, of Mount Pleasant, S.C., graduated from Fox High in 1968. He went on to become a doctor dedicating most of his career to helping children with medically complex chronic diseases.
“I feel honored,” he said of being named to the hall of fame. “I have a lot of fond memories of going to Fox.”
After graduating from high school, he earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri in Columbia before graduating from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. He then completed an internship, residency, chief residency and fellowship in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
During his career, Hall was the medical director for the Scottish Rite Children’s Medical Center in Atlanta, Ga., director of the complex care center and diagnostic referral clinic at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the section head for the program for children with medically complex needs at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University. He also was a clinical professor of pediatrics at Vanderbilt before retiring in July 2020.
Hall was elected to “Best Doctors in America” 13 times and has published multiple studies on the care of children with medically complex chronic diseases, with his most recent paper being published in July.
“I appreciated all of the things I learned at Fox, the teachers who I had and the friends I made,” he said. “I felt like I got a good education at Fox, and that prepared me for more education later. I am grateful for that.”
Waldrop
Waldrop, 56, of Arnold graduated from Fox High in 1986. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri in St. Louis and was a teaching assistant at the University of Guyana in South America and the University of Missouri.
He went on to become a St. Louis regional Stream Team assistant with the Missouri Department of Conservation, and he currently is a volunteer engagement specialist for the Missouri Stream Team and Master Naturalist programs.
Waldrop also co-chairs Arnold Stream Team 211with Bernie Arnold. The group organizes cleanups every March and August in the city to remove trash from along the Meramec River and other waterways.
“I’m deeply humbled by this,” he said of the hall of fame induction. “What can you say? It was completely unexpected.”
Waldrop said it is particularly meaningful for him to be in the school’s hall of fame because of his family connections to the Fox district.
His grandfather, Martin Mall, worked for the district’s transportation department, and his mother, Glenda Waldrop, was head of the business and office education department.
“My connection with Fox started when I was still in diapers going to northern states to pick up the new buses,” he said. “My grandpa would have to buy the buses and bring them back. We would pile into a car, drive up there with two or three drivers, and my grandma (Lorraine Mall) and I would go back in the car following the buses.
“It was a family thing to work for the district.”