Fox High School will induct a former student who has traversed the globe, another former student who raced around the country and three former staff members who impacted students during and after school into its Alumni and Staff Hall of Fame this year.
The school’s alumni association announced Dan Beckmann, who worked with NBC News for 20 years and now owns his own production company; Kenny Wallace, a former NASCAR driver; Dan Dankel, who taught math, driver’s education and was a baseball and football coach; Kent Duniphan, who taught marketing and was a DECA adviser and a football and softball coach; and Jackie Howell Rawlings, who taught junior high physical education and started the Fox High Warriorettes dance team, as the fifth class to enter the Hall of Fame.
Fox High has had a Sports Hall of Fame since 2005. 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 prior to induction.
Joe Salsman, Fox High School principal and member of Fox High School Alumni Association’s executive board, said 28 former staff members and graduates were nominated this year.
“When you look at their bios and everything they did here, all five deserve to be in the Hall of Fame,” Salsman said. “It is a shame it took a while for some of them, but we had a long list of people to get in.”
A banquet is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 24, in the Fox High School gym, 751 Jeffco Blvd., in Arnold. Doors will open at 4 p.m., and dinner will be served at 5 p.m.
Student Council members will give tours of the high school before the dinner.
Tickets for the event cost $30 and were on sale until Wednesday, Oct. 21, on the Fox High alumni page at fox.revtrak.net. Proceeds from the event benefit the Fox High School Alumni Association.
Beckmann
Beckmann, 56, who lives in Hawaii, was a cameraman, editor, writer and producer for the “Today” show, “NBC Nightly News,” “Dateline” and “Meet the Press” for 20 years, covering stories in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
He also has worked as a cinematographer for A&E, History Channel, Discovery, CBS, ABC, PBS, Universal Studios and Amazon Prime, and he is a contributing columnist for the Orlando Sentinel newspaper.
Beckmann and his wife, Sue Stauffer, own the Yarn Faw production company, which has offices in Atlanta, Orlando, Honolulu and Los Angeles. He wrote the book “How’d I Get Here and Why Am I Stealing M&Ms From Air Force One.”
Beckmann said Tim Miller, a former speech, debate, literature and radio and TV teacher at Fox High who also was the public address announcer for the school’s athletic events for 40 years, called him to tell him about the induction.
“I was really excited to get the call from Tim,” Beckmann said. “He sort of launched my interest in the career. I had been interested in broadcasting for a while. I didn’t know what a career would look like. I didn’t understand it. Tim’s class gave me a sense of fitting in.
“Getting a call from him was great. It was like, ‘Wow, this is coming full circle.’”
Wallace
Wallace, 63, who lives just outside of Arnold, competed in 905 races in NASCAR’s top three divisions during his career.
He notched nine NASCAR Xfinity series victories along with 10 pole-position starts, 66 top five and 17 top 10 finishes in 547 Xfinity series starts. He was named the most popular driver of the Xfinity series three times.
Wallace also started 344 races in NASCAR’s top circuit, notching six top five and 27 top 10 finishes to go with three pole-position starts, and he competed in 13 truck series races finishing in the top five twice and top 10 four times.
Wallace has remained active in racing as a commentator.
Wallace said the best thing that happened to him at Fox High was meeting his wife, Kim.
“Because of Fox, I married the love of my life,” he said. “I think that will be the No. 1 topic (of his induction speech), how lucky I was to go to Fox because I met the love of my life there. I married my high school sweetheart. I met her in the second wing photography class. We have three beautiful girls and six grandbabies, all because of Fox High.”
Duniphan
Duniphan, 77, of Imperial taught marketing and was the DECA adviser for 24 years at Fox High School, and he finished his career in the Fox C-6 School District at Seckman High. He retired in 2003.
Duniphan started his teaching career at Herculaneum High two years before coming to Fox High in 1975. He also was an assistant football coach at Fox High from 1975 through 1986, and he was an assistant softball coach at Seckman High from 1998 through 2003.
He received numerous awards throughout his career, including the DECA Outstanding Service award from the University of Missouri in 1982, being named the 2000-2001 Missouri Marketing Educator of the Year and receiving the Missouri Marketing/DECA Program of the Year award in 2002.
Duniphan, who is the C-6 Foundation vice president, said he is honored to go into the Hall of Fame.
“I feel fortunate to be in the right place at the right time to receive such an honor,” he said. “There are many great educators who went through Fox, so that just makes it more special to be honored in such a way.”
Dankel
Dankel, 77, of Barnhart taught at Fox High for 26 years, and he graduated from the school in 1967.
“It is really neat,” he said of entering the hall. “From 1955 until 2005, other than the four years I went to college, I was in the C-6 district. I have a lot of great memories. I had a wonderful career and made so many friends.
“When you look back on it, you think what a great time and wonderful career it was.”
Dankel taught math and was an assistant baseball and football coach at Fox High. He also was a class sponsor and Student Council sponsor, and he taught drivers’ education for 23 years.
Rawlings
Rawlings, 87, of Arnold did not teach at Fox High, but she started the Warriorettes dance team and coached the school’s cheerleading squad and baton twirlers. She was a physical education teacher at Fox Junior High from 1965-1974, and she started the high school’s first volleyball team.
The Warriorettes became a standout program at the school and in the state, winning numerous national titles.
Rawlings said she is proud of the success of the programs she started and coached, but she said the best part of her career is when students would tell her how she helped them succeed.
“There was one girl in particular who came back at the end of every school year and said, ‘I wanted to let you know I’m still going to school and I’m passing,’” Rawlings said. “Her senior year, she came up her last day and said, ‘I wanted to let you know I am graduating, and if it hadn’t been for you, I wouldn’t have.’
“It is things like that, seeing what the kids accomplished, and I think I was a little part of guiding them.”