Three to be inducted into PJC Hall of Honor

Published or Revised November 18, 2013

One of many highlights of the 89th Paris Junior College Homecoming, November 7-9, will be the induction of three former students into the PJC Academic Hall of Honor. Former Naval Commander and computer program developer Kelsey B. Goodman, construction contractor Robert K. Hall and Texas Broadcasting Hall of Fame member, Lanny “Hoss” Huggins will be honored Saturday, November 9, at 2:30 p.m. in the McLemore Student Center Ballroom. The public is invited and encouraged to join in this special event. Goodman, who attended PJC 1949-50, will be recognized for social and computer sciences; Hall, a 1983-85 PJC student, will be recognized in science and engineering; Huggins, a 1963 graduate, will be inducted in the Fine Arts division. “Paris Junior College is fortunate to have so many amazing alumni and former students who have made phenomenal impacts in their professional fields. We set this time aside to celebrate their accomplishments,” said PJC President, Dr. Pamela Anglin. Kelsey B. Goodman had two careers, first in the United States Navy and later in the computer software development industry. After one year at PJC, Goodman transferred to Schreiner College in Kerrville, Texas. He received his bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Houston and began a decorated military career. As a 23-year naval aviator, Goodman flew missions in Vietnam, Cuba, Panama, the Middle East and the Dominican Republic, piloting both helicopters and fixed wing aircraft. He was selected for the prestigious U.S. Naval War College and graduated with distinction in 1969 with a degree in international law, law of the sea, and finance. He continued his education earning his master’s degree in international affairs from The George Washington University. For seven years Goodman was involved with the U.S. Antarctic Program, making a dozen trips to the continent with three of his deployments lasting six months. There he served as the Naval Support Force operation, Interagency Coordinator, and member of the U.S. Delegation to the Antarctic Treaty Consultations in Wellington, New Zealand. He also served as the Antarctic Treaty Inspection Team, Assistant for Polar Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and was assigned to the Chief of Naval Operations. In 1970, “Goodman Hills” in the Antarctic were named in his honor. While Goodman was on loan from the Navy to the Secretary of Defense’s office, he served as the chairman of the Department of Defense Counter Terrorism. He was often called to serve as a witness before the Cabinet Committee concerned with Nuclear Technology Transfer. This also involved working with the United Nations and State Department. He retired from the Navy in 1976 earning the rank of Commander. Post-Navy, he earned another master’s degree from the American University in Computer System Applications and began a successful career with Washington, D.C. company, Deltek Systems, Inc. The company’s niche in the software industry focused on developing software for use by project-focused companies and later expanded its market to include architect/engineer and consulting firms. He received Deltek’s Founders Award when the company passed the billion dollars in revenue threshold. He and his wife, Faye, live in Upper Marlboro, Md. They have three adult children. He has a brother, John Goodman, M.D. who lives in Mt. Pleasant, Texas. Goodman is originally from Clarksville. Robert K. Hall is the President of RK Hall Construction, LTD, with offices in Paris, Amarillo, Sherman, Sulphur Springs, Mt. Pleasant, and Texarkana, Texas and Ark., as well as DeQueen, Ark. Formed in 2005, RK Hall acquired APAC, Inc. in 2007. The following year, Rushing Paving Company of Denison was acquired. The company is a leading provider of high quality asphalt paving materials and services, pavement rehabilitation, grading, and bridge construction in northeast Texas, southeast Oklahoma and southwest Arkansas.. He and his family moved to Paris in 1970 for his father’s job at the Texas Department of Transportation. Hall attended East Paris, Crockett and Paris High, graduating in 1979. With his sights set on attending Texas A&M University, College Station, he wisely took his father’s advice and began his educational career at PJC, where he was a member of Phi Theta Kappa and named to the Dean’s or President’s List each semester. Hall was a third generation ‘Aggie’ and the fourth in his family to become a civil engineer. During the summers of his college days, Hall worked for David Buster Construction, Inc. and Mark Buster, then owner of Buster Paving Company. Those summer jobs provided not only income to pay his way through PJC and TAMU, but further instilled in him a sound work ethic. He credits his family and the Buster family for enabling him to advance his career to where it is today. The Paris-based construction company now has 350 employees. Hall and his wife Kayla, have two children, Keith, a freshman at Paris High School, and Katy, an eighth grader at Paris Junior High. He is the son of Jimmy and Mary Hall, Paris. He has three siblings, Charles, also a PJC graduate, Steven Hall of Bullard, and Susan Hall Dickens of Paris. Huggins, born and raised in Paris, has had a long career in the broadcasting business. He began in radio broadcasting as a teenager at Radio KFTV in Paris, with an after-school teen show. He and his brothers, Gary and Mickey, known as the Huggins Brothers, also had a Saturday afternoon show on KFTV in the 1950s. A 1961 graduate of Paris High, Huggins accepted a music scholarship at Paris Junior College, where he graduated in 1963. He took a job working for Jeff Methven at radio station KPLT-AM in Paris while he earned a bachelor's degree in radio/television communications and psychology from East Texas State University, now Texas A&M University - Commerce. While at PJC, Huggins was a member of the stage band, dance combo, Dragon marching band and Dixieland band, directed by the late Harold Gore. He played guitar, bass, bass drum and banjo for the different groups. He was also president of Circle K, sponsored by the Paris Kiwanis Club, and Pensee Club Beau, a social club. Following graduation, Huggins and his wife, Gail Witmer of Clarksville, moved to Tyler where he worked as a staff announcer at KLTV-TV. In short order, he returned to his first love, radio, at KZAK, Tyler’s first country music radio station as program director and air personality. At KZAK he first became known as "Hoss" on his afternoon radio show, and was later promoted to station manager. Huggins later moved to KROZ (K-Rose) 92.1 FM radio in 1977 as program director and partnered with Joel Hardy for the top-rated morning show, "Hoss and Hardy." Huggins returned to television in 1987 as senior account executive for the local Tyler NBC station and later at CBS-TV. He is currently semi-retired as a sales consultant for CBS-TV. One of the many honors bestowed on Huggins was his induction into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame in 2011, recognizing over 30 years of humor and charisma in the East Texas market. Broadcasting legends such as Bill Mack, Wolfman Jack, Willie Nelson, Walter Cronkite and George Carlin are also enshrined there – all having worked at Texas radio stations during their career. Huggins is also noted as a local performer with his Tyler band, Hoss and the Ponderosa. He began playing music with his brothers and Bobby Floyd and George Guilliams as Paris teenagers in a group now called the Quintet. Huggins and the Ponderosa group perform regularly throughout East Texas and have released several CDs. Huggins is the son of Louise Huggins and the late J. B. (Pete) Huggins of Paris. His wife Gail is also a graduate of PJC where she was editor of The Bat, the PJC student publication. They have two sons, Bret of San Antonio, chief managing engineer for Univision Radio Group, and Blake of Grapevine, vice president for CEC Entertainment. Bret and his wife Sondra and Blake and wife Lynn each have two children. Brothers Gary and wife Beckie Huggins, and Mickey and wife Phyllis Huggins, reside in Paris. The PJC Academic Hall of Honor was established in 1995 to honor alumni, former students and friends of the College for the affects they have had directly and indirectly on the vision and mission of the institution. A portrait of each member of the Hall of Honor is featured in the hallway of the McLemore Student Center.