Hall of Fame Banquet & Presentation
7th Annual Northwest Classen Hall of Fame Banquet & Presentation will take place in the Fall of 2025 at Northwest Classen High School
Join us for our 7th Annual Northwest Classen
Hall of Fame Banquet & Presentation
November 7th , 2025
Northwest Classen High School
Oklahoma City, OK
(Cash Bar 6-7, Dinner 7-8, Hall of Fame Show 8-9:30)
OR
Congratulations to Our 2025 Honorees
Rick Bayless
Renowned culinary expert, chef, restaurateur, best-selling author and television host, 1971 Northwest Classen grad Rick Bayless has crafted an international reputation for the authentic regional Mexican cuisine he has shared through his restaurants and recipes. Founder and proprietor of the landmark Frontera Grill in Chicago (1987), Bayless has garnered Daytime Emmy Award nominations for his Public Television series Mexico: One Plate at a Time, has authored nine cookbooks, expanded his highly acclaimed style of cooking through an award-winning brand of salsas, chips and cooking sauces through his restaurants in multiple states. Bayless won the first season of Bravo TV’s Top Chef Masters and holds seven James Beard Foundation awards, including prizes for the country’s Best Chef and Best Restaurant. More than simply a celebrity chef, over the past 45 years Bayless has made a profound contribution to community as a founding member of Chefs Collaborative for a Sustainable Future, as a founder of Chicago’s Green City Market, the Frontera Farmer Foundation (providing over $3.5M in capital improvement grants to small Midwest family farms), and the Bayless Family Foundation in support of education and the arts.
Dr. Jeffrey Cohen
A 1969 Northwest grad, Jeffrey Cohen attended Tulane University in New Orleans for his undergraduate degree then earned his medical degree from the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine in 1977. After completing his residency in Neurology and Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City in 1981, Cohen completed fellowships at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Clinical Neurophysiology and at the prestigious Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota in Peripheral Nerve Disease. After holding academic positions at the Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City, Harvard Medical School, and the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Dr. Cohen joined the faculty at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College in 2000, rising to the Chair of the Department of Neurology in 2010. He has served on the Board of Trustees of the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, The Board of Overseers of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and on the Peripheral and Central Nervous System Advisory Panel of the FDA. He established and leads the ALS Certified Clinic at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.
Cohen now serves as Professor Emeritus of Neurology at the Geisel Medical School at Dartmouth and its affiliated neurological facilities. He is still actively seeing patients with the neurology residents, teaching medical students, and leading the ALS Clinic.
Tom Britton
Born in Pawhuska and raised primarily in Tulsa, Tom didn’t move to Oklahoma City and enroll at Northwest until the spring semester of his junior year, where he excelled with the Knight’s baseball team and in the classroom. After graduation in 1962, Tom headed to Oklahoma State University, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Management. He left Stillwater in 1968 to begin his management consulting career with Arthur Young & Company in Los Angeles for 20 years, rising to become partner-in-charge of AY’s West Region Energy Consulting practice, and then Director of Management Consulting Services in Orange County. In 1988, he left AY to join PricewaterhousCoopers initially as partner-in-charge of both the firm’s West Coast National Aerospace & Defense Industry, and the Manufacturing & Logistics Consulting practices. Ultimately, he led the West Region Retail, Consumer Products and High-Technology Industry Consulting practices. He remained there until his retirement in 2002, personally serving the needs of dozens of Fortune 500 companies. During his tenure he served as the PwC Global Chairman of High-Tech Industry Consulting and concurrently as the Chief Operating Officer of the firm’s West Region consulting practice with a combined headcount of about 1,500 professionals. Tom has remained a loyal OSU alum, serving in leadership roles in the OSU Alumni Association, the School of Industrial Engineering Cowboy Academy, and was recently inducted into the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology Hall of Fame. He’s also been recognized by Who’s Who in America. Tom is happily married to wife Deborah for more than 50 years and is the proud father of two daughters, three grandsons and two granddaughters.
Gary Marrs
Gary Marrs was born to be a fireman – he just didn’t know it until somewhat later in life. A 1965 Northwest graduate, Gary attended Oklahoma State University never really intending to be a firefighter. But his college plans were interrupted by a military commitment, serving four years in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War. Upon his return, Gary’s mindset had completely changed and in 1972, he became a rookie firefighter, following his father and grandfather as a member of the Oklahoma City Fire Department. Twenty years later, he was named Fire Chief, but his legacy was truly forged during the tumultuous days of the 1995 bombing of the Alfred Murrah Federal Building. As Incident Commander, he courageously helped coordinate disaster emergency response and rescue operations for the bombing and demonstrated to the nation and the world how a Fire Chief responds to one of the nation’s deadliest domestic terrorist disasters. After a 30-year firefighting career, Marrs has only continued his public service as both a City Councilman and as Chairman of the OKC Riverfront Redevelopment Authority.
Matthew Mason
Matthew Mason has always been a talented learner and thinker. Involved in everything from French Club and Debate, to Science Club and the National Honor Society at Northwest, Matthew graduated in 1970 as a National Merit Scholar leading to an academic scholarship to the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston where he found his calling in the fascinating new field of robotics. He would go on to spend a decade at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, earning his Bachelors, Masters and Doctoral degrees in Computer Science. In 1978 he joined the IBM Thomas Watson Research Center as a research visitor and upon completion of his Ph.D. in 1982, began teaching at the School of Computer Science and the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Matthew also served as the chairman of the robotics doctoral program from 1995 through 2004, and as the Director of the Robotics Institute from 2004 to 2014, where his robotics group studied the physics of grasping and manipulation, analyzing the powerful grippers used in today’s industrial automation. Mason is also Chief Scientist at Berkshire Grey, a Massachusetts-based technology company that develops integrated artificial intelligence and robotic solutions for e-commerce, retail replenishment, and logistics. Mason has published several books and written numerous scientific articles and recognition as a leading authority on robotics and its practical application to industry and the global economy.
Anne McNatt Roberts
Graduating in 1972, Anne displayed a diverse variety of academic and artistic talents at Northwest Classen, including four years with the schools’ renowned Cry-Slurs vocal group. Obtaining both Bachelors’ and Masters’ degrees in Vocal Music from the University of Oklahoma, Anne studied opera in Europe and has enjoyed a long and fulfilling career as an accomplished singer of opera, musical theater and more. But her career calling has been split as a lifelong advocate for the health and well-being of children and youth, serving 20 years as CEO for the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy. In 2000, she was named National Child Advocate of the Year by
Voices for America’s Children. She then spent ten years at INTEGRIS Health as Director of Legislative Affairs, serving as a registered lobbyist while working with both state and national policymakers to advance positive outcomes for Oklahoma families. Now retired, Anne continues to perform musically while also providing consulting services to a number of non-profit children- and youth-related services organizations.
Bill Maxwell
When Bill Maxwell graduated from Northwest in 1967, his high school credentials were meager: No National Honor Society membership; No club memberships on his resume; No varsity athletic accolades; No class valedictorian mentions. That’s because Bill’s evenings and weekends were filled performing with different bands all over Oklahoma City. Even at age 14, Bill’s talents as a drummer and percussionist were in high demand by a host of local nightclubs. Despite his early successes playing locally with legendary blues guitarist Jesse Ed Davis and the Third Avenue Blues Band, Bill moved to the Los Angeles music scene in 1972 as a member of the gospel ensemble, Andrae Crouch & the Disciples. Over the next decade, Bill would serve not only as drummer for Crouch and another Contemporary Christian band, the Winans, but also functioning as a music writer, arranger and producer. To his credit, Bill has produced eight Grammy-winning recordings for a variety of artists. In addition to forming a jazz group with Abraham Laboriel, Maxwell went on to become Musical Director for many movies and TV shows, including ‘The Jamie Foxx Show’, ‘Living Single’, ‘Martin’ and others. He even worked as a featured musician on the 2005 film ‘Walk the Line’ with Joaquin Phoenix, and would be a 2008 inductee into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame. Bill has also recorded with performers like Elton John, One Republic, Billy Preston, Quincy Jones, T Bone Burnett, Leon Russell, Freddie Hubbard, Jessie J and dozens of other well-known artists. Maxwell’s work in music continues today with many projects in the works and more on the horizon. Which isn’t too bad for a man who didn’t necessarily leave his mark on his local high school, but instead opted to bestow his musical talents on the rest of the world!
Anneene ‘Annee’ Miller
In many ways, Annee was a typical student – active in Pep Club, gifted in the classroom and a member of the yearbook staff before graduating in 1966. But Annee’s upbringing was anything but typical, because her first love has always been horses! She acquired her first horse at age ten, raised her first registered foal at 14 and, after selling the foal, used the proceeds to purchase her own horse trailer at 16. Annee’s college years were spent pursuing a degree in Business Education at the University of Central Oklahoma while continuing to raise and show quarter horses. After college, she moved to Vail, Colorado in 1970, becoming a classroom teacher in a small town outside of Vail. Life changing events came about and she moved to Denver where she owned Chamber Horse Antiques and Stained Glass. Annee remained active in breeding, raising, and showing quarter horses, and in 1983, she came back to purchase land in Mustang, Oklahoma where her Starland Ranch was born. Earning a Master’s degree in Gifted Education from Oklahoma City University, Annee taught the ‘Gifted Children’ curriculum in the Mustang School District from 1985 through 2001. But horse breeding was still her passion, and today Annee and husband Jim Gustafson have raised dozens of horses that have become national and international champions. Most recently, Annee’s fame has come from raising world-class Western Pleasure Horse Champions, and in the past decade she has personally captured eight World Championships, a Congress Championship and several Reserve Championships herself. Not surprisingly, Annee’s Starland Ranch is now one of the world’s premier breeders for Western Pleasure Horses.
Joe Stettheimer
A true rags-to-riches story has unfolded with this distinguished Northwest Classen grad. Joe Stettheimer was a 15-year-old sophomore in 1959 when invited by Northwest track coach Rex Irwin to run for the Knights’ team. What began as a promising track career his junior year ended abruptly when a series of events ended up leaving Joe homeless, forcing him to quit school and seek employment to support himself. As a result, he had to repeat his junior year at Northwest, losing one year of high school track eligibility and ultimately, missing out on a college track scholarship, graduating in 1962. Undaunted, Joe began work in earnest and, years later, received a full college scholarship to obtain seminary degrees from two Christian colleges, and going on to attend the graduate School of Business at the University of Texas. Joe served as Senior Pastor to multiple churches in three states, and went on to establish the International School of Evangelism, all while authoring 40 major biblical studies. Seeking to make his mark in the business world, Joe became a decorated homebuilder and land developer in the Lubbock, Texas market, ultimately building more than 2,000 new homes in his career, winning a National Homebuilder award and honored with the only Lifetime Achievement Award. In retirement, Joe is active in a variety of charitable and philanthropic endeavors throughout the Lubbock and West Texas areas.
Jim Robinson
Jim’s four years at Northwest Classen were characterized by great successes in his athletic endeavors and reasonable results in the classroom. Graduating in 1963 as a highly-decorated wrestler, Jim’s athletic skills led him to wrestle at Oklahoma State University. But after several years in Stillwater, Jim decided to leave school to begin earning a living. Starting as a truck driver for a small trucking company, within a few years Jim bought several used tank trucks of his own and in 1971, Arrow Tank Trucks was born, serving the oil and gas industry. Then in 1976, Jim’s tenacity and glowing reputation led him to launch a second successful company – Big Mac Tank Trucks – and with-it a strong transport position across central and southeastern Oklahoma. Due to his financial success, Jim would go on to co-found several oilfield service companies over the ensuing 20 years. With a keen sense of gratitude for his time at Northwest and his approaching 30th Class Reunion, Jim and Bobby Griggs founded an Annual golf tournament in 1993 to stay connected to classmates. The next year, following the death of a long-time friend, Jim re-named his Annual event the Ray Moss Memorial Golf Tournament. And in 2003, Jim donated golf tournament proceeds for some much-needed repairs to the Northwest Classen cafeteria. This tournament would soon become the Northwest Classen Golf Tournament to raise money for the non-profit Friends of Northwest Classen Foundation, which Jim Co-Founded in 2005. Thanks to this vision, the Foundation has raised more than $3 million to fund improvements and programs for the students and teachers at Northwest Classen.
Revisit our Previous Hall of Fame Classes
Class of 2018
Class of 2019
Class of 2021
Class of 2022
Class of 2023
@ Copyright 2025 - Friends of Northwest Classen High School Foundation| All rights reserved.
Mailing Address:
Friends of NWC
P O Box 20972
Oklahoma City, OK 73156
