Heritage honors former Odessans

The Heritage of Odessa 2009 Community Statesman Awards dinner is scheduled at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the MCM Grandé Hotel FunDome.

The event will honor these Heritage winners: Dr. Robert Chappell, The Rev. Mark J. Woodruff, Jane Hext, Michael Moore, Jon M. Smith, Dr. Anne Acreman, Gregory Williams, Mike Adkins, Mickey Jones, Cynthia Wiehle, Craig Van Amburgh, Ted Hogan and Bernadine Spears.

All are being honored for excellence in their various fields and community endeavors.

The event will also honor distinguished former Odessans. This recognition of outstanding former residents of the community was created to honor individuals who once lived in Odessa, but who moved on to notable achievements within their respective fields of endeavor. 
This year's honorees include:

>> LaDonna Gatlin is the daughter of Billie and Curley Gatlin. She moved to Odessa at the age of three and attended Sam Houston and Pease Elementary Schools, Bowie Junior High and Odessa High School. Throughout her years in school, she spent much of her time in the pursuit of music, and said teachers at all levels had a profound impact on her life. She attended Odessa College and in 1972 she was named Miss West Texas. The following year, she was the Non-finalist Talent Award Winner in the Miss Texas Pageant.

By the time LaDonna was born, her brothers-aged 2, 4, and 6 years old were already "old pros" in the music business. As soon as she could carry a tune, she joined the group, which was called the Gatlin Quartet.

But a detour appeared on the road to stardom for LaDonna-she got married. While her brothers continued their careers, she and husband Tim Johnson started a life together and had two children-Caleb and Annie. 

Gatlin now gives keynote addresses and concerts more than 100 days a year.  She has shared her message everywhere-from corporate powerhouses to the prison cells of death row. 

She is an active member of the National Speakers Association, and has earned its highest professional designation, the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP).  In July 2005, she was one of five inductees into the Speakers Hall of Fame, a lifetime award for speaking excellence and professionalism.  She is one of fewer than 200 speakers worldwide to be awarded the CPAE (Council of Peers Award for Excellence).  In addition, she has recorded four solo CD's which contain some of her original songs, and she is a contributing author to the best-selling book series Chicken Soup for the Soul.  LaDonna and Tim now make their home in Frisco. They have three grandchildren.

>> Dr. Beth Nauert is a pediatrician and the daughter of Charles and Mary Lee Webb. She was born in Midland and moved to Odessa at the age of two. She attended Redeemer Lutheran Kindergarten, Ireland Elementary and Nimitz Junior High. A 1975 Permian graduate, she was third in her class, was a National Merit Scholar and was a recipient of the American Legion Award.

Nauert was captain of the 1975 State Champion Permian Gymnastic team. She attended Texas Tech for one semester, then transferred to Texas A&M, where she maintained a 4.0. As a junior, she was accepted to the A&M School of Medicine as one of 32 students in the first medical class. She received her B.S. degree from Texas A&M in 1979 and her M.D. in 1981.

After graduation from medical school, specializing in pediatrics, she spent her internship and residency at Children's Medical Center in Dallas. In 1984 she moved to Austin, where she began a private practice in pediatrics. The next year she joined Austin Pediatric Clinic, a group of six doctors. This group later joined Austin Diagnostic Clinic. She's been a partner in this group and has maintained a full time pediatric practice.

While living in Austin, she has been active in child abuse prevention, especially working with sexually abused children. She donates one evening each week to examining children referred to her from 12 central Texas counties, police departments, sheriff's offices and the State Department of Health and Human Services. She established and is director of the Child Assessment Program (CAP) for Child Sexual Abuse at Brackenridge Hospital.  She was the recipient of the Liberty Bell Award given by the Travis County Bar Association and Austin Young Lawyers Association. She was listed among "Best Doctors" in 2004 through 2007 and "Texas Monthly Super Doctors" in 2007. Nauert has three children and is active in school, musical, sports and church activities

>> Calvin M. "Cal" Shintani, son of Munro and Fran Shintani, moved to Odessa with his family in 1973, where he graduated third in Permian's 1976 class. He was an Eagle Scout and earned the God and Country Award. At Permian, he was band captain, All Region Band in his junior and senior years, All State Band and Orchestra, Student Council President and a member of the National Honor Society.

He was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy and graduated with a BS in 1980 with distinction. At the Naval Academy, he served as the Captain of the Drum and Bugle Corps. He also served one cruise in 1979 as a foreign exchange midshipman with the Japanese Defense Fleet. He completed Naval Nuclear Engineering Officer's School in 1981 and obtained his MA from Georgetown University in National Security Studies in 1988.

He began his career as an active duty officer in the Navy in 1980. He served as Lead Operations Briefer to the Chief of Naval Operations and as Lieutenant Commander on the USS Los Angeles. He further served as an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1987 until 1999, retiring as commander.

While in the Naval Reserve, he started his civilian career with various positions of increasing responsibility in business development including identification, qualification, positioning, bidding and winning new business for several companies including Unisys.

In 2004, he joined Gray Hawk Systems, Inc. as a vice president and in 2005, he joined CACI International as a VP.

Shintani participated in the Industry Advisory Council (IAC) program as an IT Partner in 2003 and was one of 20 senior industry executives to "partner" with senior Government IT officials.

A father of two, he's a Cub Scout Den leader, Cub Master and Assistant Scout Master.

>> Olympic athlete Toby Stevenson is the son of Eddy Stevenson and the late Peggy Stevenson. He was born in Odessa in 1976 and attended Reagan and Dowling Elementary Schools, Bonham Junior High and Permian High School, where he graduated in 1995.

An all around athlete, Toby loved soccer and t-ball.  He was in gymnastics until the eighth grade, winning the city gymnastic championship in 1991, and played junior high tennis.

He developed a love of high performance motorcycle riding and was a thrill seeker including skate boarding, trampoline, surfing and skiing.  Toby's musical talent started in school choirs where he performed from the ninth grade through high school, and he was the lead guitarist in a "garage band" (rock and roll) in junior high and high school. 

Stevenson's love of pole vaulting started in the seventh grade when his father built a pole vault pit in the back yard of their home, with a 100-foot raised wooden runway and a landing pit of old mattresses and foam.  The first day that the pit was ready, Toby took 60 jumps, and was hooked on the sport.  He was soon clearing 15-16 feet.  Setting a new trend, he started wearing a helmet to pacify his mother.  His father says that he gave him two choices - a black helmet or a white one.  Eddy Stevenson became Toby's coach and his mom became his cheerleader.  Toby's vaulting career "took off" at Permian High School, where he broke 24 records and set the district record of 17'0".  He won the District championship three times, the Regional championship twice, was third at State his junior year and State Champion his senior year.  During his senior year, he was undefeated, was named High School All-American in 1995 and was the number one 18 year old vaulter in the world in 1995.

At the completion of his high school career, Toby had more than 50 scholarship offers, including Stanford, Penn and Harvard. 
 After attending OC for one year, he transfered to Stanford University.

Continuing vaulting, he broke every Stanford University  record. In 1998, he won the NCAA title as a sophomore. He also broke a 20 year old Pac-10 record with an 18'9 3/4" vault in 2000. He was six times All American at Stanford and was the Pac-10 Champion in 2000. He graduated from Stanford in 2000 with a BA degree in Economics. 

He turned pro in 2000 and served as assistant track coach at Stanford from 2000-2002, working with the pole vaulters and multi-event performers. In 2000, he finished 10th in the 2000 Olympic Trials. He moved to the Olympic Training Center in California in 2002 to focus on training.

In 2003, he won the Pan American Championship and in 2004 he was the sixth man to "ever" clear the height of 6 meters (19' 8 3/4").  His 6 meter jump was just 1/2 inch off the American record. Throughout 2004, Toby was ranked No. 1 in the World and won the 2004 USA Indoor gold medal. In the 2004 Olympic Games in Greece, Toby cleared 19' 4 1/2" to win the Silver medal. Celebrations of his win included a team visit to the White House.

He was third in the USA Outdoor Championship in 2005. Overcoming a hamstring injury, in 2006, he was USA Outdoor runner-up, third in the USA Indoor Championship and tied for second in the World Athletics Final. He was a finalist in the 2008 Olympic Trials. 
In the spirit of "giving back", he has sponsored several charitable events including fundraisers for the Multiple Sclerosis Society both in Odessa and San Diego.  He has made numerous appearances at schools, speaking to kids to encourage them to believe in themselves and to set and achieve goals.  He promotes safety, capitalizing on his nickname "Crash", to insist that children should wear helmets when vaulting.