Inducted in 2020

KEN SORENSON - CLASS OF 1955

It took special recognitions by a teacher, J.T. Herrod, Jr. and a businessman, Dave Cross, to set Ken Sorenson into motion. Herrod welcomed Ken into his drafting class and guided his successful interview with Richfield Oil. Cross introduced him to architecture, exposed him to Bakersfield’s community leadership through the 20/30 Club, and placed him in a position of company leadership from where he worked with Bob Colston, Taft, in developing a series of custom homes along 3rd Street and Robin Way.

Without a college degree, Ken became an accredited architect, studying at night for several years before taking, and passing, the State of California’s qualifying exam. He then opened his own firm, KSA, and created some of Bakersfield’s landmarks: the State Fund Building; the Aera Building; the Vineyards, an expansive, stylish residential neighborhood; the Coleman House on Hume Lane. He is also a co-founder of the Bank of Stockdale, which became Rabobank.

Ken became a licensed private pilot, took up guitar, and recorded music with both instrument and voice, further flavoring a life marked with challenge, resilience, and achievement. In remembrances, he never fails to mention his drafting class with Mr. Herrod, a teacher who gave him a twig to plant, one which became an elegant tree upon which he hung a career, a family, and diverse structures which even today grace both Taft and Bakersfield’s footprint.

CHARLES “Charlie” dodson - class of 1962

Charles (Charlie) Dodson moved with his mother Imogene, a widow, and two older siblings, from Colorado, to Taft in the fourth grade. At Taft Union High School he played football for 2 years. He was part of the Wildcats’ South Yosemite League Champion team his senior year. He also played 3 years of tennis (#1 player his senior year), but basketball was the sport for which he was known. He played basketball 4 years at Taft High, went on to play 2 years at Taft College, and completed his college career at San Francisco State University, winning the Far Western Conference in 1964-65.

After high school and Taft College, Charlie went on to San Francisco State, where he earned an MA and assisted men’s basketball coach, Lyle Damon. With wife Nancy Fishel (TUHS Class of 1963), a Pan Am flight attendant, Charlie got the opportunity to transfer to the new Pan Am base in London, England. As a PE teacher and coach at The American School in London (ASL), where he stayed for the next 27 years, he racked up a coaching record of 527-173 and won the International Schools Sports Tournament.

After earning a second MA in 1985, he served ASL as athletic director, then guidance department head. He served 2 years at Taipei American School in Taiwan where he achieved his 500th career basketball victory in 25 years of teaching. Charlie co-founded the American Basketball camp in Leysin, Switzerland. The camp ran from 1978-1999, and with help from a scholarship program Charlie negotiated with McDonald’s Europe, hundreds of high schoolers were able to attend summer camp in the Swiss Alps.

Two years after retiring in 2006, Charlie was honored with The Stephen Eckard Award from the American School in London for “Inspiring and Dedicated Service to Education”. In the 68-year history of the school, Charlie is one of only seventeen recipients of this award.

Retiring in Reno, Charlie joined the Rotary Club where his leadership led to the purchase of necessary equipment for special needs children in an orphanage in Panama, and the provision of a financial literacy workshop for qualified students in Washoe County high schools. Charlie and Nancy live in Reno.

JAMES R. “RANDY” MILLER - class of 1963

Randy Miller was born in Taft, California, at the Fort—making him one of the select “Fort Babies” born in the eleven years that babies were delivered at the Fort. He spent his entire school years in Taft, graduating from Taft Union High School in 1963. After a short stint in Taft College, he enlisted in the Navy, serving in Vietnam from 1964-1968 and receiving a Purple Heart. After graduation from Taft College with an AA and Cal State, Los Angeles, with a BA in Sociology, Randy returned to Taft where he worked in the family’s insurance business, the construction industry, education, the Kern County Department of Human Services, and the Taft District Chamber of Commerce, as Executive Director.

As varied as his work history has been, it does not compare to his life of service. Randy’s community service includes his membership to the Kiwanis Club (President), Petroleum Club (Secretary), West Kern Oil Museum (Life Member), Chamber of Commerce (Director, 2008-2010), West Side Health Care District Board Member (1988-2000), Oildorado Board Member (1980-2010, Secretary, 1980-1990, President 1995), City of Taft Planning Commissioner (2000-2002), Taft City Councilmember (2002-2016), Mayor of Taft -2 terms (2010-2012 and 2014-2016), San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control Board Member, Needs Center Volunteer, and Volunteer Writer for The Midway Driller and The Independent.

Recognitions include Westside Business Association Man of the Year (1995), Taft Chamber of Commerce Ambassador of the Year (2000), Rotary Citizen of the Year (2001), Kiwanian of the Year (twice), and Kern Council of Government Distinguished Leadership Award (2012).

WILLIAM BRUCE BANERDT - Class of 1972

William Bruce Banerdt was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, and moved to Taft when he was four years old. He attended Taft schools. In his third year oat Taft Union High School, he applied for and was accepted to the USC Resident Honors Program which allowed high school seniors to pursue a normal degree in high school by taking equivalent college classes as part of their normal college class load. So Bill, as he was known in high school, started college at USC in 1971, and received his high school diploma from Taft High on the stage on the TUHS football field in June, 1972.

After marrying Mavonwe Jones (Class of 1974) after her graduation from Taft High, he graduated from USC in 1975, with a BS in Physics. He entered graduate school at Penn State, where he studied for two years. During this time he had a half-time temporary position at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). He returned to USC when his graduate advisor transferred to USC, and he graduated (again) from USC in 1983, with a PhD in Geological Sciences (Specialty in Geophysics). His thesis title was, “The rheology of single-crystal sodium chloride at high temperatures and low stresses and strains”. After graduation, Bill spent a year and a half as a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at JPL. In 1985, he was hired to a permanent position at JPL, and he has worked there ever since.

Bruce, as he is now known, considers his main accomplishment to be the successful implementation of the InSight mission to Mars. He began working on developing seismometers to operate on other planets in 1989, and he began working on advocacy and planning for planetary seismology missions in 1990. For most of the following three decades he has been the leading champion of such missions, working with NASA, the European Space Agency, and several nati9onal space agencies in Europe. He was the principal navigator on seven Mars mission proposals to NASA, and he has participated in numerous other proposals and mission studies for Mars and other planets. Having success with the InSight (originally called GEMS) proposal in 2010, he had led that project through planning, design, construction, launch, and operations on Mars. (Principal Investigator for a NASA mission is ultimately responsible for all aspects of mission success and reports directly to the Associate Administrator of NASA).

While working toward getting a seismology mission to Mars, Bruce was also a Co-investigator on the Magellan Radar investigation and the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) on Mars Global Surveyor, and was the Project Scientist for the Spirit and Opportunity Rovers.

Bruce and Mavonwe live in Pasadena, California and have four children, Brendon, Arianwyn, Bronwyn, and Rhiannon.