Inducted in 2009

Glenn Dolder Black - Class of 1939

Glenn Dolder Black was actively involved in basketball and the Merit Society while at Taft High. After graduation from Taft High, he entered Taft Junior College and was captain of the basketball team. During his Taft College days he also took flight training courses, earning his pilot’s license. Following his graduation from Taft College, Glenn enlisted in the Army Air Force as an aviation cadet at Gardner Field outside of Taft. Because of the need for pilots and his prior flight training, Glenn became an instructor. He flew B-17s in the Pacific Theater and at the end of the W.W. II served as part of the occupation troops in Japan.

After his service in the Army Air Force, he and his brother bought a small business that had been in operation in Taft for nearly 20 years known as Taft Plumbing. Glenn and his brother expanded their new business into an all inclusive plumbing contractor service and were subsequently involved in the construction of many homes, schools, and commercial buildings throughout the Central Valley, Central Coast, and Southern California area.

Glenn’s service to the community is extensive. He was elected to the Taft City Council and served five terms as Mayor of Taft. He served as president of the Kern County Division of League of California Cities. He devoted much of his time to the development of athletics at Taft College and was a founding member of the Quarterback Club. He was also a founding member and Director of the West Kern County Water District. He is a member and past Commander of American Legion Post 70. His affiliations with community service organizations in Taft include Rotary Club, Elks Club, Moose Lodge, Oildorado Association, and the Taft Pilots Club.

Jeanne Cooper - Class of 1945

Jeanne attended Conley School and entered Taft Union High School with the freshman class of 1945. While at Taft High she was active in tennis, GAA, Latin Club, Scholarship Society, and served as Derrick Staff Editor. Her theatrical training started at the College of the Pacific and continued while she was performing with the Civic Light Opera Company. After her training, she performed and trained with the Revue Theatre then moved on to the renowned Pasadena Playhouse.

Jeanne’s first film credit was in 1953 when she appeared in “The Redhead from Wyoming” with Maureen O’Hara. From there it was on to a list of stunning movie features as well as TV appearances.

Jeanne joined the cast of “The Young and the Restless” in 1973 as Katherine Chancellor and has been a thriving part of this TV soap opera since its inception. Jeanne is an accomplished actress and is a resident star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1989 she received the Soap Opera Digest Award as Outstanding Leading Actress. She also received the Soap Opera Digest Editor’s Award and was named the Pasadena Playhouse Alumni and Associates Woman of the Year in 1989. She received the MVP Award from the Soap Opera Update in 1990. In 2008 Jeanne won the Emmy for outstanding lead actress in a drama series.

Jeanne Cooper is the founder of a national volunteer support network called The Katherine Chancellor Society. She is also an active volunteer and contributor to an abuse victim’s charity called The Interval House as well as other charitable and research organizations.

Dennis Fimple - Class of 1958

Dennis Fimple attended Taft schools and graduated from Taft Union High School in 1958. While at Taft High he was involved in basketball, baseball, and Block T. He was a member of the Gusher Staff, served as Administrative Board Senior Representative, and was a member of Hi-Y, but his love was in the area of drama, journalism, and broadcasting. He first became interested in acting when he portrayed Tom Sawyer in one of Lincoln Junior High’s drama productions.

Fimple attended San Jose State College and majored in both speech and drama and earned a teaching credential. While attending college, he worked for the I.B.M. Corporation. He worked in a Cheetos factory by day and acted in dinner theaters at night in his early struggling days as an actor. Dennis moved to Hollywood where he worked as a teacher by day and a delivery man at night prior to getting his first break with a two episode guest appearance on the T.V. show “ Petticoat Junction.”

Dennis is best known as the lovable dim-witted Kyle Murty on the comedy western television program “Alias Smith and Jones,” and subsequently popped up in T.V. episodes including “Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C.”, “M*A*S*H”, “Green Acres”, “Charlie’s Angels”, “Quantum Leap”, and “ER” to name a few. Dennis was in over 100 TV episodes and 20 movies during his career as an actor in Hollywood.

Jane Bush Kinsey - Class of 1936

Jane Kinsey was born on a Standard Oil camp pipeline lease in the Taft area. She attended Taft elementary Schools and graduated from Taft Union High School in 1936. She was accepted at U.C. Berkeley at the age of 16 and graduated in 1940 with degrees in Drama and English.

After graduation she became a teacher for t he Taft City School District. She taught in every grade, but primarily in grades 6, 7 and 8 at Lincoln Junior High School. Jane took classes at UCLA and Fresno State College and received her Master or Arts degree in Guidance and Counseling from Fresno State College. She was the girls’ counselor and the drama teacher at Lincoln in the mid 1960’s until her retirement from Taft City School District in 1978.

Jane was a founding member of the West Kern Oil Museum and the museum curator for over 25 years. Jane’s mission was to turn the museum from just a showcase of oilfield memorabilia into a living history museum where people could personally experience the businesses, communities and people who lived and worked in the camps.

The Kern County Board of Supervisors recognized Jane on two different occasions. Within the community of Taft, the Taft Rotary Club, the Taft Kiwanis Club, and the Taft Chamber of Commerce recognized her. She was recognized by the Long Beach, Desk & Derrick Club for her Museum efforts. Jane received a Regional Award of Merit from the Kern Council of Governments. The California State Assembly recognized Jane for her work at the West Kern Oil Museum. On January 10, 2005, the California State Senate adjourned with prayer and remembrance in the memory of Jane Kinsey.

Robert A. Barrett - Class of 1958

Robert Barrett began his hospitality and tourism career in the United States Virgin Islands in the early 1960s. He spent the next 20 years learning all aspects of the industry and achieved substantial success in the fi elds of resort management and marketing.

In the Caribbean, Barrett’s Elite Island Resorts represents quality Caribbean resort properties as well as his own popular hotels and island resorts. Robert purchased his first Caribbean hotel, Pineapple Beach Club, in Antigua, in 1986. He also owns and operates the St. James’s Club Antigua, purchased in 2001, and the Galley Bay. In 1999 Barrett purchased a private island in the Grenadines called Palm Island. Barrett completely cleaned up the island, re-landscaped the resort, and constructed fantastic new rooms overlooking the beach and ocean. Palm Island has been named as one of the “Worlds Leading Private Islands” by many travel publications.

Since his push to provide quality facilities for travelers to Florida and the Caribbean, Robert’s major marketing and hotel operations have also developed a commercial plaza and boutique hotel in Bouquete, Panama.

Barrett continues his active involvement in nearly all aspects of his group of companies. His management team membership reads like a Fortune 500 company, including top marketing and travel professionals, chartered accountants, in-house attorneys, and a world-class graphic arts department. Robert is one who leads by example, and that has caused his business endeavors to flourish.

Bob J. hampton - CLass of 1956

While at Taft High, Bob Hampton was an active member of Block T, Boys’ Federation, and sports. He played football, basketball, and baseball. He was a member of the Varsity Basketball team all four years and played on the Valley Basketball Championship team in 1956.

After graduating from Taft High, he went to Taft College for one year and then was given a full-ride basketball scholarship to the University of Southern California. While at USC he received the “Most Improved Player” award. He played basketball at USC for three years and stayed at USC after receiving his degree to earn a Masters Degree in Education.

After graduating from USC, he returned to Kern County to take a teaching and coaching job for the Kern High School District at South High and worked there for two years. He then moved to Shafter and taught and coached at Shafter High School for four years. He moved to Chula Vista and was the assistant basketball coach at Southwestern College. He later accepted the basketball head coaching position at West Hills College in Coalinga.

Bob retired from teaching in 1979 and went into the garbage and portable restroom business in the Coalinga area until 1983. In May of that year, he purchased Westside Waste Management in Taft.

His community and business involvements include Delegate Region 12B to the California School Boards Association, Kern High School District Trustee, Kern County Assessment Appeals Boar d, Chairman of the Taft College Foundation, President of Kern County USC Club, Chairman of the Westside Economic Development Co. LLC, Director of the Taft District Chamber of Commerce, and member of the Taft Rotary Club.

Dr. Duane E. Townsend - CLass of 1952

While at Taft High, Duane E. Townsend was the president of the Junior Class, Vice-President of the Senior Class, and President of Block T. He was also actively involved in Thi Sci, Latin Club, The Am erican Red Cross, and the California Scholarship Federation (C.S.F.)

Duane received his B.A. from the University of California at Davis in 1955 and entered the School of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in the fall of 1955. In 1957 he became a Student Fellow in the Department of Pathology at UCLA and received his Doctor of Medicine from UCLA in 1960.

Duane was appointed Assistant Professor, OB/GYN at the UCLA School of Medicine in 1965, and while there he wrote the premier paper on the use of cryosurgery for the treatment of pre-malignant disease of the uterine cervix. He was the first to train nurses in the extended role of women’s health care, which led to the development of the first nurse practitioner training program. He was a Clinical Professor, OB/GYN at USC School of Medicine from 1979 through 1982, and at the same time served as Clini cal Professor, OB/GYN at UCLA from 1980 through 1982.

In 1985 he moved to the Sacramento area to become the Clinical Professor, OB/GYN at the UC Davis School of Medicine. In 1987 he became Professor and Vice Chairman, OB/GYN at UC Davis, School of Medicine. There he developed training protocols for physic ians in the use of minimally invasive surgical techniques, e.g., laparoscopy and endometrial ablation. From 1992 through 1999 he was the Director of Oncology and Gynecologic Endoscopy at LDS Hospital at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Since 1999 Dr. Townsend has been in private practice.