Many people hold WHHS in high regard, not only because of the academic challenges but also because of the many notable alumni. WHHS proudly displays these alumni in banners hanging from the ceiling, visible just by walking through the building.
The banners hanging around the school contain only a small portion of the members of the Alumni Hall of Fame. Many inductees graduated in the early 1920s. To be eligible, the alumnus must have achieved something in regard to positive change for the greater good.
The Rookwood Pottery Company opened on Thanksgiving Day in 1880,makes an award for members once inducted into the Hall of Fame. The company supplied some of the decorations around the school, making them unique to the school.
Lydia Wright Evans went to study medicine at Meharry Medical College in Nashville after graduating from WHHS. She opened her own medical practice in Buffalo, NY, becoming the city’s first African American pediatrician. The Buffalo Board of Education appointed Evans to [the position] in 1962, where she helped fight to desegregate schools with pushback from the board.
Jack J. Stern was a rabbi who was a major activist during the Civil Rights Movement. He traveled to South Africa to help fight apartheid, which was a system that favored the white minority politically, economically and socially. He first pursued medicine but instead decided to become a rabbi.
Throughout his career, Willis D. Gradison was very involved in different levels of government. He first worked as an investment broker, then went on to become assistant to the undersecretary of treasury, assistant to the secretary of health, education and welfare, and then was elected to the Cincinnati council. He became the first Jewish representative elected to the House of Representatives.
Many others have done great things that aren’t mentioned and some can be found on the banners hanging from the ceiling.