Share This Article
When Mountain Home beat Harrison at the rival team’s own stadium a few decades ago, students in Mountain Home posted a sign at the city limits saying “the last one out turn the lights off” as the entire town headed to the game.
For tonight’s Mountain Home Education Foundation Hall of Honor inductees, those lights have never dimmed in their hearts for Mountain Home and its Bomber community.
The five honorees being inducted during tonight’s ceremony represent the best of Bomber pride: alumni who’ve led billion-dollar companies, educators who built programs from scratch, support staff who changed children’s lives, volunteers who never stopped giving back and businesses investing in the next generation.
The CEO who never forgot his roots
Clifton Rutledge’s path from working at Mountain Home’s old Bonanza steakhouse to leading national restaurant chains might seem unlikely, but not to him.
“I worked for Bonanza. I’ll bet you probably weren’t born when Bonanza was in Mountain Home,” Rutledge, 61, said with a laugh during a recent interview. After 11 years with the company and a baseball scholarship to Ouachita Baptist University, he thought he’d escape the restaurant industry. Instead, 46 years later, he’s shaped some of America’s most recognizable brands.
As CEO and president at various times of Bojangles Restaurants, Whataburger, Jacks Family Restaurants and now Chairman of the Board for Shipley Do-Nuts, Rutledge has overseen thousands of employees and billions in revenue. But his favorite Mountain Home memory remains purely local.
“Mountain Home hadn’t beat Harrison in – gosh, I don’t know, 25 or more, maybe even 50 years,” he recalled of his senior year. The entire town made the trip for the football game, complete with a cardboard sign at the city limits reading “the last one out turn the lights off.”
“It was standing room only, and we won,” he said. “Always beating Harrison’s always a big deal.”
His advice to current Bombers? “Think bigger. Look outside of Mountain Home. Never ever forget where you came from and the roots that you grew up in there, but… there’s bigger things that are out there.”
Rutledge receives the Outstanding Alumni Award.
The Chief who brought the Bomber home
When Senior Chief Ray Gonzalez answered his phone one summer day while mowing his lawn, Principal Jim Simmons had one demand: “I want a bomber, and I want a Navy bomber.”
What followed was a year-long mission that would become Mountain Home High School legend. Gonzalez, who started the school’s Naval Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps program from scratch in 1993, tracked down a decommissioned Navy aircraft in Memphis, coordinated its cleaning and engine removal, then arranged for an Army Reserve CH-47 helicopter to fly it from Memphis to Mountain Home.
“None of the money that we spent on it was from the school system,” Gonzalez emphasized. “It was all donated by the community.”
The bomber that now stands guard at the high school represents more than military hardware — it symbolizes what Gonzalez accomplished in six years building the NJROTC program. After 22 years of active Navy duty and five years teaching in Albuquerque, he arrived in Mountain Home with a mission.
“I don’t know how to start a program,” he told his former supervisor who recommended the position. The response: “You’ll be fine. It’s good for your career.”
He was more than fine. Gonzalez was honored five times in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers. He also volunteered with Special Olympics, where “his joy in working with young athletes was unmatched,” according to the Foundation.
His advice to today’s students reflects his lifetime of service: “The choices you make will dictate the lives you live.”
Gonzalez receives the Outstanding Faculty Award.
The paraprofessional who touched three generations
Nancy Russell can trace Mountain Home’s impact on her family across three generations and nearly 60 years.
Arriving the summer before her senior year in 1965, she graduated in 1966, married her high school sweetheart (Class of ’65), raised two daughters who became Mountain Home graduates, and worked 29 years nurturing the district’s struggling readers.
“Once a bomber, always a bomber,” Russell said. “It’ll always be that way.”
Her career from 1978 to 2007 focused on the students who needed extra help. The last decade she spent in the alternative education classroom alongside Joe Grabowski remains her most rewarding work.
“These kids not only struggled academically, but they also struggled with themselves,” she explained. “Joe and I got the opportunity to help bring them out of their shell and to be able to read and have confidence in themselves.”
Her proudest moments came in simple breakthroughs: “When a child would look at me and say, ‘Miss Russell, I can do this,’ and it came with such pride to the child and myself.”
Russell’s legacy lives on through her daughter Laurie, who retired in 2022 as a Mountain Home principal. Former students still call to check on her.
Her advice to educators: “If you’re going into it to have summers off, find another job. You need to be there for those kids always.”
As for Harrison? Russell remembers the signs at Mountain Home’s city limits: “Lights are out. We’re not home. We’re going to beat Harrison.”
Russell receives the Earnest Perry Outstanding Support Staff Award.
The nurse who embodies Bomber spirit
Bob Bodenhamer’s connection to Mountain Home runs so deep that his family has tested the school system across multiple generations, and it keeps passing.
“My dad and his brother, they both graduated from Mountain Home High School,” Bodenhamer explained. “Me and my brother and my two cousins, we graduated from Mountain Home High School. Our kids have all graduated from Mountain Home High School.” His brother even has a great-grandchild who’s graduated.
But Bodenhamer’s service extends far beyond family legacy.
As a registered nurse at Baxter Health, he touched countless lives with compassion and skill. His civic dedication continues through the Baxter County Election Commission, “working diligently to uphold the integrity of our democratic process,” and through First United Methodist Church.
He’s never sought the spotlight.
“There’s probably a lot of other people deserve it more than I do,” he said of the honor. “But receiving the Bob Knight Bomber Spirit Award carries special meaning.”
“Me and Bob Knight grew up together. We played baseball together, played football,” he said, his voice warm with memory. “He’s probably one of my best friends. I miss Bob Knight. I think about him every day.”
One memory from 60 years ago still makes classmates laugh: A fellow student flipped a school bus in front of the high school after delivering kids to the junior high.
No one was hurt, but “if that happened these days, there’s no telling what would happen,” Bodenhamer chuckled.
His advice to today’s generation of Bombers was straightforward.
“Get involved with your school and your community. It will come back and pay you off in the long run. Our schools are very important. It’s what the foundation of the country is made on.”
Bodenhamer receives the Bob Knight Bomber Spirit Award.
The company that builds futures
For three generations, Gregory Company has literally built Mountain Home: libraries, factories, hotels, schools, fire stations, and country clubs.
But Will Gregory says their greatest construction project might be developing future tradesmen.
“It’s a privilege to get to live and make a living in a community like ours,” Gregory said in a statement. “We believe tradesmen are vital to the continued growth of the area and want to encourage students who want to pursue those careers.”
Since 1971, when Jack Gregory founded the company, through Will Gregory’s leadership and now with his sons Chance and Banks and son-in-law Raymond Guasco, the company has invested in Mountain Home’s youth.
Each semester, they host ninth-grade Keystone students for hands-on industry tours, teaching everything from reading blueprints to operating equipment.
“Gregory Company is a team, and this recognition is an honor for all of us,” Gregory said.
The Foundation notes their support extends beyond field trips to backing Bomber sports and extracurricular activities, “reflecting their commitment to and care for community spirit.”
Gregory Company receives the Community Partner Award.
The Mountain Home Education Foundation raises funds for student scholarships and teacher projects throughout the district. Tonight’s ceremony begins at 6 p.m. at Big Creek Country Club.
For more information about the Mountain Home Education Foundation or to nominate future Hall of Honor candidates, email [email protected].
