The 15th class of the Wall of Honor at Hutchinson High School includes an athlete, lawyer and community activist.
The 2014 honorees are Jack Banta, professional athlete; C. Robert Bell, lawyer and district court judge; and Jade Piros de Carvalho, business president, Hutchinson City Council member and community activist.
The trio will be honored during the Wall of Honor Banquet at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18, in the Hutchinson Career and Technical Education Academy Events Center, 800 15th Circle. Tickets for the banquet are $20 each and include admission into the basketball game following the meal and program. Recipients will be recognized at half time of the boys’ game.
Reservations can be made by contacting Chris Weiser at (620) 615-4122 or via email at weiserc@usd308.com.
The project, a joint venture of the Hutch High Student Council, the Renaissance Club and the Hutch High Alumni Association, recognizes three outstanding graduates of Hutchinson High School. The first class was inducted in 1999.
Plaques honoring the alumni are located in the lobby of the Salthawk Activity Center. For more information, contact David T. Patterson, director of the Hutchinson Career and Technical Education Academy, at (620) 615-4123. Brief biographical sketches of the 2014 class follow.
Jack Banta – Professional Athlete
Hutch High Class of 1943
Banta, a 1943 graduate of Hutchinson High School, showed considerable talent and determination as a young man, which led him to a well-documented career as a Major League Baseball player with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Banta’s parents were dedicated fans of baseball and taught him an appreciation of the game.
Hutchinson High School did not have a baseball team at the time, but he pitched on the local Optimist baseball team in Hutchinson until he was 17. The young Banta was scouted by the Dodgers in 1942 and invited to try out in 1944, and Branch Rickey, impressed by Banta’s blazing fastball, quickly signed him. He played for the Newport News in Virginia and was promoted to the Montreal Royals.
Eventually Banta made his major-league debut with the Dodgers in September 1947 as a relief pitcher and pitched for the Dodgers for four seasons. Appearing in 204 innings in 69 games with the Dodgers, Banta played with the likes of Jackie Robinson and against Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra, and made appearances in the 1949 World Series.
A shoulder injury eventually sidelined the talented player, and he retired from baseball after working as a scout and minor-league manager.
Banta, one season shy of qualifying for a major-league pension, took a job in accounting with Dillons and spent 34 years with the company. He wed Jackie Gaylor in 1949, and the couple had three children, all Hutchinson High School alumni. He enjoyed golf, consistently shooting par or under, billiards, hunting and fishing. Banta was inducted into the Kansas Baseball Hall of Fame in 2004.
When he died in 2006, his obituary appeared in the New York Times
C. Robert Bell – Lawyer and District Court Judge
Hutch High Class of 1948
The Honorable Bell, judge in the 18th Judicial District of Kansas, graduated from Hutchinson High School in 1948. He especially remembers speech and debate, band and acting in plays during his high school years. He also remembers being mentored in the Presbyterian Church and the Boy Scouts, and was a member of the first troop in the world to produce 100 Eagle Scouts; he was number 113.
Bell earned a full academic scholarship to Princeton and graduated in 1952, going on to Harvard Law School and earning his Juris Doctor degree in 1955. Mr. Bell was a legal officer in the U.S. Navy from 1955 to 1958. He started private practice in 1958 and worked with several firms until 1989, when he became a sole practitioner, working in corporate, commercial, real estate, trusts and estates, oil and gas, litigation and international law. In 1988, Bell was elected Judge of Sedgwick County District Court and served there until retirement in 2000.
The retired judge is a member of the Kansas Bar Association and the Wichita-Sedgwick County Bar Association. He and his wife, Janice, have five children and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He is a founding member, past president and chairman of the board of directors of Prepaid Legal Services in Kansas, a non-profit, bar-sponsored corporation.
Additionally, Bell has been a member of the Panel of Arbitrators of the American Arbitration Association since 1970 and has found time to participate in Rotary and local government commissions as well. He has also served as a member of the Ethics Committee of the Wichita-Sedgwick County Bar Association and attended National Judicial College in 1990.
Jade Piros de Carvalho – Business President, City Council Member and Community Activist
Hutch High Class of 1996
Jade Piros de Carvalho, businesswoman, community volunteer and Hutchinson City Council member, is a proud native Kansan and promoter of her hometown. Graduating from Hutchinson High School in 1996, Piros de Carvalho went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Wichita State University.
Currently, Piros de Carvalho is currently the President of LogicMaze, LLC, a local marketing and full-service ad agency that specializes in graphic design and website development. She particularly enjoys helping clients explore new ways to evolve their marketing approach and expand their businesses.
Prior to assuming leadership at LogicMaze, she handled the communications, public relations and event planning for the Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce.
Piros de Carvahlo is married to Alex Carvalho. She loves Hutchinson and has volunteered countless hours serving her community on various non-profit boards: she has contributed her talents to the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, the Rotary Club, Young Professionals of Reno County, New Beginnings and the Leadership Reno County Alumni Board.
In her time serving on the Hutchinson City Council, the businesswoman has focused on the local issues of job creation, drug crime reduction and building Hutchinson through community collaboration. She is a firm believer that “the most straightforward path to growing Hutchinson’s economy is to support the expansion efforts of businesses already located here.”
Piros de.Carvalho is also passionate about aggressively marketing our community to manufacturers and growing our local tax base through creating more jobs and attracting new residents. She is convinced that “we have tremendous resources in the people of Hutchinson.”