Induction Class of 2004

Class of 1972

After graduating from Finneytown High School in 1972, Mr. Howland accepted a basketball scholarship to Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. He was a four-year starter for Ed Jucker and was named All-American after his junior year. He finished his career as Rollins’ 2 nd all-time leading scorer.

He graduated in 1976 and played pro basketball in Spain and Portugal for 5 years. Mr. Howland retired in 1982 and began working for General Advertising Products of which he is now the president of the company.

He married his wife, Diana, in 1983 and currently resides in Loveland, Ohio. He has a daughter, Jessica, and son, Christopher.

Steward of Finneytown

Mr. Stevens returned to Cincinnati in 1960 building a home in Finneytown on Shuman Lane. His contributions to Finneytown began when Mr. Stevens was a coach in Knothole “D” League. He was a “C” League Supervisor and served as Secretary for the Finneytown Athletic Association. In 1966, he had 960 boys in the baseball program. In April of 1967, Mr. Stevens attended a soccer clinic at Berea College in Kentucky.

Upon returning home to Finneytown, Mr. Stevens quickly formed a “board” of interested and willing men, some of whom had played this new sport of soccer, and began to plan the Finneytown High School soccer program. In the fall of 1967, 200 boys began to play soccer in the newly named Soccer Association for Youth (SAY) of which Mr. Stevens was a founding member. He would serve on the Board of Directors and was elected Chairman of the Rules Committee. Finneytown had five teams practicing for the opening of the first season of youth soccer on September 16, 1967 at Lockland Stadium.

By the fall of 1974, the Ohio High School Athletic Association established soccer as a recognized sport. This status included an Ohio State Championship Tournament. Finneytown High School won that first state championship. Mr. Stevens’ dedicated leadership was undoubtedly an important factor in Finneytown’s outstanding success in 1974 and again in 1976, when a second state championship was won. At this second outing, he was elected by the High School Coaches in Ohio to officiate the Final match in 1976.

Additionally, Mr. Stevens co-founded the Midwest Soccer Officials Association and ran soccer clinics at Finneytown High School for Officials. He also helped to form Soccer Boosters to solve the issue of funding the soccer program which eventually raised monies for cutting and marking fields as well as portable goalposts. He helped to direct fund-raising efforts for a large ice machine which served all sports.

Class of 1965

Linda Thompson graduated from Finneytown High School in 1965. While attending Finneytown she was active in concert choirs and ensemble, student council, National Honor Society, Red Mill, and Escapades.

After graduation, she attended the University of Michigan graduating with a B.S in Cellular Biology (1968), M.S. Biological Chemistry (1971), Ph.D. Biological Chemistry (1973). She did her post-doctoral training at the University of California, San Diego Department of Medicine (1977-1980).

Currently she is a biomedical scientist conducting research in the field of immunology, working the private, not-for-profit research institution Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation in Oklahoma City. Additionally, she trains graduate students and post-doctoral fellows in the field of immunology and teaches at the University of Oklahoma. She is interested in inherited immunodeficiency diseases and the development of the human immune system.

Since the beginning of her independent research career in 1980, she has attracted grants from The National Institutes of Health totaling over $5.5 million. She has published 98 papers and was named to hold the Putnam City Schools Endowed Chair in Cancer Research in 2001.

Ms. Thompson serves on review committees for The National Institutes of Health and The Department of Defense to review grant applications in the fields of immunology and breast cancer. She also reviews manuscripts for several prestigious scientific journals and serves on the boards for scientific journals and advisory boards for international scientific symposia.

Linda is an active member of several scientific societies and has served on the Publications Committee and Awards Committee for the American Association of Immunologists. She is also the co-founder of a small biotechnology company InterGenetics in Oklahoma City whose mission is to develop a diagnostic test to evaluate a woman’s genetic risk for breast cancer.

Class of 1963

As a student at Finneytown, Roger participated in basketball and track, was the Student Council President and a member of Mr. Portune’s “I-Unit.” He attended Cornell University on an academic scholarship, was elected to the engineering honorary Tau Betta Pi his junior year and graduated 4th in his class of 307 with a major in Electrical Engineering.

He attended medical school at the University of Cincinnati where he graduated near the top of his class and was elected to the honor societyAlpha Omega Alpha. He trained in internal medicine at Washington University in St. Louis and in cardiology at Stanford University. He remained on the faculty and became a tenured professor at Stanford Medical School where he became world renowned in the study of the electrical system of the human heart.

He has published nearly 200 scientific articles on drugs and devices to diagnose and treat heart arrhythmias and has lectured on 5 continents.

In 1984, he started a private practice and now has 8 partners. In the mid-1980’s, he helped make the implantable pacemaker/defibrillator a clinically useful device and founded Ventritex Corporation, which designed and built the first sophisticated implantable defibrillator device. Ventritex was subsequently acquired by St. Jude Corporation.

He has been involved in numerous other medical device companies and helped to design and test catheters currently used for cardiac ablation procedures. He has been a perennial member of the list of “Best Physicians in the San Francisco Bay Area” and the “Best Cardiologists in the Silicon Valley.”

He and his wife, Lynn, have been married 34 years, have two grown children and enjoy golf and spending time at their second home on Flathead Lake in Montana. They have been heavily involved in creating opportunities for at risk minority youth to attend four-year colleges.

Class of 1973

While attending Finneytown, Mr. Vining played solo trumpet for four years in the band. He was also the student conductor, involved in Brass Choir (as a first in school history), and concert band. Additionally, he was involved in all of the school musicals during his four years at Finneytown.

Upon graduation, Mr. Vining pursued a broadcasting degree from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music while taking a minor in Music. He made the Dean’s List, worked at WFIB-AM, was an on-air personality for WGUC-FM.

He completed his post-graduate seminar work at the London School of Economics, Harvard University and the Universidad de Navarra, Barcelona.

Mr. Vining’s professional career has ranged from Studio Manager (Pickwick Records Studios), Director of Marketing (RCA Victor), Vice-president and co-owner (Intersound International), and CEO (Euphonix).

Currently, he is president of Euro operations for Savoy Jazz/Denon Recods a subsidiary of Columbia Music Entertainment featuring recordings by jazz legends Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and John Coltrane, as well as classic blues and R&B.

Mr. Vining’s television production credits include: Executive Producer for George Winston’s “Season” (PBS 1996), and Winston Solstice on Ice (A&E, 1999). His music production credits include: conceived, performed and produced the project Chipmunk Punk (1980) which garnered a Platinum Record Award, and made the Billboard #15 Top 100 Pop LP Chart. He produced the film soundtracks to Roxanne starring Steve Martin, and the Bruce Willis film Die Hard with a Vengenance. His Broadway recording credits list Grease in1994 featuring Rosie O’Donnel and the 1995 New Broadway Cast featuring Brooke Shields, Phantom – The American Musical Sensation (1992), Jerry Hadley – Standing Room Only (1992), and Patti LuPone Live (1993).

Mr. Vining has earned over 10 Grammy nominations for his work with jazz, classical/classical crossover, orchestral Pops, and Symphonic Rock recordings. He is a member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and the Audio Engineering Society, as well as the Aircraft Owner and Pilots Association.

All-Star Instructor and Coach

Mr. Bean spent 34 years at Finneytown. He began in 1963 as an instructor in Social Studies, then teaching American History, Comparative Political Systems, Urban Geography, Non-Western Studies, Consumer Electronics Education, American Government and Contemporary issues. He was the chairperson of the department from 1972 until 1976. From 1988 through 1993, he was Director of Attendance at the high school. In 1993, Mr. Bean moved on to serve as the District’s Director of Custodial Services until 1997.

Also, in 1963 he served as an assistant coach in Football and Track. He was a part of appearances in the state finals and two state championships in Soccer. He served as the first Women’s Head Soccer coach in Finneytown's history and served as Head Wrestling Coach for 25 years. He was the only wrestling coach in Ohio to have led contestants to the State Tournament in all three divisions. He introduced computerization to statistics and tournament management. He is a member of the Southwest Ohio Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame and was that organization’s Coach of the Year in 1981. Coach Bean was named to the Ohio High School Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame in 2014.

As Athletic Director from 1988-1993 and from 1997-1998, he managed the total interscholastic athletic program which involved over 300 student-athletes, 50 coaches, and budgets for the entire program. He created manuals for coaches and athletes, established department objectives and standards, as well as worked with the Athletic Boosters to establish goals, fund raising and awards programs. He was a certified instructor for the National Federation of Coaches program for coach’s certification.

Mr. Bean graduated from Miami University with a Bachelor of Education in Social Studies. He received his Master of Education and Non-western Philo-religions from Xavier University, was named a Bicentennial Fellow at University of Cincinnati and worked in the Netherlands in 1985 as a Fulbright Fellow.

Mr. Bean has been a member of the Ohio Education Association, National Education Association, Ohio Association of Interscholastic Athletic Adminsitrators, Ohio Wrestling Coaches Association, and Southwestern Ohio Wrestling Coaches Association.

He volunteers with for Waycross Community Media as a sports announcer and was also a member of the Community Programming Board for Waycross Community Media.

Mr. Bean has co-published Ohio History, An Investigation and authored It’s in the Bag (U.S. Wrestling News) and The Fishing File as well as various articles for local and state teacher publications.