At  GHS, Oliver Hayes was a member of the National Honor Society, the boys’ basketball, football and ski teams and the play crews.
   At Central Michigan University, he earned a bachelor of science degree in 1973. He earned a master of science degree, with honors, at Michigan State University in 1975 and a D.O. degree from MSU in 1981. He was a resident in the MSU emergency medicine program from 1981 to 1985, where he became a board-certified emergency medicine physician. He then attended the University of Michigan School of Public Health, where he earned a master's degree in health policy, with honors, in 1991.
   Dr. Hayes is currently the department chair of the Department of Internal Medicine in the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Michigan State University. He is also the director of quality control at Ingham Regional Hospital. 
   Dr. Hayes said he had a life-changing experience when he became the project director for the Community-University Health Partnership. In that role, he has traveled to Third World countries, including Africa, Bulgaria, Mexico and the Philippines, working on partnerships between universities and communities to improve health care in those countries. Dr. Hayes was in charge of a Bulgarian project in emergency medicine, working with its government after the fall of communism to install pre-hospital care systems.
   Dr. Hayes married Debbie Nethers, a 1970 GHS alumna, in 1975. They have two children, Emily (23) and Zachary (19). His father, Oliver "Wes" Hayes, worked for 30 years as a rural mail carrier for Grayling, and his mother, Caroline Patricia (McKenna) Hayes, is a 1940 GHS alumna. Dr. Hayes is trying to become a "respectable golfer" and enjoys traveling, reading and history. 

   Thomas Koernke was valedictorian of his Frederic High School class, Student Council president and served as a page in the Michigan House of Representatives. He earned nine varsity letters - three in basketball, two in cross-country and four in baseball - and was all-conference his junior and senior years and all-state in his senior year in baseball.
   He earned a bachelor of arts degree with high honors from the Honors College at Michigan State University in 1970. He was president of his senior class of at MSU and presented the valedictory address for the Class of 1970. He attended the University of Michigan Law School where he earned a juris doctor degree in 1974. He was the recipient of the Edward H. Rakow Award, as one of the three outstanding graduates in the Class of 1974, and the outstanding U-M intramural athlete award in 1973, and he was a member of the Big Ten Conference intramural basketball championship team of 1973.
   Mr. Koernke is a partner in Koernke & Crampton, P.C., a Grand Rapids law firm. He is a fellow in the Michigan State Bar Foundation, was a member of the State Bar of Michigan judicial qualifications committee for two terms and was a member of the alternative dispute resolution advisory committee to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan. He is a co-author of Comparative Negligence in Michigan, published in 1982 and supplemented in 1985. He was also the fundraising chairman of the Michigan Trails Girl Scout Council in 1986-1987. 
   Mr. Koernke and his wife Holly have been married for 24 years. They have two children - Dan, a senior at Davidson College, and Molly, a junior at Wake Forest University. His mother Hazel lives in Lovells. He enjoys golf and being a fan of both MSU and U-M sports teams.

   Emil Kraus was president of his senior class at GHS. He attended the University of Detroit, where he earned a bachelor of philosophy in 1938 and was also president of his U-D senior class. He attended the University of Michigan Law School, where he earned a bachelor of literature and law in 1941.
   Mr. Kraus then attended the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, where he graduated in 1942. He served as an executive officer and obtained the rank of lieutenant senior grade on the Coast Guard cutter Marion, a ship charged with patrolling the Atlantic Ocean for enemy ships and submarines during World War II.
   Elected judge of probate for Crawford County, Mr. Kraus served in that capacity for 24 years. He also had a private law practice in downtown Grayling for over 41 years.
   Although he studied law, retail trade also became a vocation for Mr. Kraus. He built and owned the Ben Franklin Store, Northland Department Store and the Kraus Dry Goods Store in downtown Grayling. Later he built the Ben Franklin Family Center and Laurine’s Department Store in the Grayling Mall, both of which stayed open for over 25 years. 
   Mr. Kraus was on the board of directors of Grayling State Bank (now Citizens Bank) for over 15 years. He received the Grayling Regional Chamber of Commerce “Citizen of the Year” award in 2004. 
   Mr. Kraus and his wife Amelia married in 1945 and had two daughters, Mary and Amy. After Amelia died in 1967, he married Laurine, whom he had known while working in Detroit, in 1968. They have two daughters, Catherine and Margaret. He has enjoyed playing golf at the Grayling Golf Course since his high school days and a highlight in his later years was making a hole-in-one.
  

   Steven LaGrow earned three varsity letters in football, three in track, one in basketball and one in skiing while attending GHS. He was president of the Varsity Club his senior year and the recipient of the Michael Goodrich Award for football in 1968.
   He attended Western Michigan University where he received a bachelor of science degree in sociology and political science in 1975. He earned a master of arts degree as a blind rehabilitation, orientation and mobility specialist in 1976 from WMU. He then earned a doctor of education degree in special education-visual impairment from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1968 to 1972 and was awarded the National Defense ribbon, the Vietnam service medal and a combat action medal. 
   Dr. LaGrow is the first holder of the Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind centennial chair, established at Massey University in 1991 by the Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind. In 1992, he received an award of achievement for the establishment of the first university program to prepare mobility specialists outside the United States. He was the outstanding alumnus for 2003-2004 in the Department of Blindness and Low Vision at WMU and was inducted into the Academy of Blindness and Low Vision Studies in October 2003 in Kalamazoo. 
   Dr. LaGrow has taught in the field of blind rehabilitation in since 1978 at Northern Illinois University and Western Michigan University. He is currently a Professor of Rehabilitation and head of the School of Health Sciences at Massey University in New Zealand, a position he has held since 1988. He has published over 100 papers and two books and presented hundreds of times at national and international conferences.
   Dr. LaGrow is married to Susan Hart and has four children: Adrien (21), Alec (18), Joseph (12) and Hannah (9). His hobbies include skiing and fly fishing. He is an active member of St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Palmerston North. 

   Doty Latuszek was a member of the ski team at GHS. She earned a bachelor of science degree, cum laude, in mathematics and science at Nazareth College in Kalamazoo and did advanced study in Russia, England and France through the Institute for Foreign Study in Evanston, Illinois.
   She received a master of arts degree from Western Michigan University in teaching mathematics in the community college and completed advanced study in mathematics at Central Michigan University. She graduated from the Facilitative Leadership Educational Series sponsored by Alignment Associates of Detroit. She earned a Ph.D. in public administration from WMU in 2004.
   Dr. Latuszek has presented on numerous occasions on numerous topics, including Open Learning: An Instructor-Guided, Student-Centered, Self-Directed Approach to Learning in Kansas City, Missouri, in 2002, at the Michigan Governors' Conference in Grand Rapids in 2003 and to the governmental leaders of Virginia, the Michigan Liberal Arts Deans and the Michigan Occupational Deans Administrative Council. 
   Dr. Latuszek is in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers-2004 and is a member of Kappa Gamma Pi, the women’s leadership honor society of Catholic colleges.
   She taught mathematics and science at the Diocese of Kalamazoo and in Gaylord. Since 1984, she has held several different positions at Kirtland Community College. Presently she is the provost of Kirtland's M-TEC in Gaylord. She has co-owned and operated two businesses in Grayling from 1979 to 1990 and has been a member of the Grayling City Council, the housing commission and the Grayling  Regional Chamber of Commerce. She is presently treasurer of the River House Shelter Advisory Board and a member of the Rotary Club of Gaylord.
   Dr. Latuszek enjoys reading, traveling and spending time with her friends.

   At GHS, Jeff Martinez was a member of the National Honor Society and graduated in the top ten. He was a member of Student Council, attended the Hugh O’Brien Leadership Seminar, went to Boys' State and participated in plays, musicals and forensics.
   He received a bachelor of arts degree in English from the University of Michigan in 1990. While an undergraduate student, he received a U-M achievement award for four consecutive years. 
   Mr. Martinez taught English in rural Japan from 1992 to 1995 and then taught English in Chaing Mai, Thailand. He presently lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where he works for Turner Broadcasting as a supervising producer with Turner Studios Original Productions. His current project is a new makeover show called Bushwhacked that will premiere this summer. Mr. Martinez said he is roaming the South looking for "bad yards that happen to good people." Then makeovers will be done on those yards.
   Mr. Martinez is an Emmy-award winning writer/producer. He won a 2003 Southeast Regional Emmy for the best entertainment show, “Liars and Legends”  and a 2003 Midsouth Regional Emmy for the best documentary, “The Disappearing South.” He was nominated for the 2004 Midsouth Regional Emmy for best magazine show entitled “Southern Living Presents.”  And there are, to quote him, “more to come.”
   Mr. Martinez tutors children at My Sister’s House, a shelter for battered women, and volunteers for the Trumpet Awards, which honor African American achievement in fields as diverse as law, politics, public service and entertainment. He says he enjoys talking on the phone with fellow honoree Kim McDonough during commercial breaks of the show "Medium" on Monday evenings. 

   Chris Wright cites his GHS highlights as tying flies in the library, skiing at Hanson Hills and Skyline and swapping fishing stories with Mr. McClain, Mr. Wieland, and Mr. Woodland. And, to quote him, “Graduation was a pleasant surprise.” He then attended Kirtland Community College for "about a semester before excusing myself to find fame and fortune at WQON Radio in Grayling."
   He began writing when he was seven years old and said his favorite children’s books are My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George, James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl and Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.
   Under the pen name Johnathan Rand, Mr. Wright has authored 30 children’s books with over 2,000,000 in print, starting with the very popular Michigan Chillers series. He is now writing the American Chillers series and plans to complete at least one book for every state. It usually takes him one week to write the first draft of each book and another month or so to re-write it. He said that, while it is hard to pick his favorite Johnathan Rand book, it probably would be Dinosaurs Destroy Detroit or Ghost in the Graveyard. 
   Mr. Wright was born in Pontiac and grew up in Waterford until his family moved to Grayling after his fourth grade year. He now lives in Topinabee with his wife Boots and their three big, furry dogs named Abby, Salty and Lily. He loves to be outdoors, scuba dive, free dive, fish, bike, cross-country ski and write. He ties his own flies, describes himself as a fanatical fisherman, and - to quote him - “will run when chased.”