CMS Hall of Honor welcomes six

Six individuals are set to be inducted at this year’s Hall of Honor luncheon for Clovis Municipal Schools on Saturday at the Clovis Civic Center.

The purpose of the Hall of Honor is to recognize and honor alumni of Clovis High School whose professional achievements, character, and contributions serve as models to inspire and challenge today’s students, organizers said.

Top Cats are community members who have shown extensive, long-term support for Clovis Municipal Schools.

The recipients this year are Jamiah Hargins (class of 2002) Chet Pharies (1996), Heather Waller (1992), John Ortiz (1988), Vanoy Welch (1981) and Jan Cox (Clovis native and veteran educator).

According to information provided by CMS:

n Hargins will be inducted into the business and industry category.

After graduating in 2002, Hargins went on to various pursuits, now helping to feed the world through his “Crop Swap” in Los Angeles.

Hargins has an expansive education and has traveled all over for work. He has founded and run business and non-profit entities. He’s a lecturer for Urban Farming and served as a consultant for the New Green Deal. Hargins has been the recipient of many awards from the city of Los Angeles and has served as a Lemann Fellow.

He is married to Ginnia, and they have two children, Triana and Zia.

n Pharies will be inducted into the business and industry category.

Pharies attended Texas Tech University after graduating from CHS and played college football. He is well-known as the owner of Carpet Tech, a Lubbock-based regional floor-care and restoration company. However many don’t know Pharies built the business after his brother Chad’s tragic passing at 23.

Pharies has made Carpet Tech into a household brand with six locations and over 200 employees. Pharies has expanded into other industries, including cattle and aviation.

His wife, Melinda, and their four children are also well-known for generosity and donations, namely, the Covenant Children’s Pediatric team.

n Waller will be inducted into the business and industry category.

Heather (Leal) Waller was born in Muleshoe and grew up in the restaurant industry with the family business, Leal’s.

After graduation in 1992, she married Jeremy and now has two children. She and her husband have owned and operated Leal’s Mexican Restaurant in Plainview for more than 20 years, in addition to their later acquisition of Fieldhouse Sandwich Shop in Plainview.

Wanting to give back to the community, they opened Picoso’s Mexican Kitchen, which gives back all profits to the community and their employees. Waller also owns Sprinkles Cupcake Bakery and is a realtor for Keller-Williams.

n Ortiz will be inducted into the sports and entertainment industry.

Ortiz attended Eastern New Mexico University after graduating CHS. He and his wife, Rosamond, have two children.

With a passion for music, Ortiz helped establish Warner Discos with Warner Bros. Music Nashville out of Norman Petty Studios in Clovis. Ortiz’s career was established after the success of the Texas Tornadoes and hits in country and Latin music markets.

Ortiz went on to join EMI Music as the director of promotions and was label manager for Selena, resulting in numerous Grammy nominations and wins. He continued to promote many other well-known artists and worked with over 400 radio stations.

n Welch will be inducted into the government and service category.

After graduating CHS, Welch majored in electrical engineering at New Mexico State University and was awarded the President’s Associates Scholarship. He was a Crimson Scholar belonging to Eta Kappa Nu, Electrical Engineering Honor Society, Tau Beta Pi, and Engineering Honor Society.

He began his National Security Agency (NSA) at Fort Meade in Maryland. He went on to attend Johns Hopkins University’s Whiting School of Engineering, earning his master’s of science degree. He was part of a team that designed speech coding algorithms for STU-III, used for classified communications.

He’s authored papers, presented at conferences, and contributed to the first-generation digital cellular standards.

n Cox will be awarded the Top Cat Award.

Jan Toliver Cox has served the community and CMS for decades. A teacher and administrator for 36 years, Cox also served on the library board and was a founding member of the Clovis MainStreet Revitalization Board.

At CMS Cox assisted in developing the first comprehensive teacher evaluation system and training all Clovis instructors. Cox (and then principal Shelly Norris) wrote and received the first large grants to fund a comprehensive elementary arts program for the district.

Cox taught and later served as principal at Lockwood Elementary. In 1991, she became the first principal of Mesa Elementary for many years, leading the school to achieve numerous awards for excellence, including the first National Blue RibbonAward for Excellence given to a Clovis school, one of only 243 schools nationwide.

After retirement from CMS, Cox continued to support the schools as executive director of the CMS Education Foundation, and continues to serve on the foundation Board of Directors.