Will Rogers High School

Hall of Fame Inductees, 2025

An actress and two former professional athletes are among the Will Rogers High School’s Hall of Fame inductees who will be honored April 5, 2025 at a reception and dinner at the Doubletree Warren Place. The inductees will also be recognized at an all-school assembly in the WRHS auditorium April 4, 2025.

The inductees will also include a national award-winning journalist who focused on Native American stories, an air pollution scientist whose work impacts the lives of citizens around the world and an internationally acclaimed software engineer focused on project management.

Christy Kelley Tate

Christy Kelley Tate, class of 1997, earned her way to be one of Oklahoma’s lead Television and Film Actors. She is best known for her many lead roles on Lifetime Movie Network, as well as her starring role in three seasons of Mike Rowe’s “The Way I Heard It.” Her many roles with Lionsgate stream currently on Prime.

After earning a degree in musical theatre from Northern Oklahoma College and a television and film degree from Oral Roberts University, she performed in theatre and commercial work before moving to movies.

In addition to her acting career, Tate has worked with underprivileged youth in the Oklahoma City Public School system. Her love for the arts and education manifested in the creation of Hearts for the Arts program she founded.

For three years, she served as ministry coordinator for Youth for Christ in Oklahoma City. Under her leadership, the group created a presence on OKC public school campuses, assessed campus needs, then used resources to help meet those needs. Hearts for the Arts, a program within YFC, provided art instruction to inner-city youth across OKC during lunch periods and/or after-school. As the group’s campus presence grew, it became an extracurricular activity in nearly every school in the metro area.

Tate oversaw the program across Oklahoma City and worked directly with students at John Marshall High School and Southeast High School.

Jim Wixson

Jim Wixson, a 1958 graduate, is the first and only Will Rogers High School graduate to be named an “All-American” in any sport. As pitcher for Oklahoma State University from 1960-1962, Jim was All Big Eight, First Team All-American, and was inducted into the College World Series Hall of Fame.

Jim is one of two pitchers to have ever pitched a no-hitter in the College World Series, a record not broken in 65 years.

Wixson turned pro after graduating with an engineering degree and was drafted by the Kansas City Athletics. He relocated to Dallas to launch his business career at IBM as an Advisory Systems Engineer but soon transitioned to sales, winning three Golden Circle Awards for top sales in the company.

During his summers, he led two semi-pro teams of college players to two National Championships. He also shared his love of sports with his three daughters.

As Title IX made an impact on opportunities for females, he created and organized competitive softball, basketball, and soccer leagues in the Dallas/Fort Worth area while coaching his daughters’ teams.

Dr. Bill Van Burkleo

Dr. Bill Van Burkleo’s outstanding high school athletic achievements led him to continue his education at the University of Oklahoma on a football scholarship while studying as a pre-med student. He transferred to the University of Tulsa where he was a member of the 1964 Bluebonnet Bowl Championship team.

Van Burkleo was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys and the San Diego Chargers (AFL draft), but was the Dallas Cowboys’ last cut in 1965.

Van Burkleo played professional football in Canada before realizing his dream of a career in medicine and the beginning of his rural family medicine practice in Antlers and Colbert, Oklahoma. He transitioned to serving in emergency rooms and eventually served as Emergency Medical Director at several Oklahoma hospitals.

Dr. Van Burkleo opened his own family health clinic and minor emergency room in Corpus Christi, Texas. Additional honors came from the Jim Thorpe Committee naming him as one of the All-Time Greats of Oklahoma Football from the1950s and as an inductee into the Tulsa Public Schools Athletic Hall of Fame as a Legend.

He is a 1960 graduate of Will Rogers High School.

Gary Fife

Gary Fife, a member of the class of 1958, was a career veteran of journalism with 50 years of experience in print, radio, and television. An enrolled citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma, and of Cherokee heritage, Fife specialized in national Native and governmental affairs, spending 11 years in the nation’s capital.

He moved to Alaska for the prospect of founding the Indigenous-focused radio program, ‘National Native News,’ the first Native weekday radio news service. At its peak, the program was carried on 181 public radio stations across the country.

Fife has numerous awards in national and state press competitions, three legislative citations from the State of Alaska and the Governor’s Community Service Medal. In 1978, he was the first Native American recipient of a Ford Fellowship in Educational Journalism. He also held an internship as a guest editor on the national desk of National Public Radio.

Robert Cary

Robert Cary’s research, development, and commercialization of the first automated instrument for the measurement of carbon aerosol particles has impacted the understanding of health effects, climate change, sources of air pollution and visibility throughout the world.

The analyses performed with his designs are of worldwide importance for assessing the quality of the air for areas such as determining worker exposure to harmful fine particulates in mines and other work environments, analyzing exposures of people to pollution and unhealthy living conditions, ascertaining sources of air pollution that influence global climate changes. Those changes include the melting of glaciers and icebergs as well as temperature changes of the earth’s surfaces and oceans. They also include environmental issues in national parks and wilderness areas.

He has also served as Secretary on the Board of Directors for the Oregon Ronald McDonald House and Coach and President of a local Youth Soccer Association.

During the Vietnam War era he was trained as an infantryman, then assigned to the Fourth Army Laboratory Medical Laboratory at Fort Sam Houston in Texas as a Chemical Lab Specialist.

He graduated from Will Rogers High School in 1963.

Walter Lipke

Walter Lipke’s long and distinguished career of federal service garnered several awards including the Exemplary Civilian Service Award and the Outstanding Civilian Career Service Award.

During his time as manager, Lipke’s organization delivered software test programs for major weapons systems, such as B-1 and B-2. A career highlight was the winning of the Software Engineering Institute/Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers award for Software Process Achievement in 1999; recognition, at the time, as one of the eight best software organizations in the world.

Lipke contributed to the field of project management with his creation of Earned Schedule (ES), a method of measures and indicators for controlling project schedule performance. ES adds to the schedule analysis capability of Earned Value Management (EVM), an internationally recognized and controlled management system. For his creation of ES, Lipke has received honors from the US, Europe, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

Lipke is a member of the class of 1960.

Past Hall of Fame luminaries include Leon Russell, NBA and NFL athletes, a Broadway actress, ground-breaking medical researchers, and educational leaders, along with David Rader, State Senator and former TU head football coach, and Rodger Randle, former Tulsa Mayor and President Pro Tempore of the State Senate, and S.E. “Susie” Hinton, world-renowned author.

“We hope all Will Rogers alumni will join us to honor these new inductees,” Laura Schaub, Will Rogers High School Community Foundation public relations director said. “The Foundation sponsors the dinner and induction ceremony.”

To obtain tickets, visit the Foundation’s website at https://willrogersfoundation.net/.