Baylor School will honor four alumni and friends for
outstanding achievements and contributions during the school's alumni weekend activities.
Joseph H. Davenport III of Lookout Mountain, Tenn., and John T. "Johnny" Johnson of Morgan City, La., are the recipients of the Distinguished Alumnus Award, which honors alumni of the school for outstanding personal achievement.
Zane Probasco Brown and James M. Haley IV, both of Lookout Mountain, Tenn., are this year's honorees for the Distinguished Service Award, which honors Baylor alumni and friends who have selflessly contributed their time and service to the school.
Baylor will recognize the honorees during the school's annual Alumni Awards Banquet on Thursdau at 6:30 p.m. at The Walden Club. Three former faculty members and two Inductees into Baylor's Sports Hall of Fame will
also be honored at the event.
Davenport, a three-year student at Baylor and a member of the school's Class of 1965, was appointed to the Baylor School Board of Trustees in 1989 and served as Chairman from 1996 until 2000. During this time,
Davenport was the architect of the school's first strategic plan in the early '90s, and he also led the headmaster search which brought current head, Jim Buckheit, to Baylor. Along with Zane Probasco Brown, Davenport co-chaired the successful Campaign for Baylor, helping to raise nearly $45 million in four years and exceeding the ambitious $33 million goal. The
Campaign broadened the school's donor base by attracting contributors from over 38 states and three foreign countries.
After graduation from Washington and Lee University in 1969, Davenport began a varied and distinguished career in the business world. He has served as the Director of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company in both Miami and St. Louis, and he most recently worked as Director of the InBrand Corporation in Atlanta. Davenport is currently the President both of
Howard Holdings, Inc., a family investment firm, and Pointer Management Company, a finance and venture capital firm. Additionally, he serves on the Board of Directors at SunTrust Bank in Chattanooga.
He is on the Board of Trustees at Washington and Lee University, the Hunter Museum of Art, and the Tennessee Aquarium. He is the former Board Chairman of both the Hunter and the Creative Discovery Museum. A resident of Lookout Mountain, Tenn., he and his wife, Susan, are the parents of a son, Ward, a 1997 Baylor graduate, and a daughter, Hollis, a member of the school's Class of 2000.
Johnson entered Baylor in 1952 as a talented and athletic young man from Alcoa, Tenn. He excelled in the military program, achieving the rank of Captain, and was a three-sport letterman in football, basketball, and baseball, where he also served as an alternate captain. Johnson's athletic exploits continued at the University of Tennessee, where he
lettered in both swimming and baseball and received his B.S. in education.
After two years in the U.S. Army, Johnson co-founded a diving salvage company in an open garage in Bayou Vista, La., in 1964. From these humble beginnings, Johnson quickly built his company, Oceaneering International, Inc., into a vast global enterprise with 62 locations in 27 countries with 2,600 employees. They have manned such notable salvage operations as the Space Shuttle Challenger, TWA Flight 800, the Lusitania, the Hunley, and the Titanic. He now serves as Oceaneering International's Senior Vice
President.
A past president and board member of the Association of Diving Contractors, Johnson received the industry's prestigious Gallete Award. He has served on the Morgan City, La., City Council and also as Mayor Pro Temp. A past chairman and member of the Board of Trustees of the United Way of South Louisiana, Johnson is also a member of Rotary International and the Morgan City Petroleum Club. Johnson and his wife, Jodie, live in
Morgan City with their daughter, Jennifer.
During his years at Baylor, Haley was a member of the golf, wrestling, and basketball teams. Involved with the school newspaper, yearbook, and the Round Table literary group, Haley received a Morehead Scholarship to the University of North Carolina. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and entered the University of Tennessee College of Law.
Upon graduation from law school in 1975, he joined the law firm of Miller and Martin, where he remains today. He served as Managing Partner from 1991-98 and has been listed in Best Lawyers in America since 1991. A
member of Baylor's Board of Trustees from 1998-99, Haley served on that body's Finance Committee and Headmaster Search Committee. He has also served as Class Agent and Chairman of the Alumni Speaker Series at Baylor.
Under his leadership as President from 1998-99, the school's Alumni Board established the annual Faculty Summer Sabbatical Fund, launched the Dedicated Faculty Project, and created an alumni-elected position on the
Board of Trustees. Additionally, he served as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Alumni Board from 1999-2000.
Haley's intensive community involvement extends to several civic areas outside of Baylor. He is presently the Chairman of the Lookout Mountain
School Board and President of the Lookout Mountain Golf Club, and he has been a board member of both the Fairyland Club and the Mountain City Club.
Additionally, he has served as Secretary of the Rotary Club and participated on various United Way Committees.
Haley, whose father, James M. Haley III, was a standout member of the Baylor Class of '30, resides on Lookout Mountain, Tenn., with his wife, Margaret Anne. They are the parents of two recent Baylor graduates, Jim and Beth, and two current Baylor students, Laura, a junior, and John, an eighth grader.
Brown, a member of the Baylor Board of Trustees, is well known for her tireless efforts as co-chair of the recently concluded Campaign for Baylor. Under the leadership of Brown and co-chair Joe Davenport '65, the
campaign surpassed its lofty goal of $33 million by raising nearly $45 million in less than four years. The campaign helped to broaden Baylor's donor base to a national level by soliciting donors from 38 states and three foreign countries. Prior to her work on the Campaign for Baylor, she chaired the Parents' Campaign for Fine Arts and served on the Parents' Council.
Brown currently serves on the boards of the Hunter Museum, the Siskin Foundation, and the Memorial Hospital Development Council. She is a past board member of the Salvation Army and the former president of the Lookout Mountain PTO. Brown is also an active member of First Presbyterian Church and the Lookout Mountain Garden Club, and she is involved in both the
United Way and Allied Arts yearly campaigns.
A 1978 graduate of Sophie Newcomb College, Brown was a Baylor School cheerleader as a student at Girls Preparatory School. She resides on Lookout Mountain with her husband, Greg, and their three children: