Norris High School Alumni Association 2005 Hall of Fame Inductees
| David Nosal | Rodney Poskochil | DeAnna Talcott | Leonard VerMaas |
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Commander David
Edward Nosal -
Valedictorian of his Norris High School class of
1985, Commander David Nosal was commissioned as an Ensign in the United States
Navy following graduation from the United States Naval Academy in 1989 with a
Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science and a minor in Spanish.
His initial division officer assignment was to USS BERKELEY (DDG 15),
where he served as Damage Control Assistant and Main Propulsion Assistant from
1990 until the ship decommissioned in 1992.
He qualified as Engineering Officer of the Watch, Officer of the Deck
and Surface Warfare Officer as BERKELEY conducted numerous Law Enforcement
Operations.
In 1993, he reported to USS PRINCETON (CG 59) as Anti-Submarine Warfare
Officer. During a deployment to the Arabian Gulf in support of Operations
Desert Shield and in support of United Nations humanitarian missions in
Somalia, he qualified as Anti-Air Warfare Coordinator, Anti-Submarine Warfare
Evaluator, and Command Duty Officer.
CDR Nosal graduated from the Naval Postgraduate School in
1997 with a Master of Science in Management (Manpower, Personnel and Training
Analysis) from the Naval Postgraduate School.
After graduation, he served as Combat Systems Officer and qualified as
Tactical Action Officer on USS CURTS (FFG 38).
He participated in numerous multinational naval exercises, including
PASSEXs with Ecuador and Peru, TEAMWORK SOUTH 98 with Great Britain and Chile,
and RIMPAC 98.
He served his second
department head tour forward deployed to Seventh Fleet as Executive Officer
and Navigator of USS GUARDIAN (MCM 5) from September 1999 to July 2001.
CDR Nosal participated in numerous multinational mine warfare
exercises, including FOAL EAGLE 99 and 00, MINEX/EODEX 00 and 01, and a
25-nation MINEX sponsored by the Royal Singapore Navy in 2001.
CDR Nosal served on the Chief of Naval Operations staff
(Director of Navy Staff, OPNAV Chief Information Officer) in September 2001.
Following the terrorist attack on the Pentagon, he coordinated
contingency Information Technology support for SECNAV, OPNAV, and other
displaced military service staffs. He
served as Continuity of Operations (COOP) policy division head.
He reported to USS CARL VINSON (CVN 70) as Damage Control
Assistant in September 2003. He
achieved his Qualification for Command of Surface Ships in January 2004, and
led CARL VINSON to the Damage Control Excellence award.
He is currently assigned as Information Technology
Operations Officer at the Office of Naval Intelligence, Washington DC.
CDR Nosal’s personal decorations include four Navy Commendation Medals and two Navy Achievement Medals. He resides in Alexandria, VA with his wife, Fuki Tsujikawa of Sasebo, Japan, and their two sons: Edward (age 4) and Anthony (age 2). He is a second-degree member of the Knights of Columbus, a lifetime member of the Surface Navy Association, and a member of the American Legion.
Rodney Poskochil was born in
Nebraska and raised on the family farm. He attended grade school at a one-room
school with no running water through 6th grade. He attended Norris
Junior/Senior high school graduating mid-term his senior year to get a job so
he would be able to attend college the following fall.
Mr. Poskochil received his
Computer Programming Degree from Nebraska Technical College in December 1972.
He started his career the following month as a computer programmer for
the National Bank of Commerce, a Lincoln Nebraska bank operating a service
bureau, which provided data processing services for over 150 mid western
banks. Five and one half years later, when he left the bank, he headed the
Systems and Programming Department.
Mr. Poskochil joined
Information Technology, Inc. (ITI) located in Lincoln, Nebraska in October of
1978 as ITI’s fifth employee and played a key role in the enormous growth of
this company. Mr. Poskochil served as Vice President of Customer Services and
Senior Vice President of Product Development prior to being named President
and CEO in January of 1998.
In 1995, ITI and Fiserv
merged operations. Fiserv, located in Brookfield Wisconsin, is a publicly held
company that employs over 21,000 professionals around the world. In October of
1999, Mr. Poskochil was appointed a member of Fiserv’s Senior Management
Committee and named President of the newly formed Fiserv Bank Systems and
eProducts Group.
This operating group is
comprised of Fiserv’s bank software companies
serving a worldwide marketplace. The Group counts over
3,100 employees in 30 locations around the globe, with relationships with more
than 6,000 financial institution clients.
Mr. Poskochil also served as
a Chairman of Fiserv’s Product and Technology Committee and is a member of
the Unisys’ Corporation Advisory Council. This committee and council were
organized to assist their respective companies in defining, approving and
monitoring strategies relating to new technologies. The members of these
committees were chosen because of their broad business, technical and industry
experience.
Mr. Poskochil retired from
Fiserv on March 31, 2005 to manage his personal investment portfolio. In May
of 2005 he joined the Board of Directors of Hyland Software, Inc., a company
providing enterprise-wide document imaging software solutions. In June of
2005, he began serving as a member of the Advisory Board of Baird Capital
Partners, an investment banking firm whose objective is to achieve substantial
long-term capital appreciation by investing in growing middle market
companies.
Rod met his wife Leigh, also
a Nebraska Technical College computer programming graduate, while they both
worked at the National Bank of Commerce. They have three children, Dustin (22)
who is a Senior attending the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, Laura (20) who
is a Junior attending the University of Nebraska - Omaha, and Kinsey (11) who
is in the sixth grade. The Poskochil family lives on an acreage near Lincoln,
Nebraska and enjoy outdoor activities including riding and caring for their
two horses. They are members of the Berean Church.
DeAnna Talcott, a 1969 graduate of Norris High School, attended a one-room school which helped foster her love of reading. It was there she first dreamed of writing the kind of books that would touch people's hearts. Her dream became a reality when not one but two of her Silhouette Romances won readers' choice awards. The Bachelor and the Bassinet won the National Readers' Choice Award in 1996 and, a year later, To Wed Again? won the WISRWA Write Touch, Readers' Choice Award. In 2002, her book, Marrying For a Mom, was named the winner in the Booksellers' Best Award for the best in traditional romantic fiction. She has also been named a Romantic Times finalist for Best Traditional Romance, and as a Romantic Times Top Pick. DeAnna is also recognized as a finalist for the Laurel Wreath and the Colorado Award for Exellence.
DeAnna has written books for Silhouette, Zebra and New Concepts. Her titles have been translated into fifteen languages including French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swiss, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, German, Russian, Romanian, Polish, Chzeck, Greek and Japanese. and distributed worldwide. She has also published poetry in Step-Life and has had small contributions in American Baby. She has publishes short stories and worked as a sports write for local newspapers. As a frequent guest speaker on writing and publishing, DeAnna has lectured on college campuses and visited public schools to talk about her experiences. She has taught in the Minneapolis-St Paul school systems and worked in the retail market.
DeAnna graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and now lives in mid-Michigan with her husband and three children.
Leonard VerMaas was in
the 8th grade when Norris Public Schools opened their doors for the
first time. Since that time Norris has played an important role in his
life. Lenny’s dad, Virgil
VerMaas was on the first Norris school board and his father-in-law, Earl
Boesiger, was on the school board when the (first) middle school was built.
Lenny graduated in 1969 and married Charlotte a 1971 graduate of Norris. Jacy, his daughter graduated from Norris in 1992 and Derrick,
his son graduated in 1995. Driving
a school bus was Lenny’s first employment at Norris.
After driving for four years and graduating from the University of
Nebraska in 1974 Lenny started teaching Norris students’ mathematics.
For the next 28 years Lenny was at Norris teaching classes from 8th
grade through Calculus. In 2002
he left Norris to work at Educational Service Unit #6 where he is still
employed. At ESU #6 Lenny works
with teachers, administrators and schools in the areas of curriculum,
assessment, instruction and school improvement.
Norris is one of the schools in ESU #6.
When asked about career goals Lenny stated “I wanted my students to
love and enjoy learning mathematics and to be able to utilize their skills in
a career. I tried to take
students from what ever level they were at to a higher skill level.” Lenny
credits his high school math teacher Wayne Johnson, for getting him started in
math education. Lenny also said
“The strength of Norris is the community, teachers, support staff, parents
and students. Everyone is working
together to make one of the best school districts in Nebraska.
We owe a big thank you to the people that had the vision of what could
be created from many small schools and the people that since that time have
made Norris what it is today. It
is unfortunate that the spark that created Norris is not duplicated more
frequently.”
Lenny’s highlights from teaching are the many students
that went through his classroom. Living
in the Norris community has provided numerous opportunities to see and hear
how those students are doing. He
is especially proud of several former students who have become teachers, some
of them math teachers.
In 1974 Lenny graduated from University of Nebraska with a
Bachelors of Education. In 1984 he received a Master in Secondary Education
and in 1989 a Master of Arts of Teaching Mathematics. Lenny has worked extensively with teachers and has presented
at the local, state and national level on a variety of topics related to
mathematics and using technology in mathematics education. He has received the
following awards: