SHS announces newest members of Alumni Hall of Fame

Shelbyville High School has announced the 2026 induction class for the Alumni Hall of Fame.

The induction ceremony will take place on Sept. 3 at 6 p.m. in the Golden Bear Room at Shelbyville High School.

The ceremony is free and open to the public.

Robert (Bob) Bennett (Class of 1943)

The first inductee is 1943 Valedictorian Bob Bennett.

At the outset of World War II, at age 19 Bennett enlisted in the Army Air Corps and served as a navigator with the Fifteenth Air Force. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for “extraordinary achievement” in the Mediterranean theatre of operations.

After the war, he returned to Shelbyville where he assumed ownership of Todd-Bennett Clothier. Bennett took leadership roles in a number of local civic organizations, including two terms on the Shelbyville School Board. He was instrumental in the county’s purchase of land where the high school and middle school stand today.

He was active in the founding of the Shelby County United Fund and also served as President of the Shelbyville Boys Club.

To bring more jobs to Shelbyville in the late 1970s, he was an early Director and Officer of Shelby Industrial Development and Shelby Industries.

Bennett lived a full life and always remembered his Shelbyville roots. He passed away in September of 2025 at the age of 100.

Gretchen Haehl (Class of 2004)

Gretchen Haehl was the Valedictorian and Student Body President in 2004. She led the basketball team to back-to-back Class 3A and Class 4A sectional titles, the first time in 25 years, and was named to the Indiana All-Star team after setting career scoring, assist and three-point records.

At DePauw University in Greencastle, she helped the women’s basketball team with the 2007 NCAA Division III National Championship.

Haehl joined Eli Lilly and Company, earned her MBA from Stanford, and has led various teams dedicated to expanding patients’ access to medicines.

Haehl and her husband are raising their son to value hard work and community, lessons she learned in Shelbyville, where she also spent years coaching Special Olympics basketball.

SCS Educator Hall of Fame

In conjunction with the Alumni Hall of Fame ceremony, Shelbyville Central Schools will induct the first educator into its newly created Educator Hall of Fame.

The inaugural inductee is Jerry Rice.

Rice was a beloved teacher whose unwavering commitment to excellence and consistent high expectations challenged students to reach their full potential.

Through a rigorous curriculum and exceptional instruction, he prepared students to enter college with a level of preparedness, both in Spanish and in academics more generally, that placed them well ahead of their peers.

His hard work and devotion to instilling an appreciation and knowledge of Spanish language and culture made him an inspiration to his students as well as his peers.

He lived how own dictum of “adelante, siempre adelante (forward always forward).

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