Belleville East’s Wall of Fame will soon have three new faces

Two Belleville East graduates and one former teacher have been named to the school’s Wall of Fame. There will be a formal presentation at the homecoming game on Friday, Sept. 23.

▪  Dennis Bechtold is a former Belleville East social studies teacher and was later the athletic director. During his time as athletic director, the girls sports program expanded to include soccer, softball and golf, and the school also added boys soccer.

After Bechtold retired, he continued as assistant athletic director for another eight years and was named the first commissioner of the Southwestern Conference.

▪  Bill Jordan, class of 1991, was named to the All-Conference, All-Area, All-City, and All-District football teams in his high school career. He was also an Illinois State Scholar, with a 4.03 GPA.

At Princeton University, he majored in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and earned program certificates in American Studies and Afro-American Studies.

After graduating, Jordan accepted a Princeton Project 55 public service fellowship and directed the Ariel Foundation’s daily tutoring/mentoring program for 40 teenagers near Chicago, where he helped increase the percentage of students graduating from high school from 32 percent to 85 percent.

Jordan is now senior vice president of Wells Fargo’s Commercial Real Estate Group in New York and Washington, D.C.

▪  Michael T. Clarkston, class of 1997, is a Broadway stage manager and event producer. While at Belleville East, he was a drum major, played the French horn in the wind symphony and orchestra, and sang in the show choir. He was stage manager for productions of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” and “The Will Rogers Follies.” He was also president of the Thespian Society, and a member of the National Honor and Spanish Honor societies.

He earned a degree in Design Technical Theatre with a minor in music from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. After graduation, he continued working at the St. Louis Muny and then moved on to Los Angeles and later Broadway, working as the assistant to company managers for Disney’s “The Lion King.” He later headed the national tour of the show.

He has since worked on more than 15 Broadway shows and tours, including some Tony winning shows. He now volunteers for the Actors’ Fund and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Arts showcase

Performing arts students shared the skills they had learned in front of more than 300 family and friends at the East St. Louis Higher Education Campus in East St. Louis on July 29.

The five-week course had more than 80 students ages 6 to 17. The student performances included “West African” dance, drummers, and a hip-hop dance number.

This story was originally published August 2, 2016 at 10:17 AM with the headline "Belleville East’s Wall of Fame will soon have three new faces."