Daniel J. CasaSanta
1973
While at Jefferson High School, Daniel served as Vice President of
the Senior Class, was a Broncho cheerleader and participated in Spanish
Club, J Club, FCA, and Student Council. He was a Gallop King
candidate. Dan was captain of the swimming team where he earned
multiple state finalist recognition and was a multiple North Central
Conference champion.
Dan earned his Bachelor’s Degree from Ball State University. Upon
graduation from Ball State University, Dan went to work for General
Motors where he was given the opportunity to attend Harvard University
and earn his MBA. He also completed executive education programs at the
University of Michigan.
Dan is currently President of BorgWarner Thermal Systems and Vice
President of BorgWarner, Inc. As an officer of the company, Dan is a
member of the BorgWarner Management Board and Strategy Board. Dan
serves as a member of the Board of Directors for BorgWarner businesses
in China, India and South Korea. This fortune 500 company is the
product leader for vehicle powertrain applications. Dan is responsible
for manufacturing facilities in 59 locations in 18 countries. Each year
Dan has the honor to present the Borg Warner Trophy to the winner of
the Indianapolis 500.
Donna M. Osborn
1968
While at Jefferson High School, Donna was active in Future Teachers
of America, National Forensic League, Marching Band, Cultural Exchange
Club, German Club, Junior Achievement, and Block Section.
Donna attended Anderson College and graduated with a Bachelor’s
Degree in Math in 1972. She also attended Purdue University and
graduated with a Master’s of Science in 1997 with a major in Math
Education.
Donna was a teacher at Tippecanoe Junior High School from 1972-1979
and 1980-1981, Sunnyside Junior High School from 1981-1983, and then
Jefferson High School from 1983-2006. She received the Fulbright
Exchange Fellowship in 1979 when she had the opportunity to be an
exchange teacher in Billericay, England. In 1991-1992 she was a teacher
at the International School of Paris. Donna was awarded the: Christa
McAuliffe Award in 1988, Golden Apple Award in 1990, Presidential Award
for Excellence in the Teaching of Science and Mathematics in 1996,
Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Award and worked in Congressman
Peter Visclosky’s Washington office in 1999, and the Purdue University
School of Science Distinguished Alumni Award in 2000. In 2007 Donna and
Mindy Gilbert were awarded the George Award for starting It’s My
Closet.
Donna was President of the Lafayette Education Association from
1998-1999 and President of the Indiana Council of Teachers of
Mathematics from 2004-2006. She is also a member of the CASAs for Kids
Fund Board.
John L. Robinson
1975
While at Jefferson High School, John was active in the JV Club, J
Club, and lettered in football and track his Junior and Senior years.
After graduation, he attended Indiana State University for one year.
John then managed a local tire store for fifteen years, and in 1995
opened Robinson Tire and Auto Service with two employees. Robinson Tire
now has two building with nine employees
and was voted Best Auto Repair Shop in 2009 and 2010.
John has been a volunteer football coach for the Lafayette 56ers
Youth Football League since 1991 and has served on their Board of
Directors for eighteen years. As President of the 56ers for the past
thirteen years, he has helped the league grow to more than 250
participants per year. The Northwest Indiana Chapter of the National
Football Foundation awarded him the Outstanding Contributor to Amateur
Football in 2006. John has been a mentor in the Lafayette School
Corporation Access to Success Program since 2006.
Eddy R. Davis
1958
While at Jefferson High School, Eddy was involved in Band, Orchestra,
Hoof Beats, Hi-Y, Red and Black Revue, Pep Band, Junior Revue, and
Senior Revue. In junior high school Eddy started playing music –
originally drums, tympani, string bass, tuba, woodwinds and brass. For a
while he played guitar with John King and the King’s Men. At the age
of 14, he was playing with a tenor dance band called Paul Kenny’s
Medicine Men. In 1958, as a senior in high school, he was drafted on
banjo by a Dixieland band called The Salty Dogs. The Dogs were one of
the 1950’s college bands and were at Purdue University. They performed
as the opening act for college shows all around the Midwest and opened
for such musical acts as The Kingston Trio, The Four Freshman, and
George Shearing.
Eddy received his formal training at Purdue University, Chicago
University, and both the Cosmopolitan and Chicago Conservatories of
Music. He has appeared on stage at most major concert venues throughout
the world including: Paris’ Olympia Theatre, London’s Royal Festival
Hall, and New York’s famed Carnegie Hall. In May 2006 Eddy was
inducted into the American Banjo Museum’s Hall of Fame. He has performed
with Jabbo Smith, Turk Murphy, George Brunis, the original Dukes of
Dixieland, Tom Waits, Leon Redbone, George Segal, Gene Krupa, Freddie
Hubbard, and Benny Goodman. In his association with filmmaker Woody
Allen, Eddy has acted in and written original music for his productions
and is musical director of the The New Orleans Jazz Band (Allen featured
on clarinet) that appears at New York City’s Upper East Side supper
club The Café Carlyle.
Whether as a creator, conductor, producer, and/or director, Eddy has
been the innovative force behind such projects as: The New York Banjo
Ensemble; the Jazz Leggs Revue at Berlin, Germany’s famed vaudeville
house the Friedrichstadt Palast; III Music (The New York Society for the
Preservation of Illegitimate Music); The Early Tin Pan Alley Orchestra;
two seasons of the New York in Messina festival of Messina, Sicily; and
the revival of the 1920’s musical Whoopee. The last several years
Eddy has settled into his writing. He composes book, music, and lyrics
for theater, string quartets, and orchestral works.