2024 Alumni Winners

John Perry Simmons
Clifford High School Class of 1938
    John Perry Simmons
    • Was married to his high school classmate, Gladys Glick Simmons, for 74 years and raised 8 children.
    • Received the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce Rural Service Award in 1958
    • Served as a Flat Rock-Hawcreek School Board member for 10 years and on the holding company that built Hauser High School, Cross Cliff Elementary and Hope Elementary
    • Sat on the Bartholomew County Planning Commission, Board of Appeals and County Council
    • Served as president of the Hope Building and Loan Association, which was later sold to Home Federal Savings Bank
    • Presided as Hope Heritage Days Grand Marshal in 2002
    • Received the Hoosier Homestead Award in 2004
    •  Was a member of the Hope United Methodist Church and Bartholomew County Farm Bureau
    • Served as a 4-H leader and baseball coach

    Every year John Perry Simmons planted crops with faith that the Lord would furnish the needed sunshine and rain for a bountiful harvest.


    Gladys H. (Glick) Simmons
    Clifford High School Class of 1938
      John Perry Simmons
        • Was married to her high school classmate, John Perry Simmons, for 74 years and raised 8 children.
        • Graduated from Bloomington Hospital as a registered nurse in 1941
        • Earned a Bachelor of Science degree in education in 1975 and taught developmentally disabled children 
      • Received the Farm Woman Achievement Award in 1987 
      • Won the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce Rural Service Award in 1993
      • Was awarded Red Cross Volunteer of the Year in 1995
      • Advocated for the Hope Library
      •  Was The Republic's Woman of the Year in 1999
      • Served on numerous boards such as The Arc of Bartholomew County, CRH Foundation, Special Olympics, FRHC PTO, Hope United Methodist Church, Bartholomew County Public Library and Republican Party Precinct
      • Wrote a monthly article titled "Thinking Aloud" from 1983-2006 for the Hope Star Journal

      Gladys was taught that an important goal for our lives should be to leave the world we live in at least a little better than we found it.