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Forensic society honors alumni

The UH Forensic Society will honor five former students and debate leaders and present a past coach with a lifetime achievement award this Saturday at a ceremony at the University Hilton.

The five hall of fame inductees include Sylvester Turner, the first black student to compete for UH Forensics Society, Ronnie Bankston and Ken Ogden, former national debaters for UH, co-founder of the Forensic Society at UH Delon Lewis and Harold Webster, the only freshman debater to be ranked in the nation’s top 10 in 1982.

A lifetime achievement award will be presented to David A. Thomas, director of the UH Forensic Society from 1980 to 1984, for his work in the field of forensics.

"I was at the University of Houston from 1980 to 1986, at my peak," Thomas said. "I was an active scholar in my field, and some of my students chose to pursue their own careers in higher education, sometimes as young coaches themselves."

Thomas has taught and coached at five colleges and universities during the course of his 38-year career. At the University of Houston, he directed a dual-pronged forensics program that offered individual events and a national debate team.

"Dr. Thomas was my own director and coach during the 1980 to 1982 period and he gave extreme academic credibility to UH and Forensics," said Michael Fain, director of the Forensic Society at UH. "Whereas most university faculty aspire to obtain tenure at one institution, Dr. Thomas has been awarded tenure at four universities."

The UH Forensic Society was founded in 1951, but disbanded because of funding cuts. In 2001, Fain revived the program with the help Lewis. In addition to playing a key role in the creation of the UH’s current Forensic Society, Lewis remained the most decorated debate competitor from 2001 to 2005.

As an honorary inductee to this year’s hall of fame, Webster was the first freshman to ever advance to the elimination rounds at a national tournament.

"(Webster) was the most colorful person to ever come through this University," Fain said. "He was my debate partner in 1981 and we had egos the size of Texas."

Turner was a member of the UH Forensic Society from 1972 to 1976 and served as the Speaker of the Student Government Association Senate while at UH. Turner has served in the Texas Legislature since 1988 and was named Speaker Pro Tempore of the Texas House of Representatives in 2003.

Bankston was a national debater for UH from 1970 to 1974. Odgen, a national debater from 1978 to 1981, is also the Director of the Houston Urban Debate League.

The ceremony will begin at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in the University Hilton, Waldorf Astoria Ballroom. For additional information, contact Fain at (713) 743-6038 or [email protected].

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