FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (October 16, 2026) — The Santa Barbara High School Alumni Association will honor five distinguished graduates as its 2026 Wall of Fame inductees on Friday, October 16, in a ceremony at SBHS Peabody Stadium from 6:35 to 7:00 p.m., immediately before the Dons’ Homecoming football game.

This year’s class is educator and Santa Barbara City College founder Robert “Bob” Casier ’44, builder and trades advocate Frank Schipper ’57, college and NFL football coach Rod Dowhower ’61, Santa Barbara County Supervisor Laura Capps ’90, and maritime archaeologist Kelly Gleason Keogh ’93.

Each year a committee of alumni and students, representing the Alumni Association and the student newspaper, The Forge, selects five graduates who have made exemplary contributions in the arts, athletics, business, community, education, politics, or science. The honorees offer students and the community a vision of the lasting legacy of SBHS, and their plaques will join those of past inductees in the school’s main hall.

Event details

  • What: SBHS Alumni Association 2026 Wall of Fame induction ceremony
  • When: Friday, October 16, 2026, 6:35–7:00 p.m., before the homecoming game
  • Where: Peabody Stadium, Santa Barbara High School
  • Homecoming game information: Follow the SBHS Dons and SBHS Football Instagram accounts
  • Questions: walloffame@sbdonsalumni.com

The 2026 inductees

Robert “Bob” Casier ’44 (awarded posthumously)

As ASB president, Casier rewrote the school constitution, earning SBHS national recognition. He also served on The Forge staff, played basketball and ran track, and shared the outstanding male graduate award in 1944.

At UCSB he led the establishment of one of the nation’s first interracial social fraternities, presided over the honor societies in political science and education, and played Gaucho basketball and volleyball. After earning his teaching credential at UC Berkeley, he joined the small group of educators regarded as the founders of Santa Barbara City College, where he founded the Political Science Department, chaired the Social Science Division, helped develop the Academic Senate and the Instructors’ Association, and served as association president and as academic dean. He later earned his PhD in political science at UCSB and in 1989 received national recognition for teaching excellence.

In the 1960s and 1970s Casier was elected to the Santa Barbara County Democratic Central Committee and served on the boards of local and regional organizations, including the Santa Barbara Chapter of the United Nations and the Santa Barbara Mental Health Association. He retired in 1992 and passed away in 2017. His son, Bryan Casier, and other family members will accept the award on his behalf.

Frank Schipper ’57

Schipper immigrated to the United States from the Netherlands with his family in 1953. He and his brother Robert ’57 swam on the school’s first CIF swim team. Learning English as a second language, he found his home at SBHS in Marvin Melvin’s metallurgy class.

After graduation he worked across the trades, from digging ditches to carpentry, in both commercial and residential construction. In 1982 he realized his dream of building a company where tradesmen would always have a place to work, founding Frank Schipper Construction Company. The firm has earned awards for projects including the Lobero Theatre, the Santa Barbara Zoo, the Old Vic Theatre, the Ty Warner Sea Center, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, and the Santa Barbara Historical Museum.

Named General Contractor of the Year several times, Schipper served as president of the Associated General Contractors of California, where he started the nonprofit California Construction, Education, and Research Foundation. In 1999 he established the Marvin Melvin CTE Educator Award, personally funding a $750 prize for the top career technical education shop teacher in southern Santa Barbara County. In 2001 he, his wife, and fellow contractors formed TRADART, a nonprofit foundation that advances craftsmanship training and supplies tools and building materials to local junior high and high school wood shop and construction classes, including those at SBHS. Frank Schipper will accept his award.

Rod Dowhower ’61

Dowhower quarterbacked the history-making 1960 Golden Tornado football team, which defeated Centennial High School of Compton at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

“No one succeeds alone,” Dowhower wrote on learning of the honor. “My journey was nurtured by my family, friends, teammates and coaches.”

He went on to star at quarterback for the San Diego State Aztecs. His coaching career is legendary. He served as offensive coordinator at UCLA and Boise State, coached wide receivers at Stanford under Bill Walsh, and after two seasons was promoted to Stanford’s head coach. Over his career he was an assistant coach for seven NFL teams, including the Cardinals, Denver Broncos, and New York Giants, and was on the Washington staff for its victory over the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVI.

Dowhower recently donated his SBHS memoir, scrapbook, letterman’s sweater, and Shrine game jacket to the alumni archives. Coach Brown will accept the award on his behalf.

Laura Capps ’90

Capps, whose career spans local, state, and national government, nonprofit leadership, and political campaigns, began leading at SBHS as ASB president. She also served on the Senior Class Council and was a Homecoming Queen nominee. She earned her bachelor’s degree at UC Berkeley and a Master of Science in international history at the London School of Economics.

She spent about a decade in Washington, D.C., as a speechwriter in the White House, in the office of Senator Edward Kennedy, and on the John Kerry presidential campaign. After returning to Santa Barbara she served on the Santa Barbara County Commission for Women and the boards of Ocean Conservancy and America’s Voice, was president of the Community Environmental Council, and was a trustee for UC Berkeley.

Elected to the Santa Barbara Unified School District Board of Education in 2016, Capps served until June 2022, a period that included the pandemic, and led the district’s effort to solarize its schools. She was then elected to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, which she chaired in 2025, and was re-elected this past June with 78 percent of the vote. Her priorities on the board have been affordable housing for the local workforce, the transition to renewable energy, and more efficient local government. Capps will accept her award in person.

Kelly Gleason Keogh ’93

A four-year letter winner in girls’ swimming who qualified for CIF every year, Keogh also lettered twice in volleyball and served as junior and senior class president and ASB secretary/treasurer. At the University of Notre Dame she started the school’s first women’s lacrosse team.

She earned a master’s in nautical archaeology from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and a PhD in coastal resources management from East Carolina University, then joined NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuary Program in the Pacific Islands Region. As maritime archaeologist for the largest marine protected area in the world, she was responsible for exploring, documenting, and protecting hundreds of sunken ships and aircraft. In 2010 she led the team that discovered the Two Brothers, the first Nantucket whaleship found in an archaeological context, and she led other discoveries in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, including a World War II-era Brewster Buffalo aircraft.

A founding member of an innovative deep technical dive team, Keogh for a time held the NOAA dive program record for the deepest technical dive, at 365 feet, and helped pioneer scientific diving with technical rebreathers to depths of up to 400 feet. She was part of a team that received the 2017 NOAA Administrator’s Award for using advanced research diving technologies to explore the deep coral reef “twilight zone.” She has been a Fellow of The Explorers Club and a board member of the Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology. Keogh will accept her award in person.

About the Wall of Fame

The SBHS Alumni Association Wall of Fame recognizes Santa Barbara High School graduates whose achievements reflect the lasting legacy of the school. Honorees are chosen annually by a committee of alumni and students from the Alumni Association and The Forge, and are commemorated in the school’s main hall.

Contact: SBHS Alumni Association, walloffame@sbdonsalumni.com