Mapping AEDs for Smartphones | | |
When Greg Coon ’85 said goodbye to his wife, Julie, on the morning of October 11, 2018, he never imagined that their lives would be forever changed that day. Julie had a sudden cardiac arrest while volunteering at Plano Senior High.
A friend standing with her immediately called 911 and a nearby coach started CPR within 45 seconds of her collapse. Two students ran for the athletic trainer and grabbed the Automated External Defibrillator (AED) inside the school.
Within 2 minutes of her cardiac arrest, Julie received two shocks from the AED, the second one restarting her heart. At 3 minutes, she was in an ambulance. Her heart was beating and she was breathing on her own where the paramedic said, “Welcome back. You are a very lucky lady”.
That moment changed Greg and Julie forever. While Julie was in the hospital recovering, Greg wondered how she would have been saved without the quick action of bystanders who knew where the AED was located. He wondered, “Why is it that I can pick up my phone and ask Google or Siri where the nearest Starbucks is but not the nearest AED?”
| | Julie and Greg Coon at Cardiac Arrest Survivor Summit. | Julie and Greg Coon spreading their mission far and wide. | | |
Now, they are on a mission to change that. What started with a petition on Change.org has grown into a non-profit, Cardiac Crusade, with a mission to make AED’s locatable and easily accessible throughout the country. Their goal is to get AED locations natively on smartphones via Google and Apple Maps and to 911 systems at no cost.
The first step was finding a database partner to store AED locations in parallel to forming an army of volunteers to register those locations. While the volunteers are their boots on the ground, last year, Google Business Profile worked with Greg to send 7.5 million emails to business across the country resulting in over 4,000 AEDs being added to the map in less than two days.
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The national survival rate of a cardiac arrest in the United States is 10%. But San Diego has a 50-70% survival rate of cardiac arrest. Why? It’s because 2,600+ AEDs are mapped in San Diego and citizens and 911 operators know where AEDs are located. Greg is bringing that success to
cities across the country.
Recently, Greg was in Buffalo where Cardiac Crusade volunteers mapped AEDs in the Western New York area. Through community engagement and partnerships with local organizations like Rotary, UBMD, and the Buffalo Bills, the campaign added over 1,200 AEDs to the map — an effort that will undoubtedly save lives.
Greg embodies the Highland Park High School motto, “Enter to learn, go forth to serve” through his relentlessness, advocacy, and power of turning a personal experience into meaningful change.
To learn more about Cardiac Crusade, please visit www.cardiaccrusade.org
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Ken Crumley, M.D. '59
Distinguished Alumnus (posthumous)
Did you know?
- Ken was widely considered to be the father of modern child psychiatry in New Mexico.
- Ken spent years traveling the 25,000 acres of the Navajo Nation Reservation to deliver health care and treat the psychiatric and emotional needs of children. In 1979, he established a training program in child psychiatry at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center.
- His interest in solving the problems of youth violence led him to serve as medical director at the NMDOH Sequoyah Adolescent Treatment Center.
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Garrett Boone '61
Distinguished Alumnus
Did you know?
- Garrett and two friends decided to open a retail store offering products devoted to helping people organize and simply their lives. The Container Store opened in Dallas on July 1, 1978.
- After retiring from the Container Store in 2010, he has championed efforts in Dallas to protect the environment and create beautiful outdoor gathering spaces including improvements made in the Trinity River corridor.
- In 2023, Garrett was named the city of Dallas' first-ever Greening Czar.
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Jean Browne '69
Distinguished Alumnus
Did you know?
- Jean won her first piano competition at age 13. At the age of 16 she won first place in piano at the Dallas Symphonic Festival in 1968. That win marked Jean’s entry into the larger professional music scene, when she performed the Beethoven Piano Concerto with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra during a regular-season concert.
- At 19, Mayor Erik Jonsson awarded Jean a key to the city of Dallas for her musical contributions to the city.
- Jean became the first woman to conduct for the Dallas Summer Musicals and Western Opera Theater, breaking barriers in spaces traditionally dominated by men. In 1979, she became only the second woman to conduct a major show on Broadway with “Peter Pan,” starring Sandy Duncan. Jean went on to lead the “Peter Pan” orchestra for 954 performances, including conducting the closing night performance.
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Richard Bohac
Distinguished Service Award
Did you know?
- Richard graduated from Notre Dame High School in Wichita Falls where he was valedictorian and played all the varsity sports. He went to St. Edward's University in Austin where he played basketball.
- Richard taught and coached in Wichita Falls and LaGrange before coming to HPISD in 1980 where he spent the next 40 years, retiring in 2020.
- Richard taught history and coached football at HPHS before becoming Assistant Principal at HPMS where he served 25 years.
- His name is both a noun and a verb. Many former students remember "getting Bohac'd", a ticket to an early morning detention. For four decades, he taught, coached and counseled students who were learning from their mistakes and growing into maturity.
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Bob Clark '64
Highlander Award
Did you know?
- Bob graduated from SMU with a Bachelor of Arts, and then attended the University of Texas and earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree.
- Bob volunteers his time in the MAPS program at HPHS helping the Environmental Architecture program in curriculum design, tours of local architectural landmarks and advising on speakers and projects to bring to the classroom, including students building a replica of the Williams House for the Parade of Playhouses benefitting Dallas CASA.
- Bob is a member of the Preservation Park Cities Advisory Board and his firm restored the historic Elbert Williams residence in University Park, which is recognized as the most important house in Texas.
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Join us for our April All-Alumni Happy Hour on
Wednesday, April 9th at the Barley House.
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Mark your calendars!
The annual Golden Scots Reunion celebrating classes who graduated 50+ years ago from HPHS will be taking place on Saturday, September 27th. We are excited to welcome our newest Golden Scots, HPHS Class of 1975. Invitations will be mailed this summer.
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STAY TUNED FOR REUNIONS TO
BEGIN IN FALL 2025!
Class reps from the classes of 1955, 1965, 1975, 1985,1995, 2005, 2015 and 2020 will begin planning for reunions this fall. Several classes have selected their reunion dates while other classes are working on confirming dates. Continue to check our website for updates on all reunion classes. Some classes will be celebrating a 5 year, 15 year, 25 year reunion as well!
Continue to check our website for updates on all reunion classes:
hpef.org/reunions
SAVE THE DATE:
Class of 1955
September 27, 2025
Class of 1965
October 3-4, 2025
Class of 1975
September 26-27, 2025
Class of 1985
October 17-18, 2025
Class of 2005
October 3-4, 2025
Class of 2015
November 28 or 29, 2025
Email updated contact information for you and your classmates to info@hpef.org.
| | Mad for Plaid - Evening of Gratitude | | |
The HP Education Foundation (HPEF) recently celebrated successfully raising $1.8M through its annual Mad for Plaid campaign. This amount was pledged by HPEF to the District going into the 2024-25 school year, upon a request from HPISD, to help fund 1% of all teacher and staff salaries. To celebrate a successful campaign and thank patron donors who made this possible, the Foundation hosted an evening of gratitude on Tuesday, March 4, at the home of Anna (Head ’95) and Ryan Moss.
During the reception, guests mixed and mingled while enjoying drinks, appetizers, and warm cookies from the JD’s Chippery Truck. Several HPHS alumni were in attendance including Jim Gibbs ’53, Jack Myers ’62, Cynthia ’75 and Louis Beecherl ’74, Sam Chantilis ’79, Noble Nash ’81, Ken Brown ’83, John Howie, Jr. ’90, Caroline Williams ’92, Robert Engstrom ‘95,
Megan Filgo ‘98, Dan Harris ’00, and Amanda Kalesky ’02.
HPEF would like to thank this year’s Mad for Plaid Co-Chairs Kamela (Hollis ’98) and Kenneth Aboussie, Mary Katharine (McCulloch ’97) and Martin Gill, Lauren and Rob Langley, and Julie Lin and Rich Rosalez. We would also like to thank our Mad for Plaid Patron ($1,000+) and
Leadership Society ($10,000+) donors.
The 2024-2025 Mad for Plaid campaign will officially end on June 30, 2025. Visit Mad for Plaid to make a donation to support the District's greatest need- teacher and staff salaries!
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Jacquelyn Woldert '00 and
Catherine Seals '99
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Charlene McCullouch, Bob '64 and
Lynn Abbott '64, and Kay Head
| | Alyson Engstrom and Anna Moss '95 | | Katie '99 and Drew Whitcomb '03 | | Gail '64 and Bob Clark '64, Barbara Murphy Horn '64, Howell and Nancy Harralson '64 | | Lead for Tomorrow Endowment Campaign | | Join the HPHS Alumni Association | | |
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Before Wifi ... the library was the ultimate search engine!
Scenes from the HPHS library in 1954 (right) and 1980 (below).
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