Hennessey High School graduate Don Smith and former elementary teacher Jewel Babiak were inducted into the 2021 Hennessey High School Hall of Fame Sun., May 9. The ceremony was held during the school’s senior graduation program at The Dome.

About Don Smith

Smith, a 1970 HHS graduate, started a “Promise” scholarship program for Hennessey seniors several years ago and continues to sponsor those scholarships. His family sponsored eight scholarships at this year’s senior awards program.

“His generosity has (also) included much-needed improvements to all athletic facilities, instrument purchases for the band program, and purchase of state title rings,” wrote one of Smith’s friends on behalf of his nomination.

After high school, Smith graduated from Northwestern Oklahoma State University with a BS degree majoring in accounting with a minor in economics and business. Then he earned his CPA and worked for Arthur Andersen for seven years before he started Avalon Correctional Services in 1985. That company provided halfway house and rehabilitation services for those serving the last six months of their prison sentence. He sold that company to Corrections Corporations of America in 2017.

Smith and his wife, Tiffany, have been married for 21 years, and have three children: Amanda, Denver and Karlee.

Smith served as chairman of the board for a nonprofit animal rescue in 2014, after his daughter adopted her first rescue dog, Bella.

Since then the family has adopted eight dogs, and support the Bella SPCA, and other animal adoption nonprofits, including Nexus Equine.

The couple recently purchased a 160-acre ranch in Edmond that they call Aspen Ranch, named after one of their dogs.

They are building wedding and event venues there.

The property was once used to breed and train racing thoroughbreds, but barns are now home to more than 30 adopted horses, mini horses and donkeys, pigs, goats and other adopted animals.

About Jewel Babiak

Babiak, a longtime Hennessey community and church volunteer, taught fifth grade in Hennessey from 1974-80.

That was when her husband, Paul, was the school superintendent, and that didn’t make her teaching job any easier, say friends.

Her teaching career lasted 14 years, and would’ve been longer, but her husband’s jobs took them many places.

He had several posts, but his last one was at the Pentagon in Washington D.C.

He retired as an Army Brigadier General, and they returned to Hennessey in late 1994.

Her most recent time as a military wife included living in Orlando, Fla., St. Louis, Mo. and Ft. McPherson, Ga.

During those years she did “a lot of substitute teaching in the Fairfax County Virginia school system.”

She also taught four-year-olds in Virginia, and volunteered in a church office and at the Military Post Thrift Shop in St. Louis, and was an aide at a Mental Health Clinic in Georgia for more than a year.

She was born in Holdenville and graduated from nearby Yeager High School in 1953, then later met Paul in Norman, and they were married in 1955. She graduated from OU in 1966.

The couple is active at the Hennessey United Methodist Church where she has taught Sunday School classes for several years, served on the church board and secretary and chair of the church’s Board of Trustees.

She was communications officer of the Enid District United Methodist Women for three years, and a longtime member of the local United Methodist Women’s group.

She was one of the first organizers of the Hennessey Friends of the Library, and is a past president of that group.

She also served on the library board for many years.

Babiak has been an active member of the Hennessey Lions Club for more than 25 years, and she was chosen Lion of the Year in 2002-03. She and her husband were co-grand marshals at the Lions Club’s first Christmas parade in 2002, and helped Santa hand out candy to youngsters during his many annual visits sponsored by the Lions.

She was a “regular” volunteer at the Good Samaritan Store on Hennessey’s Main St. when it was open, and received the Hennessey Ministerial Alliance’s Good Samaritan Award in 2003.

The Babiaks have three children: Brian, Karen, and Kelly. Brian lives in Nashville with family. Karen has two children, Chantelle who teaches English in Beijing, China, and Chris who lives in Enid. Kelly has two children, Jason and Cai Le.

In addition to being with family, she also enjoys going to school reunions when they’re able.