2025 Springfield Public Schools Hall of Fame

Each year, Springfield Public Schools recognizes graduates who exemplify excellence, service, innovation and integrity. The 2025 Hall of Fame inductees share a deep commitment to making a difference in the lives of others. Whether through groundbreaking achievements, public service or creative contributions, they have each used their talents to enrich their communities and uplift those around them.

SPS graduates Nancy Allen, Ken McClure and Warren Robinett will be inducted into the Hall of Fame during a luncheon Thursday, October 16, at White River Conference Center. Their accomplishments reflect the many pathways to success that began in SPS classrooms and now serve as inspiration to a new generation of young students. 

Ken McClure

Parkview High School, Class of 1968

For more than 50 years, Ken McClure has been a steady and guiding presence in public service, devoted to building a better future for his community and state. As Springfield’s four-term mayor, McClure led with a focus on public safety, economic growth and quality of life. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he united leaders across health care, education, business and faith-based organizations to coordinate a response that supported and protected local residents.

His leadership helped secure the city’s purchase of Hammons Field, ensuring the Springfield Cardinals would remain a treasured part of the community. Earlier in his career, as Chief of Staff to Missouri Governor Matt Blunt, McClure helped lead the 2005 campaign to rename Southwest Missouri State University—negotiating through an all-night Missouri State Senate filibuster to secure the change to Missouri State University.

“Service to my community and state has always been important to me,” he says. “I have always believed that the best leader is one who seeks to serve others, and that is what I strive to do.”

Music has also played a meaningful role in his life. McClure played the trombone as a student and had the honor of performing as a representative of Parkview High School at the 1965 New York World’s Fair and Montreal’s Expo 67.

More than the performances, though, he remembers the lessons learned from longtime band and orchestra director Dan Palen, who mentored him from sixth grade through college. “He taught me to work hard and to do my best,” McClure says. “He instilled in me the confidence that I can do whatever is needed to accomplish the task at hand.”

Although he stepped down as mayor in 2025, McClure’s service continues. Just months later, Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe appointed him to the Missouri Ethics Commission, where he now helps uphold transparency in government.

“Ken is one of the most capable, intelligent, knowledgeable, caring, loyal people I have ever worked with and he has the highest integrity,” says Clif Smart, a friend and colleague of McClure and former president of Missouri State University.

Throughout his career, McClure has prioritized dedication, humility and unwavering service. “I have been blessed to have a professional career that I could never have anticipated.  Each position I have been honored to hold has built upon my experiences and lessons learned throughout a lifetime,” he says. “The foundation was laid in my life by the Springfield Public Schools and I am eternally grateful.”

Warren Robinett

Glendale High School, Class of 1970

His name and face may not be immediately recognizable, but Warren Robinett’s legacy is well known to gaming and virtual reality enthusiasts for his role in shaping the future of computer-based games and virtual learning programs.

In the late 1970s, as a young programmer at Atari, Robinett created Adventure, a groundbreaking game that immersed players in a world of castles, dragons and mazes. Not only was it one of the first graphics-based action-adventure games, it was the first to contain what is now known as an “Easter egg,” a hidden element intentionally placed for players to discover.

At the time, Atari wouldn’t share credit or royalties with game designers, which frustrated Robinett. To mark his game, he included a secret icon that unlocked a room containing a hidden message: “Created by Warren Robinett.”

“They had the power to keep my name off the box,” Robinett says, “but I had the power to put my name on the screen.” That Easter egg launched a cultural phenomenon still copied today.

Robinett’s innovative spirit didn’t stop there. In 1980, he co-founded The Learning Company, which became an influential publisher of educational software. His game Rocky’s Boots earned three Software of the Year awards in 1983 for teaching logic and math through interactive play.

“I think the standout accomplishment in his life was creating The Learning Company,” says Robinett’s longtime friend Bob Murney. “It was a huge accomplishment for someone his age to start a company around a game specifically to teach kids math.”

Robinett’s passion for blending math, technology and learning began early. At Glendale High School, he was known as a math genius who won multiple math and science contests. 

For one competition, he built a robot called “Max the Electric Squirrel” using parts from an Erector Set, electric motors, light-sensing photo-cells and circuit boards. The goal was to program Max to hunt “nuts,” represented by lights. 

“Warren pointed to a red light and said, ‘Max, get the nut,’ and Max maneuvered toward it,” Murney recalls. “I was stunned. I don’t know how he did it but I don’t think that people were shocked at that point that one of his creations would take him where it did.” As his career, and technology, advanced, Robinett utilized his ingenuity and virtual reality software to invent groundbreaking solutions for NASA, University of North Carolina and HP Labs.

Whether teaching children or working on a pioneering project for NASA, Robinett’s career has been defined by his endless curiosity about the world around him.

“I think Warren operates by a rule of interest. If something interests him he dives into it full force,” Murney explains. “He has an intellectual curiosity that never seems to end, and right now that includes taking violin lessons and learning how to play ping pong. He just never stops. There are always new things he wants to explore.”

Nancy Allen

Glendale High School, Class of 1974

Long before her name appeared on The New York Times Best Sellers list, Nancy Allen was already using her skill with words to advocate for others.

At just 16, she led a grassroots effort to compel decision-makers to offer competitive sports for female students at Glendale High School. “I appeared before the school board, presented the petition bearing 2,216 signatures and made an oral argument in support of a girls’ sports program,” Allen recalls. “It was my first experience with real-world advocacy.” And it worked. Just a few months later, the school board announced that girls could look forward to participating in sports beginning with the 1973-1974 school year.

After earning her law degree from the University of Missouri, Allen returned to Springfield and became one of the region’s first female criminal prosecutors. During her 15 years as an Assistant Missouri Attorney General and Assistant Prosecutor, she tried more than 30 jury cases.

Eventually she traded the courtroom for the classroom, joining the faculty at Missouri State University, where she taught law classes for 15 years. It was during this time that Allen wrote and published her first legal mystery, The Code of the Hills, which is one of four books included in her “Ozarks Mystery” series.

Her talent caught the eye of legendary and prolific author James Patterson, who invited her to collaborate. Together they have co-authored three bestselling legal thrillers: Juror #3, The Jailhouse Lawyer and The #1 Lawyer.  Juror #3 debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times Best Sellers list in 2018. “I have been working closely with my friend Nancy Allen for a glorious eight years,” Patterson says. “Not only is Nancy a talented, highly principled lawyer, she’s one of the best novelists writing today. I’ve done No. 1 bestsellers with others—Dolly Parton, President Clinton, Viola Davis—but Nancy is my favorite. Don’t tell Dolly! And it all started here in Springfield.”

Now a nationally recognized author and speaker, Allen travels the country sharing her journey from prosecutor to novelist with aspiring writers and devoted readers.

Her achievements as an author, educator and lawyer have earned her numerous recognitions during her career, including a U.S. Congressional Statement of Honor and the 2025 Missouri State University Outstanding Alumna Award. The MSU English Department also created the Nancy Allen Research Writing Awards as a tribute to her influence.

In court, at the podium or on the page, Allen has made a career of amplifying voices, confronting injustice and striving to inspire others.

She and her husband, Randy, who just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary, are the proud parents of two children, Ben and Martha.