Meet the Class of 2010
Jason Belser, Raytown South High School, 1988
Jason Belser graduated from Raytown South High School in 1988. A decorated high school athlete, he went on to play football at the University of Oklahoma, where he was a two time first-team All-Conference selection at defensive back in 1990 and 1991. He led the Sooners in interceptions his last three seasons and is tied for sixth all-time for career interceptions with 13. He is fifth in all-time interception yards in a career with 220, and eighth all-time in tackles by a defensive back with 215 at OU.
In 1992 Belser realized his dream and was selected the first pick in the eighth round of the National Football League (NFL) draft, 197th overall, by the Indianapolis Colts. He played from 1992-2000 for the Colts and from 2001-2002 for the Chiefs. He had over 800 tackles, as well as 14 interceptions and nine quarterback sacks in his NFL career. He was a finalist for "NFL Man of the Year" in 1999-2000.
Belser currently serves as Senior Regional Director for the NFL Players Association. Working to serve over 2,000 members, his office provides educational opportunities for current and former players, as well as protecting their rights and benefits. Most recently, he pledged to help future players by donating his brain and spinal cord tissue upon his death to the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy to assist in their study of the effects of repeated head trauma on the nervous system.
Belser takes an active role in promoting football to America’s youth. He serves on the board of USA Football, an organization dedicated to improving all areas of amateur football. He served on the committee to pick the inaugural USA Football/NFLPA All-Fundamentals team, which honors 26 of the NFL’s most fundamentally sound players who also commit themselves to their communities.
He also established the JB Foundation in Indianapolis which works with underserved youth, homeless shelters and area football camps.
Alberta Lee Cox, Raytown High School, 1949
Alberta Lee (Babe) Cox attended Raytown Schools for twelve years, graduating from Raytown High in 1949. She is credited with the following inspirational quote, "It is not enough to be good if you have the ability to be better. It is not enough to be very good if you have the ability to be great."
Alberta was a five-time All-American AAU basketball player from the early 1950’s into the late 1960’s. She is an AAU Women’s basketball Hall of Fame member and an original member of the Helm’s Foundation Hall of Fame. For twenty years she played on the National AAU women’s basketball team and represented our country in the USA, Europe, Canada, and South America.
She was the first woman to coach a U.S. Olympic team sport and the first woman to coach a U.S. women’s basketball team on foreign soil. In 1965 Alberta was named the Missouri Woman of the Year, in 1979 was inducted in the All-Time Kansas City Amateur Sports Hall of Champions, in 1991 was selected as the recipient of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Jostens-Berenson Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 1993 was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in Springfield.
In the world of American Saddlebred Show Horses, Alberta Lee Cox’s name is legendary, both in the Greater Kansas City area, as well as the Midwest, and even internationally. She regularly competed in showing horses from the 1950’s until the 1990’s. Her most famous steeds were Miss Dolly and Commander’s Mary Lou with whom she won repeated awards in the show ring. Whether it was the Missouri State Fair or the annual American Royal, Alberta was invariably the rider to beat.
If you see gifted athletes or exhibitors competing, they are more than likely connected to this lady who guided through example by her graciousness and high achievement.
Tyrone Douglas, Raytown High School 1992
Following graduation from Raytown High School in 1992, Major Tyrone D. Douglas earned a degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of Kansas. He entered the Air Force in 1997 as an ROTC distinguished graduate from KU. He completed undergraduate pilot training at Laughlin AFB in Del Rio, Texas in 1998 as the distinguished graduate of class 98-12.
Major Douglas went on to the 61st Fighter Squadron an F-16 Fighter Training Unit, where he earned top honors and class 99-BBC Air-to-Ground Top Gun and Air-to-Air Top Pilot. He deployed three times over Iraq and Afghanistan while assigned to his first operational unit.
Following his tour at Shaw AFB, Douglas was assigned to the 36th Fighter Squadron in South Korea. His next assignment was to Nellis AFB, Las Vegas NV, as an Aggressor pilot. This squadron trains pilots deploying for combat operations on potential airborne and ground-based threats. Here, Major Douglas married then Captain Trisha Harms, an Air Force Aerospace Physiologist, whom he met at Shaw AFB.
In May 2007, Major Douglas was accepted to the USAF Air Demonstration Squadron, the Thunderbirds. He served as a Solo Pilot, the 56th in team history and the first-ever African American Solo. He completed two years as a Thunderbird Solo, first as the Opposing Solo, then Lead Solo. During this time Tyrone and Trisha clebrated the birth of their twin daughters, Brooke and Reese.
Major Douglas is now the Assistant Director Operations (ADO) of the 25th Flying Training Squadron. The primary mission is to produce new Air Force pilots who will go on to fly fighter or bomber aircraft. In 2009 Tyrone graduated Magna Cum Laude from Touro University International earning his Masters in business administration.
Will Friend, Raytown South High School, 1979
After graduating as Raytown South High School’s 1979 valedictorian, and having accumulated college credit through a National Science Foundation Program stressing technology studies, Will Friend attended the University of Missouri at Columbia on a Curator’s Scholarship. While still in high school and on his daily run along a city street, he noticed a three-man crew drilling holes to locate sink holes in the roadway. He devised a method to accomplish the same job with equipment in a pickup truck and only one employee. This device was patented, and he earned enough money to put himself through college with enough left over to buy a new automobile.
While still in college, Will was employed as an Electronics Technician with Alpha Labs, a small electronics design, repair, and research firm. In 1983 he left Alpha Labs to begin Inelect, Inc. which he sold in 1985 to Mexico Plastics, staying on as Chief Electrical Engineer. His designs greatly increased plant productivity. He also started an out-of-house design service which provided an additional profit center.
In 1987, Will was Vice-President of Engineering for Dymacory, Inc., and in 1990 was part of a start-up company, Qualitron Systems, where he was part owner and Vice-President. His computer systems were sold to agriculture, automotive, defense, medical, oil and other industries. In 1995 he took a job with TechVova which had no openings but they created one for him. Later he worked for Sphere Communications, Inc., Impact Technologies, and Nu Horizons Electronics Corp. In 2003 Will started Friend Consultants to provide consulting for Siemens Medical, one of the largest medical companies.
Will is married to Laura, a fellow physics classmate at the University of Missouri who has always been very supportive. She is truly "the woman behind the man."
Bruce Loewenberg, Raytown High School 1956
After graduating from Raytown High in 1956, Bruce Loewenberg attended the University of Missouri at Columbia, graduating in 1961 with a Bachelor of Science in forestry. He was instrumental in setting up a $1,000 education scholarship for the Raytown High student who ranks 56th in their senior class, in honor of his class of 1956. Bruce was also named Mr. Delta Sig, the highest honor his college fraternity, Delta Sigma Phi, can bestow a member. In 2008 Bruce presented his fraternity with a $2 million gift, the largest monetary gift that fraternity had ever received.
In 1969, he was employed by Maritz Motivation Company in St. Louis, where for twenty-five years, he marketed performance improvement products to Fortune 500 companies including Anheuser-Busch, Rawlings Sporting Goods and Brown Shoe Company, to list a few.
Prior to joining Maritz, Bruce was regional manager for the Education Division of Xerox Corporation in St. Louis. Earlier in his career, Bruce was a salesman for the Office Products Division of IBM Corporation in Dallas Texas. Today, on a spread of almost 100 acres, he specializes in raising Salers cattle. Presently, he is president of the American Salers Association, and president of the International Salers Federation.
Mr. Loewenberg enjoys giving back to those institutions who helped him along the way to be successful. He recently pledged $1 million for the Mizzou Tigers program in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources and another $1 million for MU’s men’s basketball program. He was recognized by MU as a leader in efforts to save tigers in the wild, contributing to the "Tigers for Tigers" program at the university.
Most recently, Bruce was appointed to the Commissioning Committee of the USS Missouri, a nuclear submarine to be commissioned in Groton, CT. on July 31, 2010. Bruce was responsible for raising money for the commissioning expenses, which are traditionally paid for by the state after whom the ship is named.
Dan Titus, Raytown High School, 1960
Dan Titus spent twelve years in the Raytown School District, from the last class at Spring Valley, previously a country school, to the first class at Blue Ridge Elementary, eighth grade in the old city hall, the first class at Raytown Junior High and on to Raytown High. He attended University of Missouri on a track scholarship and received the Curator’s Award for academics, later graduating from the University of Indiana at Bloomington with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Insurance Risk Management and a minor in Political Science.
From 1966-1971, Dan served as a United States Naval Aviator. He was a Navy Pilot and Patrol Plane Commander of the P3B, utilized in antisubmarine warfare operations in the Mediterranean. He had deployments to Siganella, Sicily, Rota, Spain and Lajes in the Azores.
After working as a salesman for commercial insurance, producing several national accounts, Dan joined his brother Bruce, also a Raytown graduate, in starting Suncoast Insurance Associates which became the second largest agency in that marketing area with sales of $20 million. From 1988 to 2006 Dan established Southeastern Staffing, employing 14,000 employees at its peak, returned to Suncoast as president and founded Quorium Premium Financing, which currently finances over 13 million in insurance premiums.
Dan is currently president of the Tampa Bay Sports Club, which was instrumental in bringing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to Tampa and laid the framework for the BCS Outback Hall of Fame Bowl each New Year’s Day in Tampa.
In addition, he is Race Director for the Gasparilla Distance Classic 15K, ranked in the top ten Road Races in America, and which has raised over a million dollars for Boys and Girls Clubs in the area.
Titus and his wife, Mary, have three children, Tevin, Ashley, and Nathan, as well as four granddaughters.