The West High Alumni Association will welcome national newsman Joe Johns and three other distinguished grads into its Hall of Fame on October 9.

Johns, who graduated from West in 1975, will be inducted into the hall along with Russell L. Carter, a 1936 grad who was a civil-rights lawyer and judge in Dayton; Ed Gleibs, a 1952 grad who is an entrepreneurial expert in the measurement of electricity; and Susan Johnson, a 1945 grad who was a singer on Broadway and the silver screen. Carter and Johnson are being honored posthumously.

The induction ceremony, open to the public, will take place at 6 p.m. on Friday, October 9 in the auditorium at West High School, 179 S. Powell Ave. Advance registration is required for a meet-and-greet at 4:30 p.m. and a dinner at 5 p.m., both of which will be in the school library.

The Hall of Fame program is part of a full slate of activities that evening, which is also Homecoming. Special efforts are being made to bring back members of several of the school's championship football and baseball teams and members of the marching band who played in the Tournament of Roses Parade on Jan. 1, 1969. The returnees will take part in pre-game and halftime activities at the football game between West and Marion-Franklin high schools. The game will begin at 7:30 p.m.

All former Weskets are invited back for game night, especially those who marched when Jimmie Lee Hill was band director. The Weskets also will have a reunion at 4 p.m. Saturday, October 10, at the Buckeye Ranch in Grove City. Their activities will memorialize Hill, who died in April.

Many alumni who heard Johns last year at the J. Ashburn Jr. Youth Center Annual Dinner are looking forward to his return home.

Johns is a CNN correspondent based in the network's Washington, D.C., bureau. He joined CNN as a congressional correspondent in January 2004 after covering Capitol Hill for NBC News for more than 10 years. He reports on government accountability, waste and fraud for Anderson Cooper 360° and other programs throughout the network. As part of the Peabody Award-winning "Best Political Team on Television," Johns also played a key role in CNN’s America Votes 2008 coverage.

At the Capitol, Johns has covered numerous debates about legislation, the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton, the anthrax mailings following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and recent developments on the U.S. Supreme Court, including the death of Chief Justice Warren Rehnquist and retirement of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. He also broke the story of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s first indictment on conspiracy charges. Johns provided in-depth reporting on the Sago Mine disaster in January 2006. He covered the entire "Beltway Sniper" saga from the first shootings to the arrests of two suspects and was among the NBC Nightly News team to receive an Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Association for the reports.

Johns reporting has also included the White House and the Pentagon. In 1996, he covered Clinton's historic tour of Africa and followed first lady Hillary Clinton on a seven-nation visit to central Europe. In 1994, he traveled to Haiti with Marines ordered by Clinton to assist in that country's transition from a dictatorship to a democracy. More recently, Johns attended the first boot camp for war correspondents at Quantico and Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia.

Johns first came to Washington, D.C., in 1983 when he joined WRC-TV, an NBC affiliate. There, he won an Emmy for a spot news piece on the violent tactics of the Nation of Islam to rid a district neighborhood of drugs.

Before joining WRC-TV, Johns was a reporter at WSOC-TV, Charlotte, N.C. He began his TV career as a reporter and anchor in 1980 at WSAZ-TV in Huntington, W.Va.

Johns is the recipient of two National Association of Black Journalists Salute to Excellence awards. He was honored first in 2005 for a profile on lynching survivor James Cameron and then again in 2007 for a series of pieces on environmental injustice. He also contributed to CNN’s Emmy award-winning Election Night coverage in 2006.

Johns is a former chairman of the executive committee of Correspondents of the Congressional Radio and Television Galleries and president of the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association. He is also a member of the board of Marshall University's Yeager Scholars, of the Howard University School of Communications Board of Visitors and D.C. Law Students in Court.

He holds a bachelor of arts degree in political science from Marshall University in Huntington and a law degree from American University.

Johns spent much of his childhood engaged in recreational and educational activities at the J. Ashburn Jr. Youth Center, which honored him in 2008 with its Speaker's Award.

At West High, he was president of Student Council and a member of the varsity football and track teams. As a senior he won the discus throw at the State Track and Field Meet.

The honor of which he is most proud was being elected governor of Boys State in 1974.

This year's inductees were selected from 30 West High grads nominated by members of the alumni association for excellence in their chosen endeavors. Previous honorees include astronaut Donn Eisele, All-American football player Aurealius Thomas, singer Nancy Wilson and professional basketball player Michael Redd.