The 2025 George and Evelyn Keefer Educators’ Hall of Fame induction ceremony will honor two East Central University alumni.
The event will take place Thursday. Sept. 25 at 2 p.m. inside the Estep Multi Media Center located inside the Bill S. Cole University Center. A reception will follow in the Lanoy Legacy Lounge located inside the Lanoy Education Building, room 216.
The Educators Hall of Fame was established with the sponsorship of Janice Diamond and Paul Keefer, the children of Gene and Evelyn Keefer, to recognize ECU-prepared educators at any level who have made a significant contribution to the field of education.
The Hall of Fame is dedicated to the Keefers and other parents who – like them – could not afford to go to college but made it a priority that their children have that opportunity.
Inductees for 2025 include Rita R. Volturo and a posthumous induction for S. Wayne Maxwell.
Rita R. Volturo currently resides in Fort Worth, Texas but was originally a native of Okmulgee, where she graduated from Okmulgee High School.
Knowing already that she intended to pursue a career in education, Volturo chose to attend ECU. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education in 1980 and her master’s degree in Education only two short years later.
Volturo would then begin her career in Madill, Oklahoma, teaching fifth grade Social Studies and Reading, as well starting Madill’s own fifth grade newspaper. In 1989, she would accept a position in the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw Independent School District in Texas, a district she would remain at for the next 28 years, teaching more than 3,500 students.
In 2017, Volturo shifted her career into higher education when she accepted as a position as a clinical teacher field supervisor at Midwestern State University before quickly taking a position with the University of North Texas as a cadre coordinator and supervisor for clinical teachers placed at her former district Eagle Mountain-Saginaw.
Volturo continues to serve as a clinical teacher supervisor and secondary cadre coordinator for students placed in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area for the university. In 2024, she was offered the Worth area as well.
She remains dedicated to her family and to her career, where she fosters new generations of teachers and instills them with the same dedication to lifelong learning that her own career was built around.
S. Wayne Maxwell was a native of Tishomingo, Oklahoma. Born in 1943, he attended Tishomingo High School. After graduation, he joined the U.S. Army and served for three years, attaining the rank of corporal. Following his military service, he began his journey in education as a student at ECU.
After earning his bachelor’s degree in education in 1967, and later his master’s degree in education from the University of Oklahoma, Maxwell began his teaching career in Davis, followed by positions in Prague, Okemah and Wellston, where he served as a teacher, coach and principal. This was the beginning education. He later served as superintendent of Thackerville, Lexington, Caney and Purcell public schools.
After retiring from an already storied career in the public school system, Maxwell continued his support of education by becoming the first Director of Retirement for Professional Oklahoma Educators, a role he held for 14 years.
In addition to his career in education, Maxwell was also a successful writer. He co-wrote a book with his wife titled Touched by Greatness, and authored Slim Pickens, a book about starting eightman football in 1979 during his first superintendent position in Thackerville.
Maxwell was married to his wife, Carolee Maxwell, for 60 years. They had two children: Brandon Wayne Maxwell and Malee Isenberg.
