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2024 Inductees

BRETT BOURNE

Brett Bourne

Brett Bourne is a 1987 graduate of North High School. Bourne competed in wrestling, football, National Honor Society, Boys State, and the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. He was a state champion in wrestling at 185 pounds in 1986 and was a state runner-up at heavyweight in 1987 after entering the state championship match undefeated. He was the starting center for the football team his junior year and started at offensive and defensive tackle his senior year. He was selected to the All-State and All-EDC football teams his senior year.

Bourne went on to compete in wrestling at the U.S. Naval Academy where he was a two-time conference champion in the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association, earned first-team All-America honors with a fifth-place finish in the nation in 1990, and finished his career at USNA seventh all-time in school history in career victories, fifth in winning percentage, eighth in career pins, and second for most wins in a single season. He is in the USNA Athletic Hall of Fame.

After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy, Bourne served in the U.S. Marine Corps, from which he retired as a Colonel in 2017. He was deployed 11 times for at least six months in a calendar year in his career. He was awarded for heroism by the Secretary of the Navy for saving the life of a fellow parachutist who had been injured during a hard landing in 1991. Additionally, his military awards include two Legions of Merit, a Bronze Star with Combat V from Afghanistan, and a second Bronze Star from Iraq.

Since his retirement in 2017, Bourne has worked as an adjunct educator for U.S. Joint Special Operations University, National Space and Security Institute, Irregular Warfare Center, and NATO Special Operations Command. He lives in Torshälla, Sweden thanks to his Swedish wife, Catrin, and their two children Carl Richard and Charlotte Kersten. 

DOUGLAS SNARE

Douglas Snare

Douglas Snare was a construction technology teacher at North High School for 21 years from 1995-2017. He parlayed a lifelong love of construction and a desire to teach into a long and successful career in education. Growing up in Hallock, Minn., Snare began working in the construction industry at 14 years old and graduated from Moorhead State University in 1995. He said he always wanted to be a teacher, so combining his professional experience with teaching was a natural fit.

Snare was awarded for his exceptional performance with the North Dakota SkillsUSA Advisor of the Year Award in 2015-16. The award is presented to the state’s most dedicated career and technical education instructor. He was also awarded the Moorhead State University Del Courick Achievement Award in 1997.

Snare has six children and now lives in Laughlin, Nevada. Despite the geographical distance from North, he says he will always be a Spartan at heart.

MARA VORACHECK-WARREN

Mara Vorachek-Warren

Mara Vorachek-Warren, Ph.D. is a 1993 graduate of North High School. While at North, she competed in swimming and diving, sang soprano in the school choir, and participated in the Academic Decathlon team.

After graduating from North, Vorachek-Warren earned a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin in 1997 and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Duke University in 2002.

Vorachek-Warren has worked at St. Charles Community College in Missouri since 2011. She taught as a professor of chemistry from 2011-17 and has served in the administration as a dean since 2017. She earned SCC Faculty Member of the Year in 2017. Vorachek-Warren began her teaching career as a high school biology teacher at Norfolk Academy in Norfolk, Va. From 2003-2010. She earned the James B. Massey Jr. Award for Teaching, awarded to a Norfolk Academy teacher who displays development and personal grown as a teacher, in 2006. And she was awarded the Community Impact Award with the Junior League of Norfolk and Virginia Beach in 2009.

She currently lives in the St. Louis area with her husband William (Trey) Warren, Ph.D. and their children Kathleen and Will. She was appointed to the Rockwood School District Board of Education in 2024 and is a frequent volunteer for her children’s school and activities.

CHRISTOPHER OLSEN

Chris Olsen

Christopher Olsen is a 1984 graduate of North High School. He grew up across the street from the school, where his parents Richard and Jeanie lived for 47 years together. His father, Richard D. Olsen, taught from North’s opening until his retirement in 1988, and his sisters Catherine, Elizabeth, and Constance all graduated from here as well.

After graduating from North, Chris Olsen earned a Bachelor of Arts in History from NDSU in 1988, a Master of Arts in History from the University of Nebraska in 1990, and PhD (Phi Beta Kappa) in U.S. History from the University of Florida in 1996.

Olsen is Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Indiana State University, where he has worked since 1999. He is also Professor of History specializing in the 19th-century United States, particularly politics and masculinity, and teaches courses on those subjects, the U. S. Civil War, and the comparative history of world slavery. He previously served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Chair of the Department of History. Olsen is the author of two books, including “Political Culture and Secession in Mississippi: Masculinity, Honor, and the Antiparty Tradition, 1830-1860” (Oxford University Press), and various articles and other professional publications. Prior to his time at Indiana State, he taught at Virginia Wesleyan College from 1996 to 1999.

He is married to Jennifer (Ross) Olsen and has three children, Emma Catherine, Charlotte Ann and Ross Christopher.

 

GARY MAILLOUX

Gary Mailloux

Gary Mailloux has been a teacher, coach, and/or administrator at North High School since 1969. He served as a teacher and administrator at North until retiring in 2007 and continues coaching track & field and cross country. His coaching career also includes wrestling and football.

Mailloux has coached many teams and individuals to Eastern Dakota Conference and State championships in his highly decorated coaching career. He was awarded the NDIAAA Athletic Director of the Year in 2001; NDHSCA Cross Country Coach of the Year in 1987, 1994, 2007, and 2022; and the NIAAA Award of Merit in 2006. He was inducted into the NDIAAA Hall of Fame in 2008 and the NDHSCA Hall of Fame in 2010.

He has served as EDC Secretary/Treasurer, an NDHSCA Coaches Clinic clinician, NDIAAA Convention Moderator, NDIAAA Convention Presenter, North Dakota Prairie Rose Games Sports Commissioner, been on the NDHSCA Track & Field Advisory Committee, and has managed or co-managed many NDHSAA Regional and State tournaments.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences and Physical Education from Jamestown College, a master’s degree from Moorhead State College, and did further studies in Education Administration at North Dakota State University and Minnesota State University Moorhead.

Mailloux and his wife Karen have two daughters and six grandchildren.

BONNIE NELSON

Bonnie Nelson

Bonnie Nelson was a teacher of students with Learning Disabilities from 1996-2014 and currently serves as a substitute teacher for Fargo Public Schools. She was a department chair for seven years, Key Club co-advisor for 15 years, National Honor Society advisor for five years, a mentor program teacher, and wrote grants to pay NDSU pre-teachers to tutor at North.

She was named Learning Disability Teacher of the Year by the North Dakota Learning Disabilities Association in 1991, was presented the Minn-Dak District Key Club Advisor Award in 2003, received the Fargo Education Association Crystal Apple Award in 2008, was named the Metro Area Mayors Committee Teacher of the Year in 2010, and received the Horace-Mann Crystal Apple Award in 2013.

Prior to her time at North, Nelson was a Social Services Eligibility Technician for Griggs County from 1972-73, a Social Services Eligibility Technician for Richland County from 1974-78, a teacher of students with Learning Disabilities at Dilworth High School in 1982, and a K-12 teacher of students with Learning Disabilities at Enderlin Public School from 1983-1996. She received a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a learning disabilities licensure in 1982 from Minnesota State University Moorhead.

Nelson lives in Kindred, N.D. with her husband Keith Nelson. They have a son, Matthew, and a daughter, Sarah, and two grandchildren, Jay and Mya.