Fairfield High School will welcome four new members into its Wall of Honor during a ceremony set for the morning of Friday, October 23rd, recognizing distinguished graduates whose careers have spanned automotive business, literature, education and military service.
The Wall of Honor was established in 2004 to recognize outstanding FHS alumni and is funded through private donations. Induction ceremonies are held every other year in the fall. This year’s class includes Bob Keller, Daniel Kraus, Gloria Countryman and Craig Nixon.
The induction ceremony will begin at 8:30 a.m. in the high school’s Mitcheltree, Slechta, Edgeton Auditorium. Earlier that morning, inductees and their families will gather for breakfast at Libertyville Savings Bank at 7 a.m. Following the auditorium ceremony, inductees will visit classrooms to speak with students in a more informal setting. That evening, a dinner and program honoring the inductees will be held at the Fairfield Golf & Country Club, with social hour beginning at 6:30 p.m. and dinner at 7 p.m.
Bob Keller — Class of 1971
Bob Keller spent his career building one of Fairfield’s most recognized automotive businesses from the ground up. After serving as service manager at C & O Motors from 1974 to 1983, he founded Bob’s Automotive, growing it from a one-man shop into a local business that employed up to 16 people. He retired in 2020 after nearly four decades in the industry.
Keller earned a long list of certifications throughout his career, including ASE Certified Master Medium/Heavy Truck Technician and six-time Iowa ASE Napa Technician of the Year. He was named Fairfield Citizen of the Year in 2012 and received the Fairfield Lions Club Lion of the Year honor for 2010-11, along with the Warren Coleman Award in 2003.
His community involvement has been extensive. He established the Jefferson County Automotive Technician Scholarship, helped restart the Fairfield Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1974, and served on the Jefferson County Health Center board from 1992 to 2025 — including as board chairman from 2005 to 2017, during which he oversaw construction of the new health center that opened in 2009. He has been a member of the Fairfield Lions Club since 2000, a charter member of the Fairfield Optimist Club, and a longtime member of the Jefferson County Foundation Board.
Daniel Kraus — Class of 1993
Daniel Kraus started his career as a videographer before turning to fiction writing, and has since become one of the most decorated authors to come out of Fairfield. His debut novel, “The Monster Variations,” was published in 2009, and he followed it with “Rotters” in 2012 and “Scowler” in 2014. He collaborated with filmmaker Guillermo del Toro on “Trollhunters” in 2015 and “The Shape of Water” in 2018 — the latter of which was adapted into a film that won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2017.
More recent works include “Whalefall,” which earned him the 2024 Alex Award and was adapted into a film that debuted in London earlier this month, and “Angel Down,” published in 2026, which earned Kraus the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was named one of the New York Times’ Top 10 Books of 2026.
His books have been translated into 25 languages. Kraus has given back to the Fairfield community through book readings at the Fairfield Public Library, guest speaking in FHS English classes, and performing as an actor with the Fairfield Area Community Theatre.
Gloria Countryman — Class of 1966
Gloria Countryman dedicated her career to education, spending nearly her entire teaching life in the Fairfield school district. After one year teaching fifth grade in Crawfordsville with the WACO school district, she joined the Fairfield district in 1973 and taught second grade from 1974 until her retirement in 2008.
During her career, Countryman became the first Fairfield instructor to teach Ag in the Classroom, sponsored by the Jefferson County Farm Bureau. She launched the Adopt a Firefighter program for second-graders in 1998 and developed two programs with Jefferson County Naturalist Therese Cummiskey — the second-grade creek stomp and the fourth-grade wetlands exploration.
She was named Walmart Teacher of the Year in 2002 and Harper Brush Elementary Teacher of the Year for the Fairfield district in 2007. In addition to her teaching career, Countryman served on the Carnegie Museum Foundation from 2008 to 2024 and led the restoration of the building’s exterior from 2018 to 2024. She received the Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Citizen Community Service Award in 2017.
Craig Nixon — Class of 1971
Craig Nixon took his FHS education and turned it into a distinguished career in military aviation spanning nearly five decades. After graduating in 1971, he joined the U.S. Army and became an attack helicopter pilot, flight instructor and safety officer before being selected for the U.S. Army Test Pilot School. He went on to serve as an experimental test pilot for the Army, then for The Boeing Company from 1998 to 2001, and finally as flight curriculum manager and experimental test pilot for the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School from 2001 until his retirement in 2019.
Nixon was heavily decorated across both branches of service. His Army honors include the Legion of Merit, three Meritorious Service Medals, eight Army Commendation Medals, the Army Aviation Broken Wing Award and the Turk Award for Outstanding Service to the Army Flight Test Community. In the Navy, he received the Department of the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award, the International Test and Evaluation Association Richard G. Cross Award and Instructor of the Year from the Naval Air Warfare Center, all in 2016 or 2017.
Before his military career, Nixon was a leader in the FHS Pep Band and a member of the Iowa All-State Band in 1970 and 1971.
Nomination forms for future Wall of Honor classes are available through the Fairfield Community School District website, the FHS office at (641) 472-2059, or by emailing FHSWallofHonor@fairfieldsfuture.org. Forms should be submitted by July 1 in years an induction ceremony is planned.
Two FHS Wall of Honor committee members, Joneane Parker and Diane Goudy, are scheduled to go on Ottumwa Radio’s KBIZ station on Tuesday, October 20th at 7:30 a.m. to speak more about the Wall of Honor and these inductees.
