TONTOGANY – Three Otsego High School graduates have been inducted into the district’s Hall of Fame.

Richard “Dick” Conrad, Pablo Castro and Kelly Heile were honored Feb. 11.

Nominees could be a community member, alumni and staff member, coach or friend of Otsego.

The three members of the 2021-22 induction class are alumni, who are eligible five years after their class graduated from Otsego.

Conrad was valedictorian in his graduating class in 1959. While in high school, he played baseball and basketball and participated in the school newspaper, plays and chorus. He was a Buckeye Boys State delegate.

He entered the Air Force in 1963 and left as a captain in 1967.

Conrad graduated from Bowling Green State University with a degree in business statistics and later earned an MBA in business statistics and a PhD in education administration specializing in higher administration.

He taught in BGSU’s computer science department and went on to teach courses in the College of Education.

In 1988, Conrad was awarded the Michael R. Ferrari Award from BGSU which honors a university administrator who displays a caring attitude in working with faculty, staff and students.

He retired from BGSU in 1997.

Conrad is a 55-year member of Lybarger-Grimm American Legion Post 441, where he served as commander for 14 years. He is active in the legion’s Buckeye Boys State selection committee and was pivotal in assisting Otsego Schools in the funding and gathering of veteran information for the Veterans Memorial in the high school Commons.

He worked on the legislation that exempted all Ohio veteran service organizations from paying government property taxes. In December 2019, he and his wife, Joan, paid off every outstanding lunch balance for Otsego students, helping 300 students.

Conrad died in August 2020. The couple have four children and several grandchildren.

Castro is a 1993 Otsego graduate. He was a varsity wrestler and competed at the state level for three years and placed for two years.

He earned a wrestling scholarship to the University of Findlay and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He earned a juris doctor at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 2001.

He served as an assistant prosecuting attorney for the City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County and in 2007 was appointed to the Cleveland Municipal Court as a magistrate.

Castro was the first Hispanic magistrate appointed to the Cleveland Municipal Court and was one of the youngest.

In fall 2010, he was pivotal in the development and progression of the bilingual ballot for Spanish speaking residents in Cuyahoga County. He also is one of the founders of the faith-based movement on voting and civic involvement of the Hispanic community, “Tu Decides.”

He was a Pan Am and world champion in the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation and instructs the sport. He has coached top Ultimate Fighting Championship fighters and is the head Jui-Jitsu and grappling coach for former six-time UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic.

He has three children.

Heile graduated from Otsego in 1998. She played varsity softball and helped the Knights win the SLL championship her senior year. She was a varsity football cheerleader, a National Honor Society and band member, attended Buckeye Girls State and was a National Merit Commended scholar.

She graduated from Ohio State University as an honor student with a degree in political science. She interned in the office of Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery and received her law degree from Capital University.

Heile worked as an assistant county prosecutor in Delaware and Butler counties before becoming in 2013 the chief of the Child Assault Division in Butler County.

In 2019, she was one of two prosecutors in Ohio selected to serve on the governor’s panel to review the Dr. Richard Strauss sexual abuse allegations while he employed as a physician by OSU.

In late 2021, she became a member of the Ohio State Bar Counsel for the Ohio State Bar Association and was one of 24 women selected to be members of the Jo Ann Davidson Leadership Institute.

Heile has been very active in the Butler County Republican Party.

She has two children.