Glendale Educational Foundation to honor three alumni with Diamond Awards at annual Dancing With Diamonds Gala, Feb. 17.

The Glendale Educational Foundation has announced the names of three GUSD graduates who will be honored at the Dancing with Diamonds Gala on Feb. 17.

For Distinguished Achievement in the Arts, Ron Underwood a Hoover High class of 1971 will be recognized. Underwood is a Peabody Award winning director for an ABC Weekend Special, and has directed classic films such as the science fiction comedy “Tremors” and the blockbuster comedy “City Slickers,” starring Billy Crystal and Jack Palance, who earned an Academy Award for his performance. Underwood graduated from the USC School of Film and started his career in children’s television.  Now directing a broad assortment of television and film projects, Underwood lives in Malibu with his wife Sandy.

For Distinguished Achievement in Science and Technology, Dr. Varoujan Gorjian, another Hoover High graduate, class of 1987, will be honored. A research scientist for Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Dr. Gorjian received his BS in Astrophysics from Cal Tech and his masters and Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics from UCLA. Dr. Gorjian has lent his time as a mentor and advisor as the deputy lead of the NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program (NITARP) through which he mentored 20 middle and high school teachers in doing research with archival NASA space telescope data (2004-2011). He is an expert on the Spitzer Space Telescope project and does outreach talks across the nation.

From Crescenta Valley High School, class of 1978, Tom Holmoe, will be recognized for distinguished achievement in health & fitness. As director of Athletics at Brigham Young University since 2005, Holmoe oversees a program of 21 intercollegiate sports, involving more that 600 students. His collegiate career was with BYU as well, earning first-team All-WAC honors as a senior. He then went on to the NFL as a fourth round draft choice with the San Francisco 49ers, playing on three Super Bowl Championship teams. Since retiring from the NFL, Holmoe has coached at Stanford University and the University of California as well.

Tickets for Dancing with Diamonds Gala, which is being held at the Glendale Hilton,  are available by calling (818) 247-0466.