When you load the Google Earth software program on a computer, you find that Lawrence is the center of the world.

It’s a purposeful bit of trivia, designed by Google vice president Brian McClendon, a Lawrence High School graduate and one of four notable alumni who returned to their alma mater to be inducted into the LHS Hall of Honor on Sunday.

McClendon joined fellow Lions Jane Bodle, an accomplished Broadway performer; David Booth, founder and CEO of Dimensional Fund Advisors, an investment banking firm; and Chris Piper, a former Kansas University basketball player and a radio analyst for KU basketball games, as the latest additions to the hall.

All of the inductees praised LHS and its educators for helping shape their successful careers.

“This award is about everyone that has supported me,” said Piper, who owns Grandstand Sportswear and Glassware in Lawrence. He thanked his family and a roll call of teachers, including Ted Juneau, his basketball coach at LHS when the Lions won a state championship in 1983.

Juneau introduced Piper, calling him “a true champion” for his ability to parlay his achievements at LHS into a successful collegiate career – he was on KU’s 1988 national championship squad – and a livelihood as an entrepreneur and broadcaster.

Booth held back tears as recalled a math teacher, Mrs. McReynolds, who helped him regain his confidence after failing an important calculus exam.

Because of her caring words, “my life went on a different trajectory,” Booth said. “I hope someday I’ll be able to do for somebody what some of the teachers here did for me.”

LHS Principal Steve Nilhas told a group of more than 40 family and friends who gathered in the high school’s atrium that the school’s history feeds its future.

He said the Hall of Honor “reminds me of what a great, great tradition this high school has.”

He has confidence in the students of today, as well: “I wonder which one of them will be up on that wall.”

Bodle, who has performed in such Broadway hits as “Cats” and “Les Miserables” and in films including “Catch Me if You Can,” said the purpose of the Hall of Honor is to teach current students that there are many opportunities available to them after graduation. Her career has proved that sometimes failure is necessary in order to succeed.

“I kept falling down and kept getting back up,” she said. She wasn’t kidding, either.

Bodle told the crowd about the times she stumbled on her way to ballet practice, tearing her stockings. And the time she fell down in the middle of a school recital. And the time she took a spill during her Broadway debut.

The lesson?

“You will humiliate yourself,” she said. “But all you can do is just keep going.”

Booth said the words of his high school principal helped establish confidence and pride in him and other students. They helped him form a philosophy that has guided his business.

“Lawrence. Ranks. High.”