Oct. 31, 2025
As part of their induction into the Springfield Public Schools Hall of Fame earlier this month, renowned developer Warren Robinett and former Springfield Mayor Ken McClure visited their former high schools to talk with students.
During Robinett’s visit to Glendale High School, he spoke with an advanced placement statistics class. In addition to talking about his career, he told the students how his time at Glendale put him on his path to success in gaming, educational software development and virtual reality.
While a student at Glendale, Robinett built a robotic squirrel that was programmed to search for “acorns.” He told students that the ideas he developed with that project later became the basic concepts used in Atari 2600's Adventure, one of the first graphics-based action-adventure games.
When McClure returned to Parkview High School, he got to talk with students about his work in public service. His connections to Springfield and Parkview run deep. Not only was McClure a student there, but his mother also taught in the school’s business department.
While walking the hallowed halls of his alma mater, Ken was tickled to see plaques with his name on them still hanging up. He also made a stop by the award cases to see the names of his friends from both long ago, and still to this day.
Robinett and McClure were honored in the SPS Hall of Fame for their successes and the standard they’ve set as inspirational examples for current SPS students.These school visits were face-to-face opportunities for students to see examples of what they can achieve after starting their education with SPS.
