Alumni Group Announces 2024 Honorees

September 13 – Baskin and Skinner to be honored at AHS Homecoming

Several Austin High School graduates whose graduations occurred more than a century apart will be honored later this month during Homecoming ceremonies.

Jason Baskin (Class of 2002) and the late Gertrude Ellis Skinner (Class of 1881) have been named 2024 Distinguished Alumni by the Austin High School Alumni & Friends Association.

A school assembly is scheduled for 8:45 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 26, in the Knowlton Auditorium at Austin High, where Baskin will address the students along with Mower County Historical Society Executive Director Randy Forster, who will talk about Skinner. Those interested in attending must check in at the main office through the east main entrance to the high school.

Later Thursday, Baskin and Skinner representatives will attend a dinner at 6 p.m. in the Austin High common area outside Knowlton Auditorium, with a reception beginning at 5:30 p.m. Guests are welcome. Tickets for the dinner are $25 per person and must be reserved by Friday, Sept. 20, by contacting Alumni President Jeni Lindberg at [email protected] or 507-433-4557.

Baskin and Skinner will also be honored on Friday, September 27 during the afternoon Homecoming parade and evening football game.

Baskin, of Austin, is chief marketing officer for SPAM at Hormel Foods Corp., where he has worked since 2006. Baskin worked in sales and was director of corporate strategy at Hormel and led brands including Hormel Chili, Hormel Black Label Bacon and Natural Choice meats.

While at Austin High, Baskin won the state debate championship, placed seventh in the national debate competition, and was a National Merit Scholar semifinalist.

Since returning to his hometown, Baskin has been actively involved in the Austin community, especially since 2018 when he was elected to the Austin City Council.

Skinner, who died in 1960 at age 94, graduated from Austin High School in 1881 and returned to Austin just nine years later after being elected the first woman superintendent of schools in Mower County.

She held that position for a decade, overseeing 130 school districts; 150 teachers and 4,068 students. She founded 90 school libraries in Mower County and six summer schools. Skinner helped organize a YWCA group in Austin that advocated for women and girls; led the local Red Cross during World War I; and helped provide clothing and necessities to people before Austin had a Salvation Army.

In 2019, she was named Austin Pillar of the City.

Baskin volunteers in numerous ways in the Austin community, including as a youth softball coach, a high school speaker and a judge for state and regional debate tournaments. Baskin serves as chairman of the Austin Port Authority Economic Development Committee and a board member of the Development Corp. of Austin.

He previously served as chairman of the Austin Human Rights Commission and vice chairman of the Mower County Red Cross.

Baskin’s wife, Dr. Katie Baskin, is executive director of instructional and administrative services for Austin Public Schools. They have two daughters, Ava and Olivia.

His advice to students is to realize that they can achieve anything if they are willing to work hard.

“Austin gives you a great foundation,” Baskin said. “You have the power to open amazing doors for yourself.” Baskin encourages students to focus their energy on the people and things that make them feel happy and fulfilled. “When I think back on my time at AHS, the memories that last almost 20 years later are good: friends I still keep in touch with; classes I loved; teachers who made an impact,” Baskin said. “All the worries about being cool and popular don’t matter because they’re fleeting. Put your time and energy into things that give you time and energy in return. It’s just one step on your life journey.”

Skinner was born in 1865 near what was then the Austin city limits, on land that is now Ellis Middle School, named for her parents, the Ellis family, who lived there for more than 50 years.

After graduating, Skinner taught elementary school in Austin, California, and Hawaii. In 1888, she toured Europe, Palestine, and Egypt for 14 months, then became a school principal in Omaha, Nebraska, before being elected superintendent of Mower County schools in 1889.

In 1900, she married John Skinner, an editor at the Austin Daily Herald. She resigned as superintendent before the wedding because Minnesota’s teaching regulations at the time stated that “teachers who marry or engage in unbecoming conduct shall be dismissed.” In 1917, she was appointed by the governor of Minnesota to a commission focused on improving the state’s school system.

She served as deputy editor of the Herald for 20 years, and in 1921, a year after women gained the right to vote in the United States, she joined the League of Women Voters.

In 1956, Skinner was selected as Austin’s “Queen of the Century” as part of the city’s 100th anniversary celebration.

“Possessed of rare eloquence and an extraordinary memory, she spoke without notes and was a constant speaker at civic and social clubs,” the Herald wrote in 1966. “Her extensive travel experience, her experience as a journalist and her devotion to literature and the arts enabled her to speak with authority.”