GRANITE CITY HIGH SCHOOL
CLASS OF 1975

Dewayne Terry was born in St Louis, Missouri, but his family moved to Granite City in the early 1960's. He is the son of Ivie Terry and the late Elvin (Red) Terry.

He attended Maryville Elementary School and Grigsby Junior High School, where he started running track. He is a 1975 graduate of Granite City High School South, where he was a member of the Letterman’s Club and ran varsity in track and cross country all three years. Dewayne set and held numerous records during his high school years.

He attended Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville on a full athletic scholarship. When an opportunity arose for him to join Jones and Vining Inc, a shoe model and design company as an apprentice model maker, he left SIU-E to start a ten-year apprenticeship with Master Model Maker, Bennie Evans.

He continued his apprenticeship with Mr. Evans in San Antonio, Texas, where they were employed by San Antonio Shoe Company. Surpassing all expectations and excelling at his skills to become a shoe model maker, he finished his apprenticeship in six years. Today, he is one of a small number of shoe model makers in the country.

In 2000, he was approached by Jones and Vining, Inc., again, to take a position in China as manager of their shoe model room. After completing his contract in China, he returned to the United States where he was contacted by Yin Hwa USA, a company based in China, to head their shoe model and design/development department located in Boston, MA. At Yin Hwa, he does design and development for Puma, Reebok, Rockport and Converse shoes.

Most recently, Dewayne has done individual design and customized fittings for professional athletes. Last year, Dewayne accompanied Puma to Jamaica to meet with Usan Bolt, a world class sprinter from Jamaica, to take measurements of his feet and discuss issues he was having with the shoes he was running in. He later wore the shoes in the World Track and Field Championships with winning results. Earlier this year, he also met with professional basketball players, Kevin Garnet with the Boston Celtics and Trevor Ariza with the Houston Rockets, to take measurements for custom fitting shoes.

Dewayne credits his start as a runner at Granite City High School South to a lot of the success he has today. Having been a runner, he has a better understanding of what an athlete needs to perform at his best.