Let’s see. He was the 1993 recipient of the Silver Spur award from College of the Canyons. He was named “Board Member of the Decade” by the SCV Boys and Girls Club. He was the 2012 Santa Clarita Valley Man of the Year.

Now, Tom Dierckman is going home to Indiana – at least long enough to be inducted into the Shelbyville High School Alumni Hall of Fame on May 5.

A 1966 Shelbyville graduate, Dierckman became one of the school’s all-stars … not only on the gridiron (he was Player of the Year his senior year in high school) or as a Seabee (three Meritorious Service medals and three Navy commendations) … but also as a real estate developer who helped shape the community of Valencia.

A Navy scholarship sent Dierckman to the University of Illinois in Champagne-Urbana where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1971. In 1977 he completed a master’s program in construction management at UC Berkeley. He remained in the U.S. Navy Reserve until 1999 but went off active duty in 1982 when he joined The Newhall Land and Farming Co. By 1990 he was a senior vice president, and in 1994 he was named president of Newhall Land’s Valencia Co., which was building out the “new town.”

Dierckman was responsible for construction or expansions of the Valencia Town Center mall, Hyatt Valencia Hotel, Town Center office buildings, Valencia Corporate Center, Valencia Industrial Center, Valencia Commerce Center and other commercial, industrial and recreational projects.

He left during a 2004 company restructuring and went into private practice as a development consultant. Beginning in 2008 he served as former U.S. Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon’s adviser on military academy appointments.

Dierckman served on the boards of the L.A. Economic Development Corp., Valencia Water Co., Castaic Lake Water Agency and Valencia Bank and Trust, but his community service transcended business interests. He chaired the COC Foundation and the SCV Boys & Girls Club board (spearheading efforts to build the club’s Sierra Vista facility) and provided leadership to a laundry list of other local nonprofit organizations over the years.

And now, 50 years after his name went up on the board for athletics, Tom Dierckman will be remembered at a high school in Illinois as one of its true successes.