Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Commencement Ceremony Honors 65 Seniors

As the class of 1999 passed into the next phase of their lives, 65 Gurdon graduates were reserve and mindful of their lost friends during the their last ceremony as students.

After the usual beginning, with prayer and flowers, the Gurdon High School began a new tradition of honor.

The Academic Hall of Fame inducted three members, one of whom was Dolphus Whitten Jr., Ph.D. Posthumously, Dr. Whitten's widow, Marie Whitten, accepted the honor for her late husband, expressing that in all his years of being an accomplished college professor, Whitten considered Gurdon home with fond remembrances.

Whitten taught 11 years at Henderson State University and 21 years at Oklahoma City University.

Tom Ed Townsen, M.D., was there to accept his honor with a brief speech. Townsen, a noted pediatrician, spoke to the graduates of plans at the same moment in his life that were less than lofty. But that devoted teachers and others would not allow him to fail.

The final inductee was Henry Ivory Bell. Due to "ravages of Father Time," as his son, Henry Bell Jr., put it, the senior Bell was unable to accept his honor for himself. Henry Bell Jr. accepted the honor for his father, and spoke of their gratitude to the people who had placed Bell as one of the first in the Academic Hall of Fame.

Leonard Gills, principal of Gurdon High School, recited Bell's accomplishments, as had been done for each of the other inductees, with esteem and respect for all Bell had achieved.

The top ten graduates at GHS saluted their classmates and gave them encouragement.

Mandy Shaver, salutatorian, spoke to her fellow seniors, and was followed in song by Amy Ross, Rachelle Reece and Bethany Cooper.

As the evening continued, Christopher Wise recited Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken.

Cooper, the senior class valedictorian, presented her speech, as everyone listened to her words of encouragement to her fellow seniors and the audience.

Reece and Tammie McCarty, expressed their wishes for the future of all classmates.

Phillip McGuirt was the nervous, but comically memorable student, who praised the efforts of an influential teacher, Mary Beck.

Memorials were given by Jennifer Kuhn Harrington and Katrina Lacy, for Kelli Craig and Lelia Cornish. Both were emotional remembrances.

As the ceremony came to an end, the diplomas were presented, as were the honor medallions from the parents.

When the ceremony had ended the seniors' last moments together as a class were subdued except for a round of leap frog and the noises of joy.