Dad's High School Salutatory Address
As salutatorian of his graduating class, Larry stood before his classmates on graduation night (May 19, 1948) and gave his salutatory address. It is reprinted below, having been carefully transcribed from his typewritten speech notes. I have refrained from correcting the few typographical errors and misspellings for the sake of an accurate transcription. FOLLOW THE GLEAM On behalf of the graduating class, I take pleasure in welcoming our parents, relatives and friends of our school to the commencement exercises. We have been looking forward to this day for twelve years so you may realize why we look so happy at the thought that at last we have reached our first goal and will soon be considered high school graduates. We are grateful to all those who in any way assisted us on the long journey from the first to the twelfth year. Many of those who started the educational journey with us were forced through no fault of their own, to leave school before reaching their objective and we mourn ...