00:00:01 It makes you feel rather old, and former students of the year look about as old as I do up here.

00:00:15 It will be 80 in June.

00:00:23 While I think of it, Paul, my wife is a recipient of the MRI this last week, diagnosing a large tumor.

00:00:32 She has had surgery and is doing fine.

00:00:36 Also, let me do this reminiscing.

00:00:39 35 years ago this June, this auditorium had in attendance the graduating class of 1960.

00:00:47 If you recall, the operating levy had been turned down for opening this school and other operational expenses.

00:00:55 But once it was passed in May of 1960 by 4 to 1, that graduating class was in my office, opening doors.

00:01:06 We did.

00:01:09 In the nine years of teaching, I probably have more fond memories than any part of my career.

00:01:17 One of those recipients is the gentleman that's up here tonight.

00:01:22 I'm trying to stay within those two minutes of constraint, but Harry broke the ribbon.

00:01:30 He's an attorney.

00:01:34 Paul was very active in high school.

00:01:37 He tried basketball, football, track.

00:01:41 He also band and orchestra.

00:01:45 I don't want this music review committee or activity you were in, but you were in it four years, so it must have been good.

00:01:53 There were four young men that kept me on my toes.

00:01:56 Bill Donovan, Dr. Menchis, Marlon Shepard, and Paul Lauter.

00:02:03 Their minds just absorbed the material.

00:02:08 They asked that Bill and myself start a science club.

00:02:13 We did.

00:02:15 These people were responsible for all the programs.

00:02:18 They read all the science reviews and research papers.

00:02:24 I might say that these fellows finished a lot of my sophomore and freshman and almost part of my junior college courses.

00:02:31 Not totally, but parts of it.

00:02:35 He was also very active in the Hi-Y.

00:02:37 At that time, I don't know whether you have it today, Hi-Y was a very active club in the school system.

00:02:43 Junior year, he was into class play.

00:02:46 I didn't know where he got all this time, but he did.

00:02:49 There are two or three things I'd like to get the record straight.

00:02:53 Paul, could you tell me who put the smoke bomb in my car?

00:03:00 In the court of the high school.

00:03:04 I drove very casually down the driveway as if nothing ever happened.

00:03:09 I never heard any more about it.

00:03:12 Paul also had a lab in his home.

00:03:15 I learned through one of his friends, I won't say which one, he was experimenting with some dangerous things down there.

00:03:22 I called my mom, she took care of it.

00:03:25 Paul probably doesn't even know about that.

00:03:32 Paul, as I look back upon you as a student, you typify those who are going a long ways in the scientific world.

00:03:41 Lord knows we need all the help we can get.

00:03:45 When I read your resume here, you make me most humbled.

00:03:49 Congratulations.

00:04:08 Thank you, Mr. McDermott.

00:04:10 I will never be able to call him Harold, even though I am now older than he is.

00:04:16 But I'll tell you another secret.

00:04:19 I ran into an undergraduate student of mine at a meeting recently, and he has gray hair.

00:04:25 There's no getting away from this kind of thing.

00:04:30 It gives me great pleasure and great honor to have the chance to be here today, to see old friends and people I wish were old friends.

00:04:45 To become a little bit acquainted again after many long years with this community and its surroundings.

00:04:54 And I would like to set the record straight also.

00:05:04 If you look in the yearbook, the yellow jacket, many of those activities that were attributed to me are a typographical error.

00:05:14 That is how I had all the time.

00:05:20 Now it is probably too late to get that corrected, but perhaps the librarians should go in and do a little discreet erasing here and there.

00:05:31 I'm very grateful to Mr. McDermott for what may be the kind of educational opportunity that made it possible for me to be here tonight.

00:05:53 I can never refer to him as other than Mr. McDermott because he will always be a towering authority figure to me.

00:06:04 And I never had to rebel against him because he kept such a light hand on the really crazy things that we did in school that there was no need to do so.

00:06:18 As he has pointed out, he kept watch over our activities and more or less subtly helped to keep us out of trouble or at least when we got into trouble to keep us from suffering the just consequences.

00:06:32 If any student now did the things that we did in Sydney High School in those days, the school system would be entangled in lawsuits well into the next century and I would probably just be getting out of jail.

00:06:51 It was a wonderful time. We had an opportunity to go far beyond what was presented in the formal high school courses.

00:07:01 Several of us who were co-conspirators in these activities had to do not only wild and dangerous things, but to learn from Mr. McDermott's college textbooks to go on as far as we could possibly go in studying chemistry and physics and other subjects.

00:07:20 And that was an opportunity that certainly helped me to avoid what often happens with students who find that the discipline of the school system can be somewhat inhibiting and off-putting.

00:07:36 And it really provided an opportunity to get a head start on my college work as well.

00:07:41 And because I got a head start on my college work, I got a head start on activities once I got out of college and things just built from there.

00:07:51 I would like also to... I'll confess. I was a trespasser on the good property on a number of occasions when I was a small child.

00:08:07 A magnificent building. I saw through the windows sometimes. And I hope the statute of limitations has run out.

00:08:18 But in addition to all of the things that I didn't do in high school and all of those activities, I have a very warm spot in my heart for this area where I hunted and fished and roamed and explored.

00:08:38 Did extraordinarily dangerous things with the caves along the Great Miami River. And in general, had a very old-fashioned childhood that I was lucky to live through.

00:08:50 Apparently, the imprint on my mind and emotions was deeper than I ever knew.

00:09:00 Because now, as it turns out, completely accidentally, I live in Urbana, Illinois, in Champaign County, Illinois, near the small village of Sydney, Illinois, which is in Shelby County.

00:09:19 There's a strange occult attraction or something like that going on.

00:09:25 So I can say that in a sense, even when I'm not here, I'm with you all spiritually.

00:09:30 And I always remember the people I knew, the times I had, the community that I lived in, and the wonderful education and opportunities that Sydney High School gave to me.

00:09:43 Thank you very much.

00:09:48 Thank you.