Bellingham High School - Epilogue Yearbook (Bellingham, MA)

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In 1959 he was appointed principal of the South School. After obtaining his Master ' s degree from Boston Univer¬ sity in 1961, he assumed the principalship of the high school, a position he held un¬ til his untimely death. 4 ' '

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Memoirs A graduate of Providence College, Mr. Keough began his teaching career in 1936. Of his twenty-seven years in the Bellingham school system, he spent twenty-four teaching English, Latin, Problems of Democracy, and Civics. From 1938 to 1946 he coached basketball and baseball. He had always shown an ac¬ tive interest in all sports events.

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This weekend, commencing Friday afternoon, November 22, 1963, and terminating Monday afternoon, November 25, 1963, most of you heard and saw on television one of the saddest chapters written into United States history. Generations after you will read, study, and discuss the events that you have eye- witnessed. From the assassination of our beloved President to the reception tendered dignitaries from foreign countries, gathered at the White House to express their personal and their countries ' sympathies after one of America ' s greatest presidents had been laid to rest in the Arlington National Cemetery, you have seen so many phases of our history unfolded. No generation before you has experienced history in the making as you have. Let us turn our attention to some of the lessons to be learned and let us carry them with us for the re¬ mainder of our lives. Starting with the first event, the assassination, we have seen the culmination or the final results of an utter disregard of law, of order, of rules, of regulations, of the respect for the rights of others. The assassin chose to live outside the law;—he was the law unto himself;—he took the life of our be¬ loved President. A little more than forty-eight hours later you viewed the ending of one who chooses to live outside the law. Surrounded by a cordon of protective police officers, you witnessed his paying with his life, outside the law, despite all the precautions the law had taken to protect him. Unfolded before your eyes was the scriptural quotation As ye sow, so shall ye reap. You saw his lone¬ some, barren, desolate funeral—his wife, his two children, his mother, his brother—unwanted and shunted by a people torn with grief. Let us remember him and, especially, his innocent family, in our prayers. Let us never forget the awful, final price of lawlessness. We witnessed a nation and the world in mourning—in deepest respect for the man who lived within the law,—for the law,—who gave his life for the preservation of his country and her laws. We saw the funeral of that hero, appalling in its immensity, perfectly conducted, sincerity in its com¬ pleteness. A tribute so fully deserved by a fallen hero. Let us remember him and his family in our prayers. We saw the reverence and sacredness with which the final resting place is held by dignitaries from all over the world. We wonder how any American boy or girl could desecrate, rend asunder, wrack and ruin any cemetery after the example of its holiness, unveiled before our eyes. We saw the highest military re¬ spect paid to our President at his final resting place. What an example our President has left for every American youth. We saw the Vice President inaugurated into office a little more than thirty minutes after our beloved Presi¬ dent ' s death—the wheels of our government moving at an unbelievable rate of speed. We saw political interests cast aside in time of stress, Republicans and Democrats alike, all united, rallying to the support of their government and her elected officials. They rose to the perfect stature of statehood. We viewed the model of models in ladyhood. With a heart that must have been broken, with two little children left without a daddy for the rest of their lives, staring into a life of bewilderment and uncertain¬ ty from a life of bliss and happiness, she carried out her responsibilities in a manner no one would believe possible. She won the sympathy, the admiration, and the respect of the nation and the whole world. What an example for every American girl and woman. We saw medical science prevail once and fail twice in the preservation of human life. We saw what appeared to be the Hand of God making His final decisions over science. When one con¬ siders all of the physical elements that had to be in order for the assassin to be successful in his undertaking and how any one of a countless number of details might have prevented his shot from being fatal—one small turn by our President at that given moment could have resulted in his only being wounded;—how the Governor of Texas, just as open a target as our President, is recuperating now,—it seems the Lord wanted our President ' s life for a much greater and much more important cause in this world of discord and strife. To us and for us, our President left his message: Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. He was a lover of education because he was a believer in education. He urged all of you to continue your education to the fullest extent of your abilities. Let each of you dedicate yourself to that cause today and carry it out to its completion to the best of each one ' s ability! Robert G. Ingersoll has written, Ours is the only flag that has, in reality, written upon it: Liberty, Equal¬ ity, Fraternity —the three grandest words in all the languages of men. I am asking you to stand in your re¬ spective homerooms and sing the Star Spangled Banner before the commencement of classes. James J. Keough 8