Durfee High School - Durfee Record Yearbook (Fall River, MA)

Page 6 text:

In recognition of 33 years of faithful and devoted service to the B. M. C. Durfee High School, for the warmth and understanding which he has displayed toward all who have come under his guidance throughout his honored career as a teacher and on the occasion of his retirement from his profession, we, the Classyof 1954, proudly dedicate our Record Book to Louis A. Allard

Page 8 text:

ongratulations . . . TO THE MEMBERS OF THE GRADUATING CLASS OF THE B. M. C. DURFEE HIGH SCHOOL: To those of us who were able to watch your progress through school, it is almost incredible that you have reached the threshold of adulthood. The fleeting years of youth may not seem to speed by to you, but as you grow older, you will find that they have indeed, been fleeting. So many of the things we would like to say to you have been said many times, but they are none the less sincere. Mostly, at the moment, we want to congratulate you and to wish you well in the life that lies before you. With you, indeed, go all our hopes and fears-our hopes that you will bring credit to yourselves and to your school, our fears that an uncontrollable world will vex and burden you. You must be prepared for both. One little thing we would like to have you remember is that you must iudge your success or failure by something more than strictly material values. I do not mean to under-rate your desire to achieve a comfortable way of life, but l do hope that somewhere in your mind and heart there will be a place for those more abstract spiritual, moral, ethical and esthetic values which are the ones which raised men from the lower orders of animal life to half-way toward the angels. While you have met the requirements for a high school diploma, there is so much more to learn and know that at times, it is almost frighten- ing. Many of you will go on to college and other schools of higher education. Still others of you will continue your learning in more practical fields, but wherever you continue, always remember that the quest for knowledge and attitude is one which the truly civilized man or woman continues until his last breath. Remember, too, that the civilized man measures actions and thought in terms of what he can do for others as well as what he accomplishes for himself. This is particularly true in America where we are steeped in a sense of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and where our democratic tradition makes keen and alive our sense of human fellowship. These things, I know, you will remember and live by. These thoughts you will bear in mind, I am sure, as you rush eagerly into the exciting unknown of adulthood. With you go the sincerest congratulations and the very best wishes, not only of myself, but of all of us who serve the public schools of Fall River, and of all of us who as citizens of Fall River have made possible to you the education which the generation which preceded us, made possible to us. My very best wishes. Sincerely yours, I Superintendent of Schools.