Farrell High School - Reflector Yearbook (Farrell, PA)

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W. W. IRWIN On September 1, 1941, after fifteen years of faithful service as Superintendent of the Farrell Public Schools, Mr. W. W. Irwin, teacher and administrator for forty-five years, retired. Students, teachers, alumni, and friends wish Mr. Irwin many happy years of well-earned leisure. —11—

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★ ★★★★★★★★ TO THE GRADUATES OF 1942 You, the members of the graduating Class of 1942, hear a very special significance to me as Superintendent of Schools, because you are the first class to graduate under my tenure of office in Farrell. For that reason I am and always shall be especially interested in your future progress, as a class and individually. During the past few months, you have witnessed many changes in the world situation some of which have been reflected in your own experiences. Just as grief and sorrow are sometimes needed before one seeks comfort in prayer, so danger and restriction too frequently must be faced before one comes to a realization of his many blessings and opportunities. The present world crisis has made us all more vitally aware of the innumerable privileges of living under a democratic system of government. Likewise I know that it has made each of you more appreciative of the years of schooling guaranteed to you by that democracy. An educated citizenry is the life blood of a democracy, and the strength of democracy to survive is in direct ratio to the significance and attainment of the ideals of its populace. Those ideals, for the most part, are acquired and become fixed during one’s school years. They comprise the greatest wealth that you take with you when you graduate, the most valuable contribution which your education has offered you. They are yours not only to cherish but to preserve, for no one can take them from you, except by yolir own will. At the close of this war and conflict, when material things shall have been swept away, one’s ideals will be one’s only treasury of value. My message to you is this — that you place your ideals high within the scheme of things and that you not be content short of the achievement of those goals. It is no compliment to do better than you ever did before if what you are doing is inferior to that which you could accomplish. A basketball team, in spite of a multiplicity ot laurels, is not a championship squad unless it plays the hall of champions. But while an individual or a group might maintain an existence without exercising high principles, a democracy cannot even survive; it can only die, when its ideals collapse and illiteracy becomes paramount. Thus it is upon you, the educated youth of America, that the future of democracy rests. Determine your ideals and determine to “keep ’em flying”. Then I, with all the Farrell school population can greet you and say YOU HAVE GRADUATED GLORIOUSLY. CARROLL D. KEARNS % —10—

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★ ★★★★★★★★ PRINCIPAL W. R. ANDERSON Senior High School Principal A.B.. Grove City College; M.Ed., University of Pittsburgh —12—