Martha's Vineyard Regional High School - Vineyarder Yearbook (Martha's Vineyard, MA)

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PRINCIPAL Life lies before you as the great sea lies on our Island ' s shores. Like the sea, life is immense in breadth and depth. It is given to being both a carefree friend and a worthy foe. It stretches before you as sketchily charted waters, traveled by those who have preceded you. It alternately rises and falls; it is placid, calm and friendly, then tempestuous, erratic and seemingly ruthless. Again like the sea, life is splendor, profundity and grandeur offering mystery, enchantment and a gentle invitation to the challenge. In taking up this challenge, may you always direct your ship through untraveled waters with the skill of a master pilot and with confidence in your own ability and knowledge. May your life be a series of endless discoveries, the sum and value of which shall reward and sustain you from port to port, through today and tomorrow. With these wishes for you, upon the occasion of your graduation, may I also add —Bon Voyage and Godspeed. Sincerely, Charles A. Davis, Principal

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ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT How often we have walked the beautiful shores of our beloved Isle and returned home with arms full of shiny stones, grotesque yet graceful pieces of driftwood and dozens of other objects the sea around us has left at our feet. How often too have these same finds piled up in the corners of our home never to be enjoyed again. Sometimes we become dismayed as we walk through the shops and galleries during the summer and see similar objects no longer castaways, but because of the keen eye of some creative being, turned into prizes to be purchased by those who come to enjoy our Island. The shoreline lies before you. The waters will continue to ebb and flow—shaping, molding, smoothing, aging. You all will walk this shoreline. Some of you will walk with sunglassed eyes seeing little of what is around you. Others will pick and choose taking away pockets full of relics, old and new, to place upon the shelf unused. Some of you will walk with sharpened eyes—seeing beyond the shiny exterior, the grotesque shape, the weatherworn surface, and will make from this driftwood something meaning¬ ful and beautiful not only for yourselves, but for others. My wish for you would be that the driftwood that passes beneath your feet might be made into something of importance, and that as you start your journey, your eyes might be looking for those opportunities others may have passed by; so that you, when you reach your destination, will have pockets full of experiences, hands full of ideas, and minds filled with creative thoughts that will make your life and the lives of those you associate with more beautiful and worthwhile. Harry H. Ryder Assistant Superintendent 9

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GUIDANCE The seas are mankind ' s last frontier on this planet. For ages, islanders that we are, we have treated the great waters as little more than hunting grounds for fishermen, highways for ships. Now we are awakening to see that invisible beneath the waves lies a vast, virgin territory . . . Man at last has the scientific capability and mastery to meet the challenge . . . However, if man is to get more from the sea, he must start by obtaining more knowledge of it. This quote from Life magazine shows some lack of insight in stating mankind ' s last frontier that is more important and necessary for the class of 1967 to investigate. This other frontier is just as vast and expansive as that of the sea. It has the great powers of the sea such as to conceive life or to destroy life; to cripple another or to succor another. Both frontiers have a unique beauty that sometimes is illusive and at other times overpowering. Both have depth that has yet to be sounded. The riches of the sea are truly great; however, the riches of this other frontier are even greater. The parallels of these two frontiers are almost limitless; yet the comparison of the sea and you as a person is a very real thing. As President Kennedy said, The knowledge of the ocean is more than a matter of curiosity; our very survival may hinge on it. I maintain that knowledge and understanding of yourselves is more than curiosity. Your very survival in this life and the next does definitely hinge on it. It is my sincere hope that when you are sounding the depth of your person, you are not drowned by the impersonalness of our modern world. John Ahern Guidance Director I I