Scarborough High School - Four Corners Yearbook (Scarborough, ME)

Page 11 text:

FOUR CORNERS NORMAN WEBSTER LAUGHTON On May 3, 1921, the student body and community at large were saddened to learn of the death o( Norman Webster Laughton, President of the Senior class at Scarborough High School. Seldom has the death of a student meant so much to the school or been so deeply mourned as the passing of this brilliant student, genial personality, and upright, splendid, young manhood. Norman Webster Laughton was born in Portland, Maine, May 30, 1903, the son of Mr. and Mrs. A. A. Laughton. His early education was obtained in the grammar school at Dunstan where his parents had made their residence. Graduating from that school with high rank and the love of all his schoolmates, he entered Scarborough High School in the fall of 1017. In high school, as in the grades, his scholarship was undis¬ puted and his popularity unquestioned. Compelled by the handicap of a frail body to forego the sports which he gladly would have entered, he devoted his talents to the maintenance of a high grade of scholarship, winning the valedictory with an average of over ninety-one despite many days of enforced absence. Even when obliged to leave school about two months ago on account of fast failing health, he kept up his studies until no longer able to do so. During his Junior year he developed into an orator of surprising ability, winning a bronze medal in the preliminary contest at Scarborough, and getting a unanimous decision for the silver medal at Cape Elizabeth High School in the final event, thus doing a large share in securing the coveted trophy. In his Senior year he showed the public another side of his exceedingly versatile ability by doing one of the cleverest bits of amateur comedy acting ever seen in any high school play. As the “Bashful Mr. Bobbs” he scored a decided hit. His whimsical interpretation of the lines is a memory that will never be forgotten by those who heard the play. As the readers of this paper, of which Norman was the editor-in-chief, turn the pages, may they think of him whose life work was scarcely begun, but so well done that it leaves the impression of completeness rarely attained by those who have journeyed longer on the highway of life. Of such youth has the poet written: “These laid the world away; poured out the red Sweet wine of youth; gave up the years to be Of work and joy, and that unhoped serene That men call age.”

Page 10 text:

FOUR CORNERS NORMAN WEBSTKR LAUGHTON tad of ours, von have gone from 11 s, With a smile and a wave of the hand : She gulf that bridges the Great Unknown llour strong, brave soul has spanned. Had of ours, you have gone from us, IHith your cheery jest and fun : (find spoke, and you turned to answer Him, And your life’s short tale was done. Had of ours, tho’ you’ve gone from us, lion have found the shining way Shat leads past the cloud-rimmed Western gates So the golden Land of Day. Shrough fields of Life, untouched by pain, 3n lairer paths untrod: Unfettered in Eternity, llour soul walks on with God. F. V. 13.

Page 12 text:

4 FOUR CORNERS As he lay amid the dowers with the sweetness that he loved, with the still, white seal of immortality on his forehead, we sorrowed for the loved friend and dear school¬ mate whose voice had been so swiftly stilled, and for the parents who have the echoes and memory of that loved son as a silent token. His was a brave fight against the odds of illness, but God willed that his battle, unyielding as it was, should end, and he went “Unstumbling, unreluctant, strong, unknowing. Borne by a Will not his, that lifts, that grows. Sweeps out to Darkness, triumphing in his goal. Out of the fire, out of the little room — There is an end appointed, O my Soul!”