Family and friends gathered last night at the Tyrone Area High School auditorium to celebrate the school\u2019s 122nd commencement ceremony.
\nMembers of the TAHS Class of 2006 gathered together one more time to celebrate the end of one journey and the beginning of many to come.
\nSeveral students participated in last evening\u2019s ceremony.
\nThe commencement invocation prayer was given by Christopher Clark, offering reassurance from the wisdom of the words of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.
\nSalutatorian Tiffany Bradford offered the 2006 commencement greeting and introduced the guest speaker.
\nThis year\u2019s attendees heard some wisdom for living from a hometown speaker who has spent his life as a public servant.
\nFor their 122nd commencement ceremonies, the Tyrone School Board invited one of the school\u2019s most distinguished alumni to address the Class of 2006 \u2013 the honorable Samuel E. Hayes Jr.
\nAs a student, soldier, high school teacher, legislator, agriculture secretary, college instructor and family man, Mr. Hayes has touched the lives of countless citizens in this state, this country and the world, as well as family and friends in his hometown.
\nSam Hayes Jr. graduated from Tyrone High in 1958, when the high school stood on Lincoln Avenue, and when the school conducted commencement from the Wilson Theatre, now the home of Burger King.
\nFollowing high school, Hayes advanced his education at Penn State University and graduated from the university with a bachelor of science degree. Eventually, he earned a masters degree in education, along with his principal certification.
\nAfter his college graduation, Mr. Hayes joined the Army for five years and served his country as a soldier in the Vietnam War in Asia, where he earned the Bronze Star.
\nUpon his return to Tyrone from Southeast Asia, Mr. Hayes worked as teacher of history and geography at Tyrone Area High School from 1968 until 1970.
\nBeginning in 1970, and continuing for 22 years until 1992, Mr. Hayes served his town, state and country as a legislator and lawmaker in the House of Representatives.
\nIn 1997, Republican Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge appointed Mr. Hayes to his cabinet as Secretary of Agriculture, until 2003, when he became a trustee at Penn State University.
\nPresently, Mr. Hayes volunteers as an instructor at Huntingdon\u2019s Juniata College and Mexico\u2019s University of Guanajuato.
\nThe farewell speech was given by class Valedictorian, Kristen Gurekovich.
\nGurekovich shared with students, \u201cThis is the last time we will be together as the class of 2006…but whether we go far away or stay close to home, our memories will tie us together. They will keep us grounded on our journey through life.\u201d
\nPaige Black then gave the benediction prayer to end the ceremony, praying for guidance in the days ahead, and expressing gratitude for the journey so far.
\nShe prayed, \u201cLord, give us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference. May we find the light and the way in our new day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Family and friends gathered last night at the Tyrone Area High School auditorium to celebrate the school\u2019s 122nd commencement ceremony. Members of the TAHS Class of 2006 gathered together one more time to celebrate the end of one journey and the beginning of many to come. Several students participated in last evening\u2019s ceremony. The commencement […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}