{As with the diary record of the completion of my senior year in high school, I am including a copy of the Valedictory Speech I presented for my graduating class on June 3, 1953.}
Friends, this evening has a twofold meaning. It is both a sad time and a joyous one. It is both an end and a beginning.
This evening is a sad time because it is the last time that we members of the Class of 1953 will be gathered together. Since this is our last full meeting, it is fitting that each of us counts his precious memories of the past twelve years.
Our parents, watching us graduate on this evening, remember our first day of school. To them it seems so short a time ago. Their precious children – yes, you and I – started then on a new life. Our parents now see us marking a new milestone in our lives. And they continue to remember.
And the members of the faculty, sitting there, remember, too. They remember the trials and tribulations we caused them. They perhaps now recall a more happy moment we brought them and perhaps they smile to themselves.
We Seniors, too, have our memories – memories of things learned and, more important perhaps, friends made. We sit here thinking of the happy times we’ve had together, from the talking on the school corner to the things done in class. Each has his own memories, each has his own treasures.
And remembering, we are sad. Sad because we are leaving the familiar halls of Niles McKinley. Sad because we are separating from friends. No doubt we shall visit these same halls and see these same friends. But the feeling of belonging, the feeling or sameness will be gone. We will strive to re-create these feelings but only the dim memories will be left. Yes, this is a sad evening.
But it is a joyous one, too. Our first goal has been reached; graduation is here. Before us lies the world, waiting to be conquered by each of us. And in our expectation of our future, this is a joyous evening.
This evening also marks an end and a beginning. Here in this stadium we end our lives as children and teenagers. Here we begin our lives as young men and young women of Niles, of Ohio, of the United States, yes, of the World.
Yesterday, nothing mattered except our own pleasures; how much we could get with the least effort. But tomorrow the world is ours; tomorrow we will vote for our freedom; tomorrow we will fight for our freedom; tomorrow we will continue to have our freedom.
Gone are the days of play; arrived are the days of work. No longer will our parents be able to take our minor troubles upon themselves; no longer will our teachers be able to encourage us to work. Now we must use what our parents and teachers have taught us; by using this education, we must better our lives. The life each of us now makes, depends only on the individual making it.
Yes, tonight is both an end and a beginning – the end of youth, the beginning of young adulthood. But thanks to our parents, teachers, and friends it has been a happy youth. It will be a prosperous adulthood.
Tonight we are united; tomorrow we each go a different way. Perhaps we will meet again – on a busy corner or perhaps at a class reunion. But our everyday paths part now.
Some of us will go on to colleges throughout this land. They will continue the book-learning begun at Niles McKinley. Others will begin working in factories. They, too, will continue the work begun by other McKinley alumni. Yes, each goes on; each continues what was started at our Alma Mater, our foster mother, Niles McKinley.
And so, on this evening of memories; this evening of joy and sadness; this evening of end and beginning, I say to you, our friends, our teachers, our parents – “vale” – “farewell.”