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Ceremony continues decades-old scholarship tradition

Wed, 04/26/2017 - 11:45 am
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    Lynda McCluer presents the Desk and Derrick Club Scholarship to Connor Wolfe at the 2017 Graham High School Scholarship Awards Ceremony on Monday in the Memorial Auditorium. Leader photo by Thomas Wallner
newsdesk@grahamleader.com
More than 70 scholarships were handed out Monday night to the Graham High School class of 2017 during their scholarship awards ceremony at the Memorial Auditorium. The program has benefited seniors in Graham since 1972, according to historical information collected by former Dean of Students Pauline Guinn Jones. In 1972 GISD Superintendent Garth Baker appointed Jones to the position of dean of students and gave her the task of finding more scholarships for the school. At the time, the only scholarship available for students in Graham was the I.T. Kilmer Scholarship for $250. Jones worked fast to get together as many scholarships as she could find around from community organizations in Graham. She visited the Rotary Club, Lions Club, Kiwanis Club and the business owners downtown. By the cutoff time, she had accumulated 25 scholarships for the presentation in the high school auditorium. In order to encourage more scholarship donations, Jones decided to publish a booklet and spent many hours organizing the information and monetary amounts for each scholarship. Jones said GHS was the first high school in Texas to publish a scholarship booklet, and over time the program grew to the point where they had professional printers publishing the scholarship booklet. The program outgrew the high school auditorium by 1978 and moved into the Memorial Auditorium, where it is still held today. Jones retired in 1997, and during that final year for her the school gave away 100 scholarships amounting to $149,000. “We are grateful to live in a community that chooses to honor the graduating seniors in such a generous way,” Graham High School Principal Joe Gordy said. The following list details the scholarships and student awarded: For the rest of this story, subscribe to our print or online edition.