Huntington High School’s Class of 1971 presented $6,000 in scholarships to eight spectacular members of the Class of 2022 during this year’s senior academic scholarships and awards ceremony.
Class of 1971 members Claudia Mingin and Laraine Schrippa were on hand for the festivities, addressing a crowd of about 300 gathered in the high school auditorium and making the formal announcement of the award recipients and presenting each with a scholarship.
The scholarships were presented in honor of the 50th reunion of the Class of 1971, which totaled nearly 570 graduates.
Cristian Avelar-Romero (Cornell University), Harrison Krywak (York College of Pennsylvania) and Ryan Porzio (Washington and Lee University) captured $1,000 awards. Cassidy Casabona (University of Pennsylvania) and Jazlyn Chapas Oliva (Hofstra University) garnered $750 scholarships. Skyler James (SUNY College at Cortland), Jonatan Moreno Moreira (Suffolk Community College) and Felipe Villanueva (University of Rochester) claimed $500 awards.
Huntington’s Class of 1971 was sent off into the world at the high school’s 110th annual commencement exercises on Sunday, June 27, 1971 at 3 p.m.
The class was led by valedictorian Thomas Darling and salutatorian Donald Lurye. Clifford Murray was the principal and William F. Keough, Jr.
A native of Waltham, Massachusetts and a graduate of Boston College, Mr. Keough was a teacher and administrator in Vermont, Massachusetts and New York, serving as a superintendent in Bedford, Mass., Burlington, Vt. And Huntington. He later left Huntington and became superintendent of the American School in Teheran, Iran in May 1978 before being reassigned to head the American School in Islamabad, Pakistan upon the fall of the Shah of Iran.
Mr. Keough, who stood a towering 6’9, returned to the US Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979 to collect student records when the embassy was seized by militant students. He was among the 52 hostages held for 444 days before finally being released on January 20, 1981. During his time held captive, he became a spokesman for the hostages.
After returning to the United States, Mr. Keough worked for the US Department of Education and lived in Washington, DC. Within a year of his release, he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the degenerative nervous system disease that’s more widely known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He died of the disease on November 27, 1985.
The Class of 1971 included four National Merit Finalists in Stephen Gagne, Donald Lurye, Henry Krigsman and William Rathke.
National Merit Commended Students included Joseph Arrigo, Arthur Brodsky, Mark Bronstein, Wallace Cox, Thomas Darling, Patricia Dougherty, Janet Fieldgate, Amy Foster, Garry Hanlon, Derek Holcomb, Peter Isakson, Patricia Joyce, Linda Kade, Katherine Keates, Deidre Kelly, Marc Levin, Ann Lister, Sylvia Long, Douglas Mailman, Robert Morrison, Suzanna Nemeth, Peter Roeder, Jay Rosenstone, George Sard, William Schollard, Robert Schectman, David Shepherd, David Sohn and Judith Staudenmaier.