JCHS honored senior class

Twenty-five years ago this week, Jay County High School was honoring its seniors.

The May 14, 1996, edition of The Commercial Review featured coverage of JCHS’s Honors Night festivities.

Local students received more than $368,000 in scholarships, grants and awards, including $207,000 from local donors.

Among the honors were:

•Orie Poole receiving the first Randy Poole Memorial Scholarship in honor of his uncle, a JCHS social studies teacher who was killed in a traffic accident the previous year.

•Travis Hammond earning the first Randy O. Poole Mental Attitude Award. He also received the Redkey Gamma Nu scholarship and the Portland Rotary Club scholarship.

•Craig Evans being named the school’s first recipient of the Eisenhower Memorial Award. He also earned the Bausch and Lomb science award, a Marine Corps scholastic excellence award and the President’s Academic Fitness Award, and he was named a Hoosier Scholar.

•Andrew Reitz receiving the Presidential Scholarship, Leadership Scholarship and Goodrich Memorial Scholarship, all from Wabash College.

•Lauranne Beeler earning the first Portland Panther Scholarship. She also received theatre arts and student council awards, as well as the Portland Delta Theta Tau scholarship.

•Travis Brown picking up honors including a math award, a Marine Scholar-Athlete Award and a Portland Lions Club scholarship.

Earning Jay Classroom Teachers Association scholarships were Jonathan Ford, Brent Geesaman, Chris Ralph and Laramie VanSkyock. And receiving Ball State University presidential scholarships were Jacqueline Doyle, Emily Hedges and Kenneth Schmit.