Speaker cracks jokes at Tunstall graduation

A mid-ceremony distribution of water bottles provided a bit of relief for the 182 graduating Trojans on the Tunstall High School’s athletic field Saturday afternoon.

“Do the right thing and everything else will follow,” Don Merricks, representative of the 16th district to the Virginia House of Delegates and 1970 graduate of Tunstall, said.

Merricks cracked plenty of jokes with graduates and the hundreds of family members and friends who filled the stands and said he hoped his speech wouldn’t be too boring.

He encouraged students to go to college or to continue to educate themselves, saying that most jobs in our current workforce require more than just high school diplomas. He told students they were responsible for their own futures.

“The world is full of good intentions,” Merricks said, “but (intending to do something) and actually doing something are two entirely different things.”

Co-valedictorians Kevin J. Hill and Katie Conover also offered reflections on their time at high school, and thoughts about what the future holds for them and their classmates. Hill used his speech to point out the shifting nature of the world economy and how that affects traditional Southern industries like tobacco and manufacturing.

“Adaptability and the ability to accept change and work in a global economy” are crucial, he said.

He said he’s sure he and his classmates will, in line with longstanding American tradition, be able to overcome the “bleak economic outlook.”

Conover offered a few thoughts about the best ways to approach the future.

She said it was important to enter every next phase of life with “courage, knowledge, passion and friendship.” She said it was important to think about how they would find their paths and who they would meet along the way.

“Don’t let anyone get in the way our dreams,” she said.

Thirty-nine of the seniors were Commonwealth Scholars, 22 received a Civics Education Seal and 11 participated in the Governor’s School Program. Absent from the ceremony was Daniel Lewis, who died tragically in a car wreck in June 2006. His parents, Thomas and Wendy Lewis, accepted an honorary diploma and yearbook on his behalf.

Printed on the program was the old Chinese proverb: “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

“I sense that as graduates,” Conover said, “we are all eager to take that step.”

Contact Sarah Arkin at or (434) 791-7983.