800 watch Columbiana Class of 2008 graduate

COLUMBIANA — The Columbiana High School Class of 2008 valedictorian likened school to the fuzzy confines of a Kanagroo pouch and said leaving means being independent.

Benjamin J. Gerlach addressed his 60-plus classmates Sunday afternoon for the 126th senior commencement.

“It’s the first day of the rest of our lives,” the honors student said from the microphone. He wished everyone luck and to his friends added “I miss you already.”

Outside, after the ceremony, Gerlach said his plans include attending the University of Akron to major in zoology and then research after his degree.

Graduates’ friends and family, roughly 800, filled bleachers in the gym for the commencement that lucked out with a warm sunny day. As the graduates — boys in red, girls in white — filed in to “Pomp and Circumstance,” performed by the concert band, photographers captured the moment for posterity with flash cameras and video recorders.

Speakers had a backdrop of a giant Clipper airship mural. A news photo outside the gymnasium carries an explanation of how the Columbiana Clippers got their name. The press in the late 1930s dubbed a former CHS graduate who excelled at football at Ohio State University the “Columbiana Clipper” because, like the airship, he was fast, reliable and ran for long distances.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.