March 2, 2007

The past came face-to-face with the future last Saturday when alumni of Garden High School passed the torch to the spanking new College of Pharmacy of The University of Appalachia.

On a stage that saw thousands of high school diplomas handed out to proud graduates since the late 1940s, ceremonies launched a new concept in graduate pharmacy education that will result in doctoral diplomas that will be awarded to graduates for years to come.

It was a milestone in emotions for dozens of Garden graduates who attended the school years ago. The stately old building, built in the late ‘30s by CCC workers, was the social epicenter of Oakwood before being demoted to house Garden Elementary when a new school was built up the road at Keen Mountain. When the high school was consolidated with Whitewood High School across the mountain and renamed Twin Valley, the stately old building sat empty until the College of Pharmacy came to its rescue.

And rescue it was. The building was deeded to the University of Appalachia in 2005, and after a makeover of wizard proportions, instruction for the Class of 2008 began last December.

“The University of Appalachia College of Pharmacy offers Virginia's only three-year accelerated Doctor of Pharmacy Program, an innovative educational approach that saves students one year in tuition and related educational expenses and allows them to enter the job market a year before graduates from conventional four-year pharmacy schools,” its brochure proudly advertises.

Grundy attorney Mickey McGlothlin was the master of ceremonies for last Saturday’s two-hour program. The row of speaking dignitaries on the stage included attorney Frank Kilgore, the brainchild of the pharmacy school, and the founder of the University of Appalachia. Frank is an awesome machine of determination; the school is an impressive testimony to his can-do spirit.

Keynoting was another prominent attorney, Elizabeth McClanahan, who now sits on the Virginia Court of Appeals. Judge McClanahan, daughter of Jesse and the late Roger McClanahan of Oakwood (and cousin of our own Sue Richmond), is a striking personage. She was a Garden High graduate who earned her doctor of jurisprudence at William and Mary. Her resume is indeed impressive.

So was her keynote speech.

She began be recalling her days at Garden, proudly displaying her pompoms and her letter jacket to a sampled soundbyte of “China Grove” by the Doobie Brothers. But the amazing fact is that she is battling breast cancer, and as Frank Kilgore said later in an e-mail, “Justice McClanahan's bravery is unmatched. Having just undergone breast cancer surgery in January and her first chemo treatment three days before our event, she brought down the house with her humor, grace and style. As a graduate of the old high school we now call home, she was moved by what she saw.”

He underscored everyone’s appreciation for her by adding, “It could not have gone better for our school, the community and the students and employees.”

Former GHS principal Janie Owens also wrote in an e-mail this week, “As long as I live, I doubt that I will ever hear a better speech than the one Elizabeth made. She was right on — her tribute to the school and her personal story that highlighted the importance of the Pharmacy school...”

Capping the ceremonies, Bill Coxton, Class of ‘57 and president of the newly organized Garden Alumni Association, presented a symbolic key of the home of the Green Dragons to the president of the School of Pharmacy, Dr. Eleanor Sue Cantrell.

The warmth of the celebration was cemented with a special salute to the one person who undoubtedly had more influence than anyone as the social moderator of the times that belonged to Garden’s alumni — Mrs. Grace Wooldridge.

Still a spry presence — even with the assistance of a wheelchair — Mrs. Wooldridge turned 97 in December. She has had some heart issues, but the eyes are as focused as that long-ago day when she sat behind the piano in that same gym and told a curious 5th-grade youngster that the melody she was playing was “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin. I have never forgotten that moment.

Many of her loyal Gardenaires — a high school singing club she organized in the ‘50s — were on stage in her honor. In lilting voices, they remembered in song “the day we tore the gold posts down”, and other “Moments to Remember.”

Saturday, February 24, 2007, will be a moment to remember for all who were there.

Thanks, Frank Kilgore, for making the School of Pharmacy a reality.

Thanks, Mickey McGlothlin, for guidance as chairman of the University of Appalachia Board of Trustees.

And a special thanks to Grace for helping shape my long career in journalism.

Tom Colley is executive editor of the Daily Telegraph.

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