AKRON - Ten alumni of Tippecanoe Valley High School inspired current students and the community with their stories Friday.
The alumni were recognized by the school corporation as "Distinguished Alumni".
In his welcoming remarks to the alumni, Superintendent Brett Boggs said the group was the first to be recognized.
"We hope it will be an annual event," Boggs said.
He said he appreciated the alumni for taking time off work to participate in day-long program to honor them.
"Some of you had to take a day off work for this, and some of you had to take several days off work," Boggs said.
The 10 distinguished alumni include 1989 graduate Dion Anglin, U.S. Marine; 2006 graduate Joe Cook, U.S. Marine; 1989 graduate Jerrod Feldman, pediatrician; 2000 graduate Matt Shilling, president of Ocearch; 1996 graduate Eric Rodenberg, research scientist; 1999 graduate Sara Kerkhoff Rundell, attorney; 2004 graduate Britton Burkhart, pilot; 1982 graduate Paula Shireman, vascular surgeon; 1977 graduate Kirk Robinson, of Pike Lumber Co.; and 1996 graduate Amanda Alexander, a professor.
Cook was the first to arrive at TVHS Friday morning, and the youngest of the alumni being honored. Before the other nine arrived, he shared a bit of his story.
A 2006 Valley graduate, Cook enlisted in the U.S. Marines before he even finished school.
"I've always wanted to be in the Marines ever since I was a little kid," Cook said.
After enlisting and completing school, Cook went to boot camp and pre-training in California. From there, he transferred to Missouri for military police training. Then he went to Camp LeJeune, North Carolina, for more training.
After two weeks, Cook said he was sent to Iraq. He was part of a group on a police mission to get an Iraqi town stabilized. They had to weed out the corrupt cops in the town and put in new ones.
Later, Cook returned to the states and received more training and went through more classes.
He found out he was going to be sent to Afghanistan.
"We had to get all our work-ups done for two months," Cook said.
First they were told they weren't going. But then that changed, and they were deployed to Afghanistan.
Cook said the mission in Afghanistan was about the same as it had been in Iraq. However, a larger group was being sent.
Cook said the logistics in Afghanistan were chaotic. The troops were in the middle of nowhere.
"I would hate to be a cop out there because there's too much space to cover and it's just bad," Cook said.
After he returned to the states, he could either choose to stay in North Carolina or be sent to Japan. He chose the States.
Now, Cook is a provost marshal officer.
"Basically, a cop. We police our own," he said.
Receiving the news he was going to be one of the distinguished alumni was a nice surprise to Cook.
"I got a phone call from my parents. Someone had sent letter and wanted my address," said Cook.
He said he figured Burket Education Center's Micah Lukens had something to do with his nomination.
"I thought it was kind of nice," Cook said. "... My parents, my wife's parents and my wife (Megan) are proud of me."
Cook said Lukens encouraged him to go for his Core 40 diploma instead of just the general education degree.
"He was just an all-around good teacher," Cook said.
Asked what he remembers most about his Valley education, Cook said, "Mostly the teachers. A lot of the teachers were what made it."Cook has 10 months left as a Marine. After that, his plans are to work around Megan's plans to finish up college.
The alumni spent most of the day Friday talking to current TVHS students. They each gave four 15- to 20-minute presentations.
After lunch and meeting individually with students, the alumni met with the Rochester Telephone Co. for interviews. The interviews will be shown on RTC's cable channel and streamed online.
A community dinner was scheduled for 5 p.m., with interviews by Rita Price of WRSW. The alumni then participated in a meet-and-greet at the home football game, and a presentation of plaques was held at halftime.
