Inside Story Behind the Neil Buckley Photo

I've got to make a comment on the Neil Buckley photo and see how many remember the circumstances surrounding Neil's sneaky way he came up with to grow that beard! The picture was taken in the Boys Room on the first floor about 2 days before Mr. "Speedy" Mead ordered it shaved off. I wanted to get that "angry James Dean" look (more correspondence influence!) and he kept smiling until I said " think of Mead ordering you to shave it off - or be suspended!" That got the look you see in the photo! I was proud of that - and with Neil's permission - later won 1st prize in a photo contest at the NY School of Photography - one of the reasons I was accepted for the residence course!

By the way - in case you don't remember - that "beard" thing started at Camp Mountain Run Scout Camp the summer before our senior year. Neil was trying to grow a goatee and we were ragging him about having to shave it off when school starts. He bet us a shake at Quigley's he could make it through the first month before he had to shave it. He told everyone he had burned his chin/face while working with gasoline on his car and wore the funkiest bandage to cover it. I still don't believe he got away with it for almost two weeks before some teacher got suspicious and Mr. Mead got involved. As I told PJ (Peggy Joe Knepp Thompson) - I took that picture about 2 days before he had to shave it!
- Orvis Kline