1966 CHS Grad Gives Commencement Address to 1993 Graduates

Mike Baldridge correctly guessed the identity of the 1966 grad who gave the CHS commencement address to the class of 1993.

Tim Schreiner was editor of the Oakland, CA, Tribune when he returned to Aberdeen to give the commencement address to Central's 1993 graduates. Speaking to a packed Civic Auditorium audience of graduates and parents,

He told them that life after high school begins a totally new life in which all previous problems and faults can be forgiven and forgotten. He told the graduates they could make anything of their life -- as long as they wanted it enough.

Schreiner mentioned 1966 graduates Dennis McDermott, who was the Central High Band director in 1993, and his late-friend Dan Cavanaugh, who was in the audience and who was the highest ranking manager in the phone company in eastern South Dakota at the time. "Dan Cavanaugh couldn't change a lightbulb when we were in high school," Schreiner joked with the graduates. "Now he's running the phone company."

Schreiner also mentioned the "spiders" and the "cranberries," two 1966 groups that wore letterman-type jackets with black leather sleeves. The spiders jackets were gray with black sleeves and the cranberries wore wine-color jackets with black sleeves. Some of the faculty thought the groups were gangs and gave them their names, which stuck. "We were just having fun," Schreiner said, "but some teachers thought we were serious."

A career journalist who worked at KELO-TV, KSFY-TV, Schreiner was the top editor at the Sioux Falls Argus Leader before becoming one of the founding staff of USA Today. He was Sunday City Editor and Special Projects Editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and Editor-in-Chief of the Oakland Tribune before moving to magazine journalism in the mid-1990s.

He edited and managed Fine Woodworking and Fine Homebuilding magazines before becoming editorial director of a company that published 12 different home design magazines. At the S.F. Chronicle, he edited a Pulitzer Prize winning series of architecture criticism. Before retiring 18 months ago, he spent the final two years of his career as Professional-in-Residence at the Journalism School at Louisiana State University. He was awarded a Bronze Star during his service in Vietnam.