RECEPTION FRIDAY AT HIGH SCHOOL

Alumni Herring, Bard Join

Unatego Hall Of Distinction

UNADILLA – Herring Lumber Co. owner Charles W. Herring Jr. and Joseph Bard, retired executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Rural & Small Schools, will be inducted into the Unatego Hall of Distinction Friday, Jan. 25.

At reception begins at 5:30 p.m. in the high school cafeteria, with the induction planned between the JV and varsity boys’ basketball game between Unatego and Delaware Academy.  The public is welcome.

Charles Herring graduated from the Otego Central School in 1943 and soon thereafter enlisted in the Army Air Corps where he served with distinction as a gunner on a B-29 in the Pacific Theater.  Following his discharge at the end of the war, he attended Cornell University and graduated in 1950 with a degree in Agriculture and Animal Husbandry.

He returned to Otego after college and owned and operated the Herring Lumber Company for the next 30 years.  He was also a prolific volunteer in the community, serving a member of the Otego Volunteer Fire Department, Masonic Lodge, and the Unatego school board.

Joseph (Joe) Bard, a 1959 graduate of Otego Central, recently retired after 20 years as the executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Rural & Small Schools, capping a distinguished career of more than 50 years in public service.

Following his graduation from Hartwick College in 1963, Mr. Bard went on to teach at Unatego, in Connecticut and Kentucky.  He was a college administrator in Iowa and an investigator for the state Department of Human Rights, as well as serving in the Army.

He was chairman of the National Rural Education Advocacy Council for 10 years, a member of the Harrisburg, Pa., Board of Education, and for six years, was the  commissioner of Basic Education and deputy secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education for the State of Pennsylvania.