R.D. Wood School inducts Wall of Fame members for 13th year
MILLVILLE - Is R.D. Wood School the best in Millville?
You could get an argument on that belief, but you couldn’t get it inside Wood School. And Wednesday night would have been a bad time to try it.
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Wood School, which opened in 1915, culled its decades of enrollment lists to settle on a new foursome of inductees to its Wall of Fame. The group answered the call Wednesday night in a ceremony in its all-purpose room.
The 2016 additions are Eleanor Booz Cain, easily the oldest at age 92; local businessman David Mitchell; Greg McGraw, last year hired as principal for the Cumberland County Technical Education Center; and Naia Cucukov Picot, now a California resident working in the film industry and the executive producer on Steven Spielberg’s upcoming film “The BFG.”
“As principal, I am asked by many students, ‘Who are people up on the wall here at Wood School?’ ” Principal Harry Drew said. “My answer is always, ‘These are people who went to Wood School and are shining examples of what a great person is.’ ”
Former Mayor Tim Shannon was master of ceremonies, and the annual event also was attended by former Mayor and current Freeholder James Quinn and all three 1st Legislative District legislators.
“There is a time when you actually shape adult human beings — their hearts, and their souls, and their minds — and so much happens at an age when children are in a school like this,” state Sen. Jeff Van Drew said.
“It might not be the richest school in the world or the fanciest school in the world,” Van Drew said. “But it’s a school with a great deal of heart.”
Cain was introduced by her daughter, former Wood School teacher Bonnie Shropshire.
Cain for many years was president of the Parent Teacher Association at Wood School as well as R.M. Bacon School. Her daughter also is a Wall of Fame member.
“Teachers in this school were always fabulous,” Cain said. “If you’re a parent and have a child here, be very, very happy. “Because this is the best school in Millville.”
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Mitchell, who was introduced by former fifth-grade teacher Jay Reed, started and owns Mitchell Products. The company makes sand products for golf courses as well as chemicals for sports turfs, and it operates globally.
He also is chairman of the nonprofit Millville Urban Redevelopment Corp. His brother, Michael, also is a Wall of Fame member.
“I can say with confidence I feel like I learned more from the group of teachers I had at this school than probably any school since then all the way through college,” Mitchell said. “I got from this school a work ethic that the teachers instilled, the understanding that to get a good grade you had to work for it. And, to carry that forward, that to achieve anything you had to work hard to do that.
“And I think sometimes, we look across our country and so many things going on and you’re not sure that that message is carried through quite the way it should be any more,” he added. “But it is very nice to know that a school like this still exists.”
McGraw, who was introduced by Leslie Hurley, is the son of former Wood School secretary Gladis McGraw. She was chairwoman for this year’s event.
McGraw was a member of the University of Nebraska championship football teams in 1995 and 1997. He formerly taught and coached at Cumberland Regional High School.
“I have many great memories from Wood School,” McGraw said. “It’s where I made my first friends. It’s where I developed my first crush. … It really laid the academic foundation for me that I was able to build upon in high school and college and beyond.”
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McGraw said Wood School “first and foremost” is a neighborhood school. He credited his mother with a role in keeping it that way.
“When I talk about this school being really the center, the backbone, of this community, one person, throughout my life anyway, has always really embodied that,” he said.
Picot, who was introduced by Kim O’Neill, is a Brown University graduate now working as vice president of development and production at Walden Media in California. She co-produced the award-winning short film “Departure Date,” which was the first film to be shot and edited on a plane.
One film she has worked on is “The Reading Promise,” written by Alice Ozma. Ozma is the daughter of retired Wood School librarian Jim Brozina.
“For me, Wood School was such a special place,” Picot said. “It really taught me the value of compassion, the value of community. I think we had amazing teachers and parents here at Wood School, and it made all the difference in the world.
“You know, I went to school with kids who had everything when I went to college,” she added. “The one thing that I really noticed is I had such a range of memories. And I think that’s something we shouldn’t take for granted.”
Joseph P. Smith: (856) 563-5252; jsmith@gannettnj.com