NJROTC bids farewell to retiring Floyd Central principal

By TARA HETTINGER
Tara.Hettinger@newsandtribune.com

May 08, 2008 11:03 am

— In Floyd Central High School’s gym, 66 FCHS and Lanesville High School cadets lined up in front of the audience filled with family members, teachers and friends.
Normally, at the Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps’ annual awards banquet, they do a marching program, showing off their skills.
This year, they decided to get creative and make a program honoring Principal John Marsh, who is retiring after 36 years in the education field.
Marsh sat in the front row, watching as each of the five platoons acted out his life from birth through retirement.
In the retirement stage, Evan Whitten, 18, played older Marsh, who was sitting under the bell tower, reading an AARP paper. Then he heard one of his favorite songs, “Cotton-Eyed Joe,” and used his walker to get up and join the other cadets in a dance party.
“It was amazing and so much fun,” Whitten said about playing Marsh.
Other skits included marching to a rap song, which portrayed Marsh’s freedom in teaching, dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” which showed his college years and nuns teaching young Marsh in elementary school.
To get ideas, students interviewed Marsh. However, they said the answers were boring, so they decided to spice it up.
“I’m truly touched and I appreciate the effort they put into it,” Marsh said. “It was a lot of fun. It was a treat.”
When asked how close the skits depicted his life, he said with a smile, “Not totally, but close enough.”
For many of the cadets, performing in front of such a large crowd was not in the norm.
“I was a little nervous, but it went pretty well,” Jason Minton, 16, said.
“It was invigorating,” Katelyn Spainhour, 17, said. “I told my platoon to just use the energy from the crowd to get rid of nerves.”
Barbara Brace said some parents had told her that previous performances were boring. However, she said this year’s was anything but.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “But I loved it. I thought it was very good.”
As for saying goodbye after 14 years as principal, Marsh said he has mixed feelings.
“It’s bittersweet. It really is,” he said. “Kids keep you young.”

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