ORANGE — It was at the Mahar Regional School graduation ceremony of 1962, when state Sen. Ralph C. Mahar, the school’s namesake, gave some words of advice to the graduating seniors: “May you always have faith in yourselves, whatever hardships may develop in the years ahead. May you be individuals in the sense that you make up your minds, that you think straight and that you stand on your own two feet. May you have a sense of social conscience which shows concern for your fellow man, and yet may I urge you to beware of the philosophy of those who advocate something for nothing.”

The 159 graduating seniors — now alumni — of the Ralph C. Mahar Regional School heard those same exact words at Friday night’s graduation ceremony, echoed 57 years later by Class of 2019 President Tori Tenney, who quoted Mahar in her farewell address to classmates from Orange, Wendell, New Salem and Petersham.