Enjoy our online photo album of Spring Graduation 2008. Thanks to Marie Freeman ’85 for these great pictures!

RSVP to Francy Thompson at mooreappalachian@earthlink.net

Click image to see larger version:

Graham Bunn ’03, former Mountaineer guard.

Paul Mance ’70, head wrestling coach at Appalachian, will be inducted into the North Carolina Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame for his lifetime service to the wrestling. Mance will be permanently recognized at the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Scarlet Monroe Pettit ’97 and Tom Pettit are proud to announce the birth of a baby boy, William Monroe. He was born on April 14, 2008 in Atlanta, GA, Northside Hospital, and weighed 9 lb., 15 oz.. Parents are doing fine and grandparents are thrilled to have a new grandchild to spoil.

Sonja Fischer McKay ’00 has been selected by the Kenan Fellows Program for Curriculum and Leadership Development at North Carolina State University as a Class of 2010 Kenan Fellow. She will engage in a two-year fellowship sponsored by MeadWestvaco to develop innovative curricula for use in North Carolina classrooms while working with mentor William Beck from MeadWestvaco.

Gretchen Woodall Krueger ’99, ’00 was named North Carolina High School Counselor of the Year and was honored in Washington, DC as one of the ten finalists for National School Counselor of the Year. Gretchen is a counselor at Greenhope High School in Wake County.

You can read more Class Notes - and submit your own with photos - in the Gold Book.

Rookie sixth-round draft pick Corey Lynch might already be one of the most popular Bengals among their Ohio fan base - if only for blocking the potential game-winning field-goal in Appalachian State’s upset of Michigan last season. But the safety is determined to have a lasting effect on and off the field in Cincinnati.

A Christian married to a granddaughter of the evangelist Rev. Billy Graham, Lynch is a clean-living man coming to a team dragged down in recent years, in part, by some of its players’ legal problems.

“They are trying to turn things around, so I was kind of expecting they’d take me,” Lynch said. “Talk is cheap. Live right and everything will be good.”

Lynch, who started 55 of 56 career games for Appalachian State, which won three NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA) national titles, is participating this weekend in the Bengals’ rookie minicamp at Paul Brown Stadium.

With six career blocked kicks, including the one at Michigan that preserved the Mountaineers’ 34-32 upset, he’s determined to contribute immediately on special teams.

“The difference in me than most guys is (that) I enjoy playing special teams,” he said. “It’s one of my passions because one yard, especially in the NFL, is a big difference.”

Lynch might not be far behind as a defensive player. He had 24 interceptions and 358 tackles in college.

“To have the number of tackles he did, 24 interceptions in his career, not many guys ever to play college football have ever had that many interceptions,” Bengals defensive backs coach Kevin Coyle said.

“His ability to block kicks and make big plays, we just found him to be a football player in all respects. Solid tackler, very intelligent, has all those kind of qualities of strong leadership by example with the way he works and the way he studies.”

No character questions here. Lynch relishes the chance to have an even greater influence off the field. More…