CLEARFIELD – Back in September of 2013, alumni members of the Clearfield Area High School Class of 1973 learned that their friend and classmate Gerald Read died during a domestic terrorist attack in Alexandria, Va.
Classmates remembered after graduating from Clearfield Area High School, Read went on to have an exemplary career with the military serving in military law enforcement and information systems management, serving in South Korea, and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Army.
Read also served with the U.S. Army Materiel Command, supervising efforts to supply and maintain forces deployed overseas during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Following his retirement from the military, Read moved into civilian service as an information assurance specialist with the Navy Sea Systems Command.
It was in this position where he was working the day of the terrorist attack at the U.S. Navy Yard, Washington, D.C., on Monday, Sept. 16, 2013.
As the attack unfolded, Read’s actions were heroic as he protected and shielded a female co-worker from the shooter and lost his own life as a result.
In the immediate aftermath of the news, Read’s classmates from the Clearfield Area High School Class of 1973 organized the Gerald Read Memorial Scholarship with the Clearfield County Charitable Foundation.
Within a few months, the scholarship committee was ready to award the first scholarship in honor of Gerald Read to a graduate of the Clearfield Area High School Class of 2014.
One of the main criteria the committee decided on was to award the scholarship to an Eagle Scout in recognition of the same rank Gerald Read attained during his time in the Boy Scouts.
The scholarship committee has been able to award one scholarship each year for the last decade and decided to award two scholarships in 2024 marking 10 years of the scholarship.
Scholarship Committee Chairman Frank Barba said: “Over the last 10 years we’ve awarded the Gerald Read Memorial Scholarship, the committee has selected recipients that Gerald himself would be proud of.
“This year we identified two young men in Nicholas Vaow and Warren Diethrick who have represented themselves very well within their graduating class and with the Boy Scouts by attaining the rank of Eagle Scout.
“For the Class of 1973, we still feel a great loss from the death of our friend Gerald Read, but we continue to honor his memory with the scholarship and hope the recipients will carry on Gerald’s legacy.”
Barba concluded: “We welcome any donations to the Gerald Read Memorial Scholarship Fund. Donations can be mailed to the Clearfield County Charitable Foundation, P.O. Box 1442, Clearfield PA 16830 – make check payable to CCCF – Gerald Read Memorial Scholarship Fund or donate online by visiting www.clearfieldcharitablefoundation.org to make a secure donation via PayPal.”