Marblehead grads remember injured classmate

MARBLEHEAD – Of the 230-plus students that graduated from Marblehead High School Sunday afternoon, none were received with the eruption of applause of Ben Farrar – and he wasn?t even in the room.Farrar?s longtime best friend Ty Urlich, also of Marblehead, accepted Farrar?s diploma on his behalf since he was unable to attend the ceremony. While his classmates donned the red and black gowns, Farrar remained in bed at Massachusetts General Hospital, paralyzed after an incident during a class trip to France in April when he dove into shallow water at a beach and hit his head against the bottom of the ocean, crushing vertebrae in his neck.When co-valedictorian Hillman Hollister called for Benjamin Samuel Farrar, Urlich, wearing a blazer and khaki pants among cap and gowns, crossed the stage and rounded the gym of Marblehead High School holding Farrar?s diploma to the loudest applause of the afternoon.Ulrich said Farrar was still unable to speak because of his condition, but he asked Urlich to go to the graduation. Urlich said he was driving to the hospital to give the diploma to his friend after the ceremony.Urlich, who started with the Class of 2015 before leaving to pursue his education with online classes, said with tears in his eyes, when asked how he felt to walk among his old classmates, “It kind of (stinks) that he?s not here. He should be here.”Field hockey coach Linda Rice Collins, who attended the ceremony, said she had heard Farrar was watching the graduation through Skype, though principal assistant Margot Ivers could not confirm that.The expression of friendship was one Hollister addressed in his class president speech. Hollister defied cliques in his speech when he claimed that his classmates were all friends.?You may hesitate in calling us friends,” said Hollister, “but to you I pose a question: What do you call a group of people who have had experiences together ? what do you call a group of people who respect each other regardless of gender, race or sexual orientation?”Hollister recalled the last decade he spent with members of his class, how each of them had found common ground despite their independent interests. Though each had individual insecurities, they had bonded through experiences of high school together.Hollister?s fellow valedictorian, Joshua Lederman, brought the class back to a reality a bit, telling them that the next phase of their lives was at hand.?Today,” he said, “we take our first step into the world of self-sufficiency.”When concluding, Hollister chose not to congratulate his class on past accomplishments or to wish the best in a future spent without his friends. He, instead, chose to thank them for their friendship and support. “Congratulations to the Class of 2015,” he said, “for being the first and best friends I have ever had.”