Summary

In the stone chapel on the Welton Academy campus, 300 boys sit on either side of the aisle as a procession led by an old man in a flowing robe and carrying a candle followed by four students carrying banners pass by. Each banner has one word written across it: Honor, Discipline, Excellence and Tradition. There is bagpipe music playing and proud parents sit in the pews watching the proceeding.

Headmaster Gale Nolan welcomes everyone and indicates that the old man who is lighting the unlit candles of boys sitting in the front row is passing the “light of knowledge.” It was 1959 and the 100th year since the school’s establishment. Sixteen-year-old Todd Anderson stands and volunteers the four pillars of the school: Honor, Discipline, Excellence and Tradition. The success of the new boys depends on adhering to those four pillars. Nolan has four...