I can’t tell you how saddened I am to read Matthew Tully’s series of columns on Manual High School. I have not lived in Indianapolis in almost 40 years, but one of my biggest thrills was to attend Manual’s 50th reunion last year. It was heartwarming to renew old friendships and also to tour the building and marvel at how its recent renovations had made the school seem almost brand new.

I owe virtually everything to Manual High School and its wonderful staff in the 1950s. Teachers such as Jane Gable inspired me to a career in journalism and I went on to become a writer and editor at such newspapers as the Indianapolis News, the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Chicago Sun-Times.

However, I wasn’t the only one. Many of my friends, most of them from blue-collar families with parents who had never graduated from high school let alone attend college, went on to become doctors, college professors, school teachers and ministers.

But I had heard that Manual’s graduation rate was only 39 percent last year and I perceived that there was an underlying problem. I could never imagine the problems that Tully reported in the series.

I only hope the series in some way will help return Manual to be a proud institution. The series is one of the many reasons that newspapers are still relevant.

Don Snider

Homewood, Ill.