Northern graduates take the stage

The 2015 Montana State University-Northern graduates walked across the stage to receive their diploma in the Armory Gymnasium Saturday.

MSU-Northern Chancellor Greg Kegel, Montana U.S. Sen. Jon Tester and Student Senate President Andrew Potter spoke to the hundreds of former students, their family members and friends gathered in the gym about the future of the graduates.

Kegel said he still remembers sitting years before where the graduates were that day.

"I hope that your paths are similar to mine," Kegel said, adding that graduating opened many doors for him in his life.

Potter spoke of the fond memories he gained through attending Northern.

"Your lives and the lives of everyone in this room have been changed because you not only decided for yourself that you were going to Northern, but you survived this journey they call college," Potter said.

Graduates from Northern's past were also invited to the ceremony to celebrate their graduation anniversaries.

Leonard Guardipee, who traveled from Browning, came to Havre to tie up loose ends. He finished his classes in the fall of 1964, but since there is no fall ceremony, he had to wait for the spring. Though he received his degree from Northern in 1965, he was not able to attend his graduation ceremony because he was called to boot camp. He said he received his diploma for a bachelor's degree in secondary education a few weeks later in the mail.

He said he was proud to have received his degree from Northern and was happy to be finally walking across the stage for the ceremony 50 years later.

"They owe me one," Guardipee said, laughing.

Franklin Sharples was another honorary graduate invited back to Northern. He was celebrating his 75th anniversary from graduating from Northern in 1940.

Tester was the keynote speaker of the ceremony and congratulated the graduates, while strongly urging them to stay in Montana. Kegel said that Tester was integral in helping him obtain $2,250,000 in funds from the state for the new automotive and diesel technology building to be built at Northern and also has been of critical importance in keeping state tuitions of Montana universities down.

"Congratulations to today's graduates," Tester said. "This is the day you've been working for for the last several years. And, of course, congratulations to the parents and the families of the graduate. This is the day you've been working for for the last several decades."

He said that he wanted to spend time talking about choices. The graduates chose MSU-Northern and a program at the university, and now they get to choose what they do with the next step of their lives, but he said he hoped they would choose to stay in Montana.