NEW PORT RICHEY - The school activity center echoed with whistles, cheers and the warbling sounds of Pomp and Circumstance as the Class of 2003 filed inside.
The bleachers bulged with family, friends and faculty - all straining for glimpses of the green-gowned seniors they helped guide to this moment.
Only one person was missing at Gulf High School's graduation ceremony: Teacher of the Year, Tom Dale.
As 287 seniors crossed a stage and the threshold into adulthood Friday evening, they quietly noted his absence.
After nine years teaching physical science at the school, Dale wasn't there for his moment in the spotlight.
Nicknamed the "Nutty Professor" by his students, he died of a heart attack on Sept. 4. He was 50.
On graduation day, the teenagers who packed Dale's overflowing memorial service months before took time to remember his innovative and unorthodox teaching style.
"Mr. Dale was a very special person to me," salutatorian Ruth Vaughn said during her commencement speech. Sprinkled amid his science labs were some life lessons; in particular the encouragement to pursue one's dreams without fear.
For some, those dreams mean college.
Led by valedictorian Melody Goodenough, a Presidential Scholar and National Merit Scholar finalist, Gulf High's senior class amassed more than $357,000 in scholarship money.
The achievement was honored during an evening punctuated by cheers, applause and happy tears.
As for Teacher of the Year, it is almost better this way, said Dale's wife, Linda - a biology and anatomy and physiology teacher at Gulf High.
"He had been nominated a couple of times but declined," she said of the award. "He didn't like a lot of fuss."
Not when he retired from the Navy after 20 years as a senior chief radioman in 1990. Not when he went back to college and finished school at Norfolk State University. It was there that a professor turned Dale on to teaching.
He fell in love with the job, said his wife.
"He would test things at home; shoot off water rockets in the kitchen," she laughed.
Gulf High and its students were his world.
"We celebrated our 25th anniversary here at the Powder Puff games because it was homecoming. It just seemed normal."
Last week - led by Vaughn - students planted a magnolia tree in front of the school in his memory.
A lone bloom graced the sapling Friday.
A scholarship is also being established in Dale's name.
