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Class of 1950- Frank graduated from high school when the high school was on 3rd Avenue and 22nd Street and was called Longfellow High School. While at Kearney State Teachers College, he learned about and joined the NROTC (Naval Officers Training Program), which helped him hund his education at UNL and Northwestern university in Evanston, IL. The Navy opened his eyes to the world and many opportunities. He studied mortgage banking at Stanford University and became a CPA for private companies in California and later with the Department of Defense, retiring after 30 years in 1992. Frank lives in Los Angeles, and has a second home in the Greenhorn Mountains near Bakersfield, CA. Today, Frank is tirelessly involved with the Tommie Cepel Fellowship, names for his grandfather who brought the Cepel family to the U.S. from Eastern Europe in the 1930's. The Tommie Cepel Fellowship provides up to $5,000 per student to attend UNK. Frank keeps in contact with his scholarship recipients upon their graduation from Kearney High all the way through UNK graduation. He gets to know each of them and encourages them to stay the course with their education. Since its beginnings, the Tommie Cepel Fellowship has made awards to many KHS students and teachers. As Frank says, "If my fellowship helps just one young person achieve such a wonderful life, I will have my reward. Education is the means toward having a comfortable and rewarding life - and Kearney High School provided that for me." |