1979 Foreign Exchange Student Gifts $10,000 to Du Quoin High School

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[A foreign exchange student from Japan who spent the 1979-1980 school year at the Du Quoin High School has gifted $10,000 to the school as his way of saying "thank you" to Du Quoin for the experience. The student was Masayuki Nakamura. DHS principal Lybrand Beard said Masayuki was a guest in the St. Johns home of Nobue Purcell and her late husband George Purcell.

The exchange student sent the check to the Purcells, and daughter Sherry presented the check--without any thought of it being acknowledged--to the high school.

"He had come to school here and thought highly of the school and community," said Beard. "I do not know if he is here in the United States," said Beard.

Beard remembers going to ball games with him, as well as a state basketball tournament. Beard said the gift was deposited into a high school building fund, normally a repository for graduating class gifts, and it will be used to fund a lasting remembrance in the new school.