Note: This is the fourth of several Icon profiles of Ada High School 2012 graduates. Profiles are by Kenzie Fell.

Click here for a feature on Drew Crabtree and others in this series.

Matt Gray, son of Jeff and Beth Gray, has his priorities straight. The 2012 Ada High grad was one of three valedictorians, the senior class Vice President, a member of the Quiz Bowl, Student Council, National Honor Society, baseball team and golf team. He played a key role in each of his extracurricular activities and his photographic memory and impressive golf swing will be greatly missed at Ada High School.

To be successful, Matt learned how to balance his school work, athletics and student government positions to a tee. Along with having a solid 4.0 GPA, throughout his high school career, including advanced placement courses at Ohio Northern, one of Matt’s proudest achievements was when he was awarded the Northwest Conference Player of the Year for golf his senior year. Matt said, “Four years of hard work had finally paid off and I felt on top of the (golf) world.”

Golf was full of riches for Matt but his heart always belonged to the sport of baseball. He says he will miss his friends, classmates, and teachers from Ada High but what he will miss most is being able to spend every spring afternoon at the baseball diamond.

Matt will be attending Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., in the fall. This college is also the furthest distance away for an Ada graduate to be attending. He is planning to major in chemistry with a minor in history. Matt’s father, a chemistry professor at ONU, surely had an impact on his son’s future career goals. In the future, Matt hopes to also be teaching chemistry at the collegiate level.

He explains that his parents always encouraged him to do his best but never had to push him. Matt thought it was cool to have a dad as a college professor because he got to know what was going on at the next level and was able to work on some interesting chemistry labs.

Matt is excited for the next chapter in his life and along with the full scholarship Allegheny offered him, he felt like the school was a lot like home with its population of 2,100 students. “It’s a place where I’ll be able to work closely with my peers and teachers.”

For the summer, Matt is running his own lawn mowing business in the Ada community.