The Lewis County High School class of ’19 will hear from another LCHS grad who received his diploma more than 50 years earlier.
Mitchell Tolle, well-known artist and member of the LCHS Class of ’68, will address the graduates during their commencement exercises this evening (May 10) at Lewis County Middle School Gymnasium.
The ceremony will begin at 7:00 p.m.
“We are honored Mr. Tolle has accepted our invitation to speak to our graduates,” said LCHS Principal Jack Lykins.
Tolle says he will talk about his time as a student in Lewis County and being inspired by the beauty of the mountains and the slow roll of the river as he dreamed of becoming an artist.
In 1968, after graduating LCHS, Tolle pursued that dream.
First at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, then he became an artist for the US Army and in 1980, he and his wife, Linda, opened an art gallery in Berea.
For the next 35 years they would sell nothing but Tolle’s paintings to collectors who came to his studio from more than 80 nations.
The Tolles met when they were teens at church camp.
“I told her that someday I would be a great artist and people would come from around the world to buy my pictures, and they did,” he said.
Tolle has published six books, painted a US President and received an honorary doctorate from Eastern Kentucky University.
He is the son of Mable and the late Herman Tolle Jr. His mother is expected to be among those attending the commencement exercises.
The Tolles have three children and ten grandchildren. They live on a small farm near Richmond and serve as senior pastors at Man O War Church in Lexington.
