Inductees, students, families, staff and more celebrated 40 years of the Columbia High School Hall of Fame on Friday, June 6, 2025, at Columbia High School.
There were no inductees this year, but the original members of the Student Council who founded the Hall of Fame were honored for starting the tradition 40 years ago.
Hall of Famers from past and present wowed the crowd: If the GenZers didn’t quite know who Andrew Shue is, their teachers did. And they knew YouTube tech influencer Marques Brownlee — and the legendary Lauryn Hill, who joined the audience for the second assembly.
Principal Frank Sanchez told the assembly (there were two assemblies actually, to accommodate all the students), “Don’t be intimidated … they too were students in the same seats that you are.”
“Columbia High School isn’t just a place where greatness begins and splits off,” said Steven Alexander, Hall of Fame Committee Chair and member of the Student Council. “It’s where it stays, embedded in our community, in our teachers, in our students. And as many of you know, the Hall of Fame isn’t just about honoring the past. It’s about building that community, celebrating resilience and inspiring pride in who we are. Because once a Cougar, always a Cougar.”
“It’s been said that Columbia High School is special because it’s true, it really is,” said Shue, who rose to fame in the 1990s as an actor on Melrose Place. Shue helped to found the Hall of Fame back in 1985 when he was a student.
“As you go out into the world, you will see and you will understand why this school feels like a family,” said Shue.
Shue also noted that the Hall of Fame was about more than fame — it also includes groundbreaking scientists, journalists, jurists, and more — but is also about being the best person you can be.
One of those not-super-famous-but-extraordinary people is Matthew Cooper, a veteran White House correspondent and 1980 CHS grad who was inducted into the CHS Hall of Fame in 2008 along with the late novelist Paul Auster.
“Sitting on stage with an Olympic athlete, a terrific actor and looking out at Lauryn Hill in the audience, I couldn’t help but think, This place really punches above its weight,” Cooper told Village Green.
“You know, the one mistake we made in creating the Hall of Fame was calling it the Hall of Fame, because it’s really a Hall of Impact or a Hall of Doing What You Love. Or a Hall of Taking Your Passion and Really Working Hard at It,” said Shue. “So I hope you all think about your lives and think about what you want to be and who you want to be.”
Growing emotional, Shue said he had asked his son what his message would be to the students of CHS. “And he said, ‘I know that I would have failed, if I wasn’t a good person.'”
“So go out there and do great,” Shue told the CHS students of today and Hall of Famers of tomorrow.
With reporting by Joy Yagid and Laura Griffin.
CHS Hall of Fame member Andrew Shue
Photos by Joy Yagid:
Lisa Morgan (waving) Jennifer Manning Sheehy, Anna Verdi and Danielle Guyet Lumby (seated)
Leigh Howard Stevens (standing), Bisa Butler, Tom Auth, Michael Ghegan, Marques Brownlee, Dan Cohen, Amy Cohen
Jennifer Manning Sheehy, Anna Verdi, and Andrew Shue are seated. Behind them are Danielle Guyet Lumby and Lora Hersh. (They were all on the 1985 Student Countil and Hall of Fame committee.)
Isabelle Livingstone and Steven Alexander
Isabelle Livingstone and Steven Alexander
CHS Jazz Band
Andrew Shue and Lisa Morgan (seated to their left are Anna Verdi and Robert Verdi)
CHS Jazz Band
Lora Hersh, Anna Verdi, Jennifer Manning Sheehy, Andrew Shue, Amy Cohen, Leigh Howard Stevens, Owen Snyder, Dan Cohen, Matt Cooper, Joan Cohen, Marques Brownlee, Robert Sternberg, Michael Ghegan, Bisa Butler, Tom Auth, Robert Verdi
Andrew Shue and Carol Petrallia
100 – Jennifer Manning Sheehy, Owen Snyder, Anna Verdi (Jennifer and Anna were students on the Student Council and Hall of Fame Committee in 1985 and Owen was the advisor)
