Five graduates to be inducted into Canton Wall of Fame on Oct. 23
More than 100 graduates of Canton High, and its predecessor Collinsville High, have been honored in the school’s Wall of Fame.
Five Canton High School graduates have been selected for induction into Canton’s Wall of Fame, recognizing graduates for outstanding contributions in their field of work and/or to the community.
The five graduates will be honored on Friday, Oct. 23, in a ceremony beginning at 4 p.m. in the school auditorium. They will join 102 other graduates who were recognized in ceremonies from 2002 through 2019 and in 2025. Graduates in the Wall of Fame date back to 1912.
The graduates being recognized are:
- Matthew Carpenter, Class of 2005
- James Keyes, Class of 1967
- Michael Langer, Class of 1966
- Brian Roy, Class of 1985
- Dr. Elizabeth Sawin, Class of 1984
To qualify, a nominee must have been out of school for 15 years, have made significant contributions to the community (Canton or current hometown) and/or their chosen field of work and be a citizen in good standing.
Community members, students, families, and alumni are invited to attend. Interested community members who wish to attend, please email Claudia Nardi at [email protected] or call (860) 693-7704, Ext. 6.
Carpenter, who now lives in Arlington, Virginia, is a Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Army and a Tactical Infantry Battalion Commander. He has been deployed to Afghanistan (four times), Ukraine (2015), Iraq (2022) and Jordan and Syria in 2024. He has earned four Bronze Stars, the fourth highest individual military award for valor, achievement and meritorious service.
He graduated from Army Ranger School in 2010 and Norwich University in Vermont in 2009, where he was ranked No. 1 in Norwich’s ROTC program.
Keyes had a career in banking where he was president of First Vermont and Trust Company for five years and president of Citizen’s Bank Charter One franchise in Burlington, Vt.
Keyes earned a master’s degree in business administration from Northeastern University in Boston and a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College in Vermont. He was an active member of the Vermont Bankers Association and the Vermont Chamber of Commerce. Keyes was also on the Board of Trustees for Middlebury College for 11 years and was vice chair of the board of directors of Southern Vermont Health Services Corp. and Brattleboro Memorial Hospital.
Langer had a 46-year career in banking at Collinsville Savings Society starting as a teller and holding virtually every position possible at the bank, including bank president and chief financial officer.
Langer and his wife, Pam, raised four children in Canton and now have 12 grandchildren, three who attend or attended Canton High.
Roy has been a fixture in the community his entire life. After college, he came back to Canton to serve as a teacher, coach, mentor and advisor to youngsters in Canton for years.
He coached the Canton baseball team for 15 years (1999-2013), leading the Warriors to the Class S championship game in 2005 that CHS lost in 12 innings at historic Yale Field. He also coached the girls soccer team for five years and coached the field hockey team for a season.
Sawin, who lives in Vermont, is the Director and founder of Multisolving Institute. She is an expert on multisolving, actions that address equity, climate change health, well-being, and economic vitality as integrated issues.
She developed the concept after studying bright spots around the world where people created systems change by building connections across silos. In 2021, Sawin founded Multisolving Institute to share this research and to develop tools tailored for multisolving. She has dedicated her career to the theory and practice of creating change in complex systems.
Learn more about the Canton Wall of Fame and previous induction ceremonies.
School graduates through June 1934 graduated from Collinsville High. It became Canton High School after the town built a new high school on Dyer Avenue that opened in April 1935. It was the high school facility until the town built the current high school in 1970.