ARCADIA, Indiana — Hamilton Heights High School will hold a celebration of life on Sunday, Nov. 17 for beloved principal Jarrod Mason.
The celebration of life service will be held at 2 p.m. at the Hamilton Heights Student Activity Center behind the district administration building at 420 West North Street in Arcadia.
Here is the full statement from superintendent Dr. Derek Arrowood:
Dear HHSC Families and Community,
A Celebration of Life Service for Mr. Jarrod Mason will be held at 2:00 PM Sunday, November 17 at the Hamilton Heights Student Activity Center (SAC) behind the Hamilton Heights Administration Building located at 420 West North Street, Arcadia, IN 46030. Mr. J.R. Moffatt will be officiating the service.
Parking at the HHSC SAC is very limited. Please consider carpooling or parking at one of the other schools and riding together with friends or family members to the SAC to minimize the number of cars anticipated for the service. If you park at the SAC, please use all parking areas, including the large lot to the north of the SAC and the gravel lot south of the football field. Enter through Doors I or B, which will unlock at 1:15.
Immediately following the service, the family will be greeting the community for a time of fellowship in the East Gym of the SAC from 3:00-7:00.
Please click here to read Mr. Jarrod Mason’s obituary.
Sincerely,
Dr. Derek Arrowood
HHSC Superintendent
A beloved school leader
Flags were at half-staff outside Hamilton Heights High School Wednesday, Nov. 13, with counselors instead of classes inside. It follows the shocking, sudden loss of their beloved principal.
Clint Flanders is a youth pastor at Arcadia Christian Church and helped counsel kids Wednesday morning. Flanders also graduated from Hamilton Heights a couple years before Mason did.
"He was a great principal and a great guy who really, really loved the kids," Flanders said.
"He really had the ability to communicate with everybody," Hamilton Heights Superintendent Dr. Derek Arrowood said. "Our community's now devastated. I'm personally devastated. He was a dear friend, and he cared about kids. They always knew he was going to be fair. They always knew he'd be firm. But they always knew that he'd love them no matter what."
Sam Carey is a senior at Hamilton Heights.
"He was amazing," Carey said. "He said, 'OK, I'll put you first.' He always put us first and then his work."
Mason, who leaves behind a wife and three children, the youngest of whom is a high school sophomore, impacted countless young lives.
He not only led Hamilton Heights for more than a decade, but he also grew up here. Mason was a Husky through and through.
Arrowood and Flanders both said Mason loved coaching football, including the unified team, loved his family and loved the town of Arcadia.
The superintendent saw it and felt it when they first met in 2014.
"When I started, I met with him and asked him about his goals. He said, 'Listen, I'm in my dream job," Arrowood said, pausing to hold back tears. "So he said, 'This is where I'm supposed to be. This is what I'm supposed to be doing, and I don't want to go any place else. I want to be here.'"
School leaders say the 48-year-old had been sick in the ICU with multiple health issues for just over a week.
Arrowood said they got encouraging news Tuesday morning, but things then took a sudden turn for the worse, and Mason died at the hospital.
With school on an e-learning day Wednesday, many kids gathered at The Remnant coffee shop to do their work and be with each other.
They not only mourned, but also shared memories of Mason.
"He touched everyone's hearts. Very inspiring man," Carey said. "He's the one who gave me the nudge to graduate early. I'll graduate in three years."
"He invested in kids," Flanders said. "Individually, no matter, you know it didn't matter if they were straight-A students or kids who maybe, you know, struggled sometimes. He wanted to invest in them and take time and let them know he cared about them."
Mason was an educator and a difference maker — a life well-lived.
"He's going to be greatly missed," Flanders said.