Way to go: Christopher Whitehorn, Hauppauge

Christopher Whitehorn said he wanted to profile someone not widely known when he tackled an essay about Smithtown's history.

A senior at Hauppauge High School, he chose local architect Lawrence Smith Butler. The essay, written last spring, earned him a $1,000 scholarship, the grand prize awarded earlier this month in the annual contest coordinated by the Smithtown Historical Society. The contest asked students to select an individual from town history whom they would choose to honor by erecting a statue.

Butler is credited with proposing, nearly a century ago, the commissioning of a bronze statue to be placed at the intersection of Routes 25 and 25A. Butler's sculptor friend Charles Carey Rumsey created the statue of Whisper the Bull, which was installed there in 1941.

"I almost fell off my chair," Whitehorn, 17, said of winning. "This contest really makes kids better appreciate surroundings they often take for granted." Whitehorn said the five-page essay began as an assignment for his AP U.S. history class. His teacher submitted the top essays to contest officials.

In his school, Whitehorn is on the varsity swim team and is a member of the History and Interact clubs, and the National and Spanish honor societies.