In response to student requests for a school motto and shield, an official seal for Rock Hill High School was designed in 1933 through the cooperative efforts of Walter C. Sullivan, who was principal at the time, and Mrs. Clarence M. Kuykendal, who was the art teacher in the junior high school. 

The symbolism may be understood as follows: the open book and quill, for knowledge received through instruction and study; the lyre, for the musical training available in school; the artist's palette, for art training and aesthetic opportunity; the mask, for training in the dramatic arts; the winged sandal of Mercury, for the learning in all fields, with particular emphasis on academic excellence; the perpetual flame of the Lamp, for the limitless opportunities always available to young people of good education.

The motto is the Latin CARPE DIEM, meaning, in strict translation: "Seize the day," and, in a free translation, "Take advantage of all opportunities." 

The version of the seal depicted on this page is a rendering by Mrs. Beryl Tittensor, of the Herald Painters of the Kingdom of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland, and was prepared especially for the forty-eighth volume of THE BEARCAT (1982).