PARIS — Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Scott Allen will be the keynote speaker at the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School commencement ceremony Saturday.

Allen, an investigative journalist with the Boston Globe, was part of a team of reporters and editors that won the award for their coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013.

When he was told he was being offered the position of keynote speaker, Allen said he “was surprised and totally flattered to be asked.”

This is not the South Paris native’s first Oxford Hills High School commencement speech. As a 17-year-old senior in 1979, Allen delivered a “nostalgic” speech to his high school graduating class titled “A Backwards Glance.”

“It was about appreciating the things in life while you have them,” Allen said.

“I think that when I was 17 years old, I was sure I was right. I’m a little tempered in my approach now, but I think it’s true; there are good things in our life and we should be mindful of them before they’re gone.”

Son of the late Linwood “Woody” Allen and Connie Allen, he was student body president, captain of the track and cross country teams and debate partner with current Oxford Hills teacher Brewster Burns.

His father, who died in 1978, was a founder of vocational education at Oxford Hills while his mother is still active in community life, including the Christmas for Kids program.

Friends and family of the writer still reside in the area. Allen, living outside Boston, makes several trips each year to Maine.

Allen’s career as a journalist spans more than 30 years in Maine and Massachusetts.

After high school, he attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick. In the late 1990s, Allen took courses at MIT and Harvard that would serve as the backbone for his science and environmental reporting at the Globe.

He eventually began investigative reporting, which has uncovered major scandals in Massachusetts’ courts, public housing and other institutions, and led to major reforms of health care in the state.

“Science journalists are good critical, analytic thinkers. The skills are transferable; investigative journalism is about clear thinking and finding truths that aren’t self-evident. I like to think I had those qualities.

“A lot of the reporting we do is on government accountability: improper hiring, misuse of public funds, all kinds of things that have a substantial impact,” Allen said. “Many of the people we’ve reported on have been imprisoned or fired.”

The Globe’s team coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings drew national acclaim, winning the paper a Pulitzer Prize earlier this year.

“The bombing was the worst act of terrorism on U.S. soil since 9/11. It caused a deep trauma in the newsroom, but is was also an occasion to rise up, as there was an extraordinary need to explain what happened, to tell the truth, and a huge outcry for information,” he said.

In March, after receiving word he was picked to give the graduation address, he visited the high school — his first visit since the eight towns in the area consolidated high schools under a single roof — to help gear his speech to the topics on students’ minds.

“I’m from South Paris. I used to go to the high school, and my dad was one of the first teachers. My family is deeply rooted here. We’re talking about the same home. I can speak to the students of 2014 with a special connection because I was them,” Allen said.

The Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School commencement ceremony will be held at 7 p.m. Saturday, June 7, at the Gouin Field Complex on Alpine Street.