Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 6, 1990 TAG: 9005060169
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL HOWES HIGHER EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Morning sunshine bathed Virginia Tech's soggy Lane Stadium field, where 5,537 graduates received their walking papers from President James McComas - and a rousing call to service from Gov. Douglas Wilder.
The governor, skewering the all-too-common commencement theme of "today's graduates being the leaders of tomorrow," urged the departing students "to ready yourselves to serve as leaders in communities beyond this one."
"Your time for leadership is now," Wilder said. "Do not wait for years to pass; do not wait for the right job to come along, the right club memberships to be extended. To do so would be to abdicate your . . . responsibilities."
The coming decades promise an increased burden for today's college graduates, he said. "Your generation will be the first to feel the full brunt of supporting three generations of family - providing for your needs, the needs of your children and those of your parents as well."
As he spoke, gray clouds began to shut out the blue sky. The Corps of Cadets color guard, standing at attention on the stage, steadied flags whipped by a stiffening breeze. But threatening skies did not derail the governor.
Alluding to his "New Mainstream" theme, a blend of fiscal conservatism and social conscience, Wilder counseled civic involvement, hard work, honesty, perseverance and loyalty.
"All too frequently we pick up the newspaper or turn on the television and find stories about private greed and public corruption: the HUD scandal, the savings and loan swindle, the saga of junk bond wizard Michael Milken," he said.
"Possessions - and the false perception of prestige they create - became so almighty important that these persons completely lost perspective. And, ultimately, they lost themselves as well.
"When job skills deteriorate, the worker's job is lost," Wilder continued. "But when ethics deteriorate, a person invariably loses something far more valuable, something irreplaceable: self-respect."
The governor received a standing ovation from the assembled faculty, graduates and estimated 35,000 spectators.
Saturday was more than the big day for the 3,961 undergraduates, 1,154 master's candidates, 345 doctoral candidates and 77 others to receive degrees.
It was the 21st commencement for departing engineering dean Paul Torgersen, who was singled out by McComas, Wilder and others for his two decades at the helm of, perhaps, Tech's premier college.
Engineering graduates chanted "Torgey, Torgey" as the lanky dean, professor and tennis fanatic rose slowly to acknowledge the standing ovation.
After the stadium ceremony, Torgersen stole a few minutes with Wilder, who shook a few graduates' hands, chatted with the dean and took a reporter's questions - all at the same time.
Then Jeff Collie, this year's engineering school valedictorian, posed for a picture with Wilder and Torgersen, the only professor not to give the Yorktown native an "A."
Picture snapped, the governor strode up the tunnel to a car waiting to speed him to the airport. Torgersen walked to a separate engineering college ceremony across campus, his last as dean.
And the sun came out.
by CNB