I sincerely appreciate the honor of representing the faculty and of being asked to speak to you today. At last year’s gathering Dr. Joe Laker related that during his formative years, he remembers his father taking him to work frequently and learned valuable lessons from observing his father at work. Well, my father seldom took me to work with him. You see, he was a professional musician. He played the trombone in the pit band at a burlesque theater. (My mother did tell me that if I was good, she would take me to “see the ladies dance.” I tried to be very good!)
During the forty-eight years that I have been involved in higher education, both as student and teacher, I have attended many graduations and honors celebrations. Forty-four years ago, I attended a similar gathering and was awarded a medal for having the highest grade point average of all the senior chemistry majors at Georgetown University. I also had the lowest grade point average - - you see, I was the only senior chemistry major.
At these graduations and honors celebrations I have heard countless speeches. I have listened to the then Attorney General, Janet Reno, the then President of the United States, George Herbert Walker Bush, and many years earlier, the then United States Senator John F. Kennedy. These were leaders who had significant insights. The one speech that I remember best, however, was given by Fr. Edmund Bunn, then President of Georgetown University. Fr. Bunn said, “There are only three things that I want you to remember from this speech.” Well, that’s all I remember! What Fr. Bunn said was important to him, so important that he tried to condense his message into a brief, memorable list. So, today, I have three topics that I wish to discuss and upon which I ask you to reflect.
There are three gifts which have been given to us. These gifts are given with generosity, but with the expectation that each of these gifts will be used and passed on to others. Each of these three gifts has days when we celebrate the gift and rejoice at its presence in our lives.
The first is the gift of everyday life, a gift given freely to each of us by our biological parents. The same gift was given to them by their parents. Genealogical inquires reveal a “connectedness” to others who have lived before us and from whom this gift of life has been passed.
The gift of life which was given to us by our parents was given freely, but with expectations. One expectation is that each of us will be “life-giving,” that we will be men and women for others, aiding others in the fulfillment of their potential as persons.
In our families we celebrate this gift of life on birthdays, rejoicing and giving additional gifts. In our various faith traditions we celebrate the gift of life at Easter and Passover, with ritual and symbols which recall the gift. I have been able, with Marianne, my wife of forty-three years, to pass this gift of life on to our five children and they, in turn, have passed the gift on to our eighteen grandchildren. They have also been life-giving to us, giving us joy.
This gift of ordinary life is more than ordinary; it is extraordinary. In the words of our current Holy Father, “We are not some casual or meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary.”
This bring us to the second gift: the gift of elevated life – a faith or belief in something beyond ourselves and a gift which elevates and, in a way, sanctifies the gift of everyday life. This gift of elevated life has many forms: a belief in a Supreme Being or a belief in the value and dignity of our fellow humans, both collectively and individually. Most frequently this gift was passed on to us by our parents through the example of their lives and their value systems. For many of us, there is the same “connectedness” to others with the gift of elevated life as with the gift of everyday life. For me, Duffy and Roman Catholic are synonymous, my faith and my genealogy are bound together. Both have their roots three generations ago in Ireland.
The gift of elevated life was given freely by those who love us, but with expectations. The expectation is not necessarily that we will pass this gift on to the next generation without modification, but that we will evaluate and internalize the gift and faithfully live by the values which we choose and proclaim by our lives.
In our families we celebrate this gift of elevated life in our commemoration of religious holidays but, in particular, at wakes and funerals, when we celebrate the influence and meaning of the life of a friend or loved one.
The third gift is the gift of an educated life. At first it may be difficult to see the freely given aspect of a university education. Why does the Business Office keep sending you all those bills?
Your education is a gift. The tuition and fees which you pay cover only a portion of the cost of your educational expenses. In part, your education was financed by the citizens of the tri-state area and the Alumni and friends of Wheeling Jesuit University. Through substantial federal aid, the entire nation participated in the gift. Your love ones certainly were givers as well. Part of my gift of a university education came from my parents who paid my tuition and provided a setting and atmosphere conducive and supportive to study, my wife who supported me financially and emotionally while I was in graduate school and from my grandmother who watched over our first son while I did research and my wife worked. My story is not unique, but typical. For many of us there are loved ones here in this theater who have been part of the gift and therefore share in our victories.
The administration, staff and faculty of Wheeling Jesuit University have been givers of this gift to you as well. Your experience of a university has brought you to men and women for whom the job was more than a job; faculty whose individual efforts of study and teaching gave you more than you expected from your experience of their course and them as scholars; staff and administrators who worked to facilitate and augment your educational process instead of being part of an uninvolved bureaucracy. We are part of the gift and share in your victory.
With the gift of everyday life and elevated life, I spoke briefly of a “connectedness” to others, an ability to trace the gifts through the generations. In a way, there is that same kind of “connectedness” with the gift of educated life. Academics in general and chemists in particular discuss their academic genealogy. We consider the individual with whom we performed our thesis research as our “academic parent.” My academic parent is Dr. Joseph Earley of Georgetown University. We trace our academic genealogy to those with whom they did their thesis research and discuss with pride and affection the achievements of those in our lineage. My lineage has been traced from Georgetown to Brown, to the University of Wisconsin and to the University of Leipzig. It was at the University of Leipzig that one of my academic ancestors received his doctorate under the direction of Professor Wilhelm Ostwald, a Nobel Laureate. This linkage is particularly meaningful to me – I had the privilege of lecturing at the University of Leipzig and carrying out research there. The symbolism of academic genealogy is significant and appropriate: just as my gift of everyday life was passed through my biological parents, the gift of educated life was passed through those academics who are most significant in my life.
We are passing the gift on to you, freely, but with expectations. We expect you to internalize this gift, to continue in the pursuit of knowledge and understanding and, in some way, to pass this gift on to others.
There will come a time when each of us will cease to exist. The reality of mortality seems to cause us to seek immortality and, for many of us, immortality of sorts is achieved through having children. Many of us also seek immortality through our faith. For the scholar, some measure of immortality is gained through his or her published work, along with the satisfaction which Oliver Wendell Homes, Jr., described as “the secret isolated joy of the thinker, who knows that, a hundred years after he is dead and forgotten, men who have never heard of him will be moving to the measure of his thought…” But you, our students, are our real opportunity for our immortality; just as the characteristics of my ancestors are present within my cells, the influence of my professors is in my thoughts. In our classes, during our lectures, we let you inside of our heads; we let you see how we think. We accept this vulnerability because we hope that you will pattern your process of inquiry after ours. We gift you through this vulnerability.
And so, you are gifted person. The gift of your educated life has come from the nation in general and your loved ones and the people of your university in particular. You are gifted persons in the more familiar sense as well, for each of you has brought your own individual talents and gifts to this educational process and you have excelled.
Today we gather to celebrate the gift of educated life with ritual and symbols which recall the gift. Just like a family party, you are surrounded by those who have had a part in the gift. We are your education family. We congratulate you and we applaud you. We also thank you. You are using and treasuring the gift. Our hopes are being realized.
I thank you for the opportunity to address you and for your kind attention. In closing, like Fr. Bunn, there are only three things I that I want you to remember from this speech, three gifts: everyday life, elevated life, and educated life.
Will you remember? Thank you.
* Dr. Norman V. Duffy, Chairman & Professor of Chemistry, is the 2005 Wheeling Jesuit University Teacher of the Year recipient and delivered this keynote address at our Fall 2005 Honors Convocation on Oct. 22, 2005.
