Build Bridges for Others
President Hennessy, faculty, graduates and friends of Leland Stanford Jr. University: It is a great pleasure to be with you today at your commencement exercises. After all, it is a day of joy for everyone: You graduates have no more exams or classes to endure. And I might say, the faculty no longer hasyou to endure; you have fame and fortune ahead of you; your families and spouses and friends can look forward to seeing more of you; and your speaker is greatly honored by the privilege of being with you today as a speaker at your commencement.
I realize we have gathered here today to applaud those of you who will be receiving degrees. I suggest, however, that there are several heroes and heroines here today who should be recognized and with whom you graduate would like to share your glory. I refer, of course, to the parents, who have made two significant contributions to your presence today. First, they had the brains that you were lucky enough to inherit and, secondly, they probably provided at least some of the money you needed to sustain yourselves while you were here. I congratulate your parents, and I commend you graduates for your good judgment in selecting them.
A commencement speech is a particularly difficult assignment. The speaker is given no topic and is expected to be able to inspire all the graduates with a stirring speech about nothing at all. I suppose that‘s why so many lawyers are asked to be commencement speakers; they are in the habit of talking extensively even when they have nothing to say. And in this case President Hennessy asked not only a lawyer but an elderly judge to be the commencement speaker. I was born in Texas. In Texas they say an old judge is like an old shoe. Everything is all worn out except the tongue. All in all, it seems we should have no trouble filling our time today.
I try to keep generally informed about what happens at Stanford. This year it appears that the university has learned that some key people may be leaving. The remarkable coach of the men basketball team, Mike Montgomery, after many stellar years at Stanford, is moving to the pros, the National Basketball Association. And legendary tennis coach Dick Gould is retiring this year, after 39 years of service to Stanford and a truly spectacular recordof accomplishment. Mr. Gould, thank you for your contribution and example. And, Coach Montgomery, I think 39 years at Stanford would have been about right for you, too! I am expecting to see any day at the Court an exeat petition from Stanford for an order to prevent these departures. As I count it, we have at least four Stanford votes on the Supreme Court at present.
Commencement speakers are always full of advice. True to form, I want to mention something that I think is very important for today’s graduates to keep in mind. It is public service‘s the task of building bridges for others and for the nation as a whole. There is a little poem from the 19th century that I like. I will not read all of it. It describes an older man who had a journey to make on foot. It took him through a river in a deep canyon. After crossing it, he stayed and built a bridge across the stream.
Old man, said a fellow pilgrim near,
You are wasting strength with building here; Your journey will end with the ending day; You never again must pass this way;You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide, Why build you the bridge at the eventide? The builder lifted his old gray head.
Good friend, in the path I have come, he said, There followeth after me todayA youth whose feet must pass this way. This chasm that has been naught to meTo that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be. He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;Good friend, I am building the bridge for him.
--Will Allen Dromgoole, The Bridge BuilderBridge building is a task in which Stanford and your professors have been engaged while you were here. The school and its faculty have tried to build a bridge for you to your lives henceforth. I am confident they have succeeded and that you graduates not only have crossed that bridge but perhaps will build some of your own for others to cross. Today I’d like to encourage you to do so. Ours is a nation built on pride in sacrifice and commitment to shared values on willingness of our citizens to give of their time and energy for the good of the whole. I hope that some of you graduates will yourselves go on to spending part or all of your lives in public service. Indeed, for all the good that can be done by citizens who volunteer, or become involved in political affairs in other ways, the simple truth is that our nation needs hardworking, innovative, dedicated people to devote their working lives to its operation and improvement. We have a great nation today because those bridge builders of the past gave of themselves in a way that really mattered.
One of those bridge builders is a man to whom this nation has paid much deserved tribute this week. Ronald Reagan was a public servant of the highest order, and one who recognized the critical importance of looking to the future and paving the way for others. When he took the oath of office on the Capitol steps on a sunny January morning, in 1981, he reminded Americans that we have every right to dream heroic dreams. He promised to buoy up our nations self-confidence to help us believe in ourselves as a country and as individuals. And in the months and years that followed, he did just that.