A Commencement speaker sets the tone for how graduates view their future outside of Lehigh. The speaker’s profound words that once echoed across the field of brown gowns in Goodman Stadium can still echo in the minds of alumni decades later.
For the spring issue of the Lehigh Alumni Bulletin, the Lehigh Alumni Facebook page and other Lehigh social media channels asked alumni to share these memorable words of wisdom, and some of the responses are featured below. Keep an eye on our social media channels for future questions, and let us know your thoughts to possibly be featured in an upcoming issue of the Bulletin.
“Maya Angelou was our Commencement speaker and she was wonderful. She emphasized we should ‘take time to be good sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, and good citizens to the world.’ Timeless advice that applies to every generation.”
—Marinee Lees ’05
“Carl Sagan, and what I took away from his speech was ‘be kind to the blue dot’ because that's what Earth looks like from space.”
—Jane Marder Martin ’90
“Kurt Vonnegut. ‘To draw or paint a picture, to make up a story, to sing in the shower or dance to the radio, to write a poem about how sad or happy you are, is a way to become, a way to make your soul grow. So please do that.”
—Steve Giordano ’04
“Elie Wiesel in 2010. ‘The opposite of good is not evil, it is indifference.’”
—Hal Corin ’10
“Ted Turner was my Commencement speaker, Lehigh ’92 … Ted had a few words of wisdom that I remember: ‘You reap what you sow,’ and ‘It’s not what you earn but what you save.’”
—Kerry Barrett ’92
“My speaker was John Irving, and I got the chance to talk to him years later. He said that Lehigh was his first Commencement speech and he spoke way too long, and he cut it way back for future speeches.”
—Rob Sell ’85
“I am class of 1980. My parents took more pictures of Henry Kissinger than me.”
—Bob Greenbaum ’80
Follow Lehigh University Alumni on Facebook and @lehighalumni on Instagram to see upcoming Squawk questions.
