"I mean, I don't want to embarrass you, and it would take too much time anyway,
but we've got hundreds of thousands of these terrific pictures of you stored
indelibly in our memories, and we are playing them back in our minds right now.
And in our hearts. In case you didn't know. Here's looking at you, kid."Osgood finished his speech with his verbal signature, a poem for the
graduates:
-
"You've come now to a milepost
where the past and future meet.
At a crossroads for a moment
that is strangely bittersweet.
You knew it would affect you
but you didn't know how much
as today you tell each other that
of course you'll keep in touch.
And perhaps you even will,
for it is now forever true,
that you are part of Colby,
and that Colby's part of you."
Osgood joined Drew University President and former New Jersey Governor Thomas
Kean (father of Alexandra '96), Rya Zobel, United States District Judge for the
District of Massachusetts and director of the Federal Judicial Center, and
Robert T. Paine, a professor at the University of Washington and an
international leader in the development of the science of ecology, in receiving
honorary degrees from the College. Then all sat back and enjoyed the long
procession of seniors who came to the platform to shake Cotter's hand and get
their diplomas.The Class of '96 displayed its share of unusual garb and back-of-the-hat humor.
Pleas for jobs adorned a few mortarboards. Josh Fishkin of Redding, Conn., was
capless and shoeless. Deirdre Foley (Closter, N.J.) was sporting a carrot in
place of her tassel. After Mass on commencement morning, she'd asked Colby
Catholic Chaplain John Marquis if he'd seen her lost tassel. "No, I haven't
seen it," Marquis said. "Why don't you just put a carrot on your cap?" Bingo.Commencement ended with a benediction from Marquis, who urged the new graduates
to serve as well as to strive. And, he said, "May they be filled with optimism
for their future." Another emissary from the platform, this time sent by
Professor of French and co-College Marshal Jane Moss, gave whispered,
last-minute directions on how the class should recess. Then they were
off--first to the Runnals lawn for lunch under a blue and gray awning and, from
there, to whatever awaits them.
