Good Morning!
Headmaster Rohdic, distinguished faculty, fellow alumni,
parents, and guests, and most importantly, students of the Greenwich Country
Day School.
I am both deeply honored and truly delighted to join you
today on the 65th anniversary of my graduation from the Greenwich
Country Day School.
I invite you students to take a moment and try to envision
this school as it existed when I attended:
Neither television, nor educational movie films existed
then. Computers, portable phones, and
mercifully portable video games, had not yet arrived. Satellites were not yet whirling above us
allowing instant internet communication with every corner of the world and were
so still far in the future as to be barely imagined!
In the classroom, we sat with notebooks and pencil facing
our teacher who often stood before a large chalkboard. We practiced our penmanship on writing tablets
with 3-line spacing to help us correctly size each letter. My worst fear realized was to be called by the
teacher to put my work on that chalkboard before the entire class!
The school was comprised of grades 1-8; there was no kindergarten, nor 9th
grade.
The entire student body numbered but 103 students.
I would ask you students to bear with me a moment as I
seemingly digress, but allow me to share some names with you. I don’t expect you students to recognize them,
but others here today may recall them.
Helen Jacobus, Arthur Grant, Arthur
Luther, John Healy, Leland Johnson, Walter Davis Jr., Mlle. Rose Marie Rouvel, Hector Hart and Edward Hillard.
I have just read a list of some of the teachers who invested
their lives as MY teachers at the Greenwich Country Day School. For myself and my classmates, some of whom are
here today, these were the individuals who first prepared us for the future
through the rigors of continuing scholastic education, discipline in the
hallways and classrooms and good sportsmanship on the athletic fields.
I recognize that my campus environment was one that you
students today can hardly envision.
Today your school encompasses pre-kindergarten through the 9th grade. Your student body this year numbers 893
students. Today, the Greenwich Country
Day School is the largest independent elementary and middle school in the
United States! I’m dumfounded that today
a single grade could be almost as large as the entire school was during my
tenure. The internet gives you instant
access to the world, and the laptop computer literally brings anything, and
everything, right to your desk. The
computer stylus now seems to be as common as the pencil. My grandchildren don’t write letters from school; they send me
emails, or put posts on Facebook and Twitter – I admit to being somewhat
baffled by it all.
Some things have not changed at the Greenwich Country
Day School:
The dress code seems quite similar to me, although perhaps
more fashionable and comfortable than we enjoyed. I began school here in the first grade and
distinctly remember tightly woven, very itchy, crew-necked black wool sweaters
with the orange circles on one sleeve. In the Upper School, boys were required to
wear coat and tie, while girls wore dresses.
Most importantly, the quality of education, and the high
standards of your teachers remain a benchmark of the school ever-as-much today
as they were 65 years ago. Their
challenging mission today remains the same as that of my instructors; to
prepare you in the best way possible to face the ever-changing world beyond the
school gates; truly a most formidable on-going responsibility when you consider
how much has changed since I was here, and will continue to change for your
futures.
As I’ve outlined, the Greenwich Country Day School has
changed a great deal from when I was here, as has indeed the entire world. As you contemplate the magnitude of changes
I’ve outlined compared to your world today, I would ask you each to imagine for
a moment what your world will be like 65 years from now. I would suggest that breathtaking
breakthroughs will continue to advance our culture at a rate that will make
what you today experience as cutting edge technology perhaps as obsolete as the
blackboard is today. In another 65 years
you students might well look back at the iPad, the automobile, or even the
internet as if they were related to dinosaurs.
The distinguished writer Tom Friedman has written
extensively about what he calls the “Flat Earth”, his characterization of our
world today where countries borders are now perhaps more like sieves than
fences. A world where international
goods, ideas, and even germs race about the globe at an ever-increasing pace as
technologies ranging from computers to aircraft to inter-dependent economies
forge bonds that make all of us feel more tightly linked and closer together.
That’s the world that you students will inherit, and the one
in which you must be able make your way.
And that’s what the Greenwich School strives to prepare you
for; not OUR world of today, but YOUR world of tomorrow.
Your desire to learn - and excel - everywhere from the
classroom to the sports fields - should be considered one of the greatest gifts
that the schools’ faculty can offer - or perhaps even force-feed you!
Perhaps no-one illustrates this fact better than myself! My first four school years were spent here. My father was a trustee and briefly acting
headmaster. On December 8, my father,
volunteered for World War II, was assigned to a base in Lexington, Virginia,
far from our home in Greenwich. The Reed
children were enrolled in public schools there, but my parents quickly
recognized that the situation was wholly unacceptable – we were doomed to
illiteracy if we remained there - and decided that my brother and I would be
sent back here. Our Greenwich house was
closed, so I lived with a remarkable Maine couple, Edith and Arthur Grant. The Grants made us members of their family; a
loving family not dissimilar to our parents love and abiding interest in our
growth as human beings. We all lived
above the old Greenwich Day School gymnasium. My brother Adrian spent one year, and I two
years with the Grants, catching up for the years lost in Lexington. At war’s end, my parents returned to Greenwich
and I continued as a student here through my graduation in 1947.
This spectacular campus is the result of the commitment to
excellence by generous graduates and parents. They have all believed in a fundamental fact:
your early education forms the foundation on which each of you will build your
future education, and it also instills the basic ethics that will guide you the
rest of your lives.
The journey of life is filled with a vast number of
experiences and my memory bank is full of the care and motivation that
highlighted my years at this school.
I have fond memories of every teacher, including those who
frankly intimidated me – for my own good.
I vividly remember Mr. Locke, the head of the Music
Department who taught us as a student body how to sing in modestly good harmony
to hopefully impress our parents!
I also remember the extraordinary beauty of Mr.
Bartholomew’s playing of the piano at many of the daily school meetings that
began the school day. I also remember
the sheer terror of standing before the whole assembled Upper Classes when, as
8th graders, we were required to give a 5-minute speech. I still distinctly recall one of my best
friends, smart and articulate, stepping forward in front of his classmates,
taking a long breath, and then stiffening and becoming unable to utter any sound
- for a very long two minutes before the Headmaster gracefully took him back to
his seat. We all thought “Oh, what if we
are hit with the same plight of stage fright!”
One of the most important changes in the school life
occurred in 1943 when John Webster was appointed Headmaster. He met every student at the front door as we
poured from our Ford Station wagons into school, shook hands with each of us,
looked squarely into our eyes and, with a pat on the back, sent us to our
classrooms. After dropping our books at
our desks, we then marched behind our teacher to our designated seats in the
meeting room for school assembly where the Headmaster briefly addressed us all
as a group. The Headmaster met us each
again every afternoon as we left for our cars. He always stood by the door, shook hands with
every student, remembering everyone’s name, requiring of us a firm handshake
and a returned look into his penetrating eyes. He took time to have one-on-one meetings with
every member of the upper school well before the term’s end. He read to us from a folder each student’s
report which included their academic standing and comments on the students work
habits, deportment, determination and aptitude. He was a major figure in our collective lives.
Usually calmly, but occasionally more
demandingly, he conveyed the need for better deportment in the corridors,
excellence in the school rooms and sportsmanship on the playing fields. Failure - neither academic nor behavioral -
was acceptable. We truly feared the
potential meeting with our parents if we committed serious misdemeanors or were
lax in our studies.
Homework was carefully analyzed. Our reading schedule was checked and
rechecked. We wrote compositions weekly
and the teacher’s rigorous comments – written in red ink with frequent circles
about spelling, punctuation and the subject matter could nearly bring tears to
our eyes. Sometimes an encouraging note was appended, or sometimes in my case,
a more intimidating one!
We were ultimately sent forth on a glorious spring day,
marching to receive our diplomas. After
a forgettable address, possibly like this one, parents and grandparents circled
us and gave us individual ovations of congratulations.
We were now off to a new world. In most cases our umbilical cords were severed
and we went on to preparatory schools where the Country Day School foundation
would be tested very quickly.
Today I’ve been honored as a distinguished alumnus of the
school; given the many truly distinguished individuals who are school alumni, I
indeed feel very honored by the award.
For you students, perhaps my career illustrates what
opportunities might lay ahead for each of you. I always admonish students to “Follow Your
Passion”, that is; find what you really, really WANT to do and then dedicate
yourself to it. I’ve had the great good
fortune to do just that.
I am actually one of four Reed boys to attend Greenwich
Country Day School, as all three of my brothers were also students here.
Our paths all have the common ground of beginning here, but
each of us pursued different interests in life from our foundation here.
My brother Joseph, the Reed family ‘baby’ served as
Assistant to the Chairman of one of the world’s most important banks. He was then appointed and served as Ambassador
to Morocco. Following that stint of
duty, he was then appointed Ambassador to the United Nations serving as Under
Secretary-General. He was given “leave”
to serve as Chief of Protocol for President George Herbert Walker Bush. He returned to his position at the United
Nations where he is in his 30th year of service to that institution and the
American people.
My brother Samuel had multiple careers including becoming
the publisher of the famous American
Heritage Magazine which won a Pulitzer Prize. He served on important boards protecting and
managing Shelburne Farms and Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello.
My brother Adrian graduated from West Point and after
military service moved first to Wall Street and then became a successful farmer
on the eastern shore of Maryland. He was
a highly successful breeder of Charolaise cattle. He was vitally interested in education and
was a trustee of a small private school on the Chesapeake. He served on every imaginable board that
promoted wise land use and enhancement of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.
Following my graduation from Greenwich, I graduated from the
Deerfield Academy, then from Trinity College. Following military service as an Air Force
Intelligence Officer, I returned to my family’s winter home in Hobe Sound,
Florida.
My initial plan was to join my parents in their management
of a family company responsible for developing a small residential community on
Jupiter Island. I also became a partner
in cattle ranching and a major citrus grove and juice processing plant.
I also hoped to spend as much time as possible fishing.
Very quickly upon my arrival in Florida I became interested
in the environment of that state, and the challenges faced in managing such as
diverse tropical paradise in the face of burgeoning growth.
After a year of touring the state and learning of the
environmental problems, and opportunities, I discovered that I had found my
passion! I resolved to devote my efforts
to protecting Florida’s fragile environments.
Very shortly thereafter, a truly maverick individual named
Claude Kirk pulled off an astounding political upset and was elected Florida’s
governor. He wanted Florida’s
environmental problems to be addressed, not ignored as they had been for years.
I had advised him on environmental
issues during his campaign and he asked me to join him in the state capital as
his Environmental Advisor. He offered me
an office next to his and a salary of $1.00 year. I accepted and moved to Tallahassee. I actually commuted frequently from Hobe Sound,
as I had left my young bride at our home there!
Governor Kirk and I attacked every conceivable problem from
air and water pollution to wetland destruction.
The legislature created the first regulatory agency to address air and
water pollution in Florida and he named me to chair the group. We established the first protective rules in
Florida and the programs to abate these serious pollution and health problems.
Some Florida issues became national environmental issues and
I was soon traveling to Washington on Florida’s behalf, learning of national
issues and meeting a wide array of scientists, activists, and politicians.
President Richard Nixon offered me the opportunity to come
to Washington as one of the Assistant Secretaries of Interior. My responsibility was to oversee the National
Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service. Who would not want the opportunity to manage
and grow our national park system and protect America’s wildlife! It was indeed the very best of times! I served under Presidents Nixon and Ford, and
was invited to remain under President Carter, but decided that I wanted to
spend more time with my family and returned to Florida.
Back in Florida, I returned to my interest in state issues
and have spent the years to date appointed to more state commissions and boards
than I can now recall. Today, I am
especially active as the Vice-Chairman of the Everglades Foundation dedicated
to restoring the vast Everglades ecosystem. I’ve also had the extraordinary privilege to
serve on the boards of a number of national organizations such as the National
Audubon Society, the Nature Conservancy, National Resources Defense Council,
Atlantic Salmon Federation, National Geographic Society and many more.
And I’ve kept fishing!
To you students I can only say ‘Follow Your Dreams’. I’m an example of how personally rewarding it
can be. The fact that my three brothers
and I went in four totally different directions, all with success, just shows
you that Greenwich Country Day School can indeed prepare you for almost
anything!
Go forth, with energy and determination. As Churchill advised the students of his
preparatory school; “Don’t Give Up; Never, Never Give Up!”
Heads up; it’s a fascinating world out there. Your life’s journey is based on a strong
foundation. You will leave here prepared and ready for the next challenges. Be of good cheer and be determined to excel in
whatever field of endeavor you choose. Be
prepared to shift gears if you fail to find interests that truly fascinate you,
captivate you and challenge you.
And, don’t leave here without thanking the men and women who
have dedicated their energies to building your Greenwich Day School foundation.
You might not realize it now, but this
extraordinary faculty will become the foundation of your future memories, for
you truly ‘Start Here’.
Trust me; someday you will remember your faculty just as I
remember mine!
God Bless You - and go forth to do good deeds!
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