Oberlin College class of 2012 begins next chapter

Thou­sands of fam­ily mem­bers and friends gath­ered on Tap­pan Square to sup­port the grad­u­ates of Ober­lin Col­lege Mon­day morn­ing, amidst the swel­ter­ing heat.

In total, 715 indi­vid­u­als received degrees from the insti­tu­tion, which is cel­e­brat­ing its 179th year, as morn­ing tem­per­a­tures climbed toward 90.

The can­di­dates for degrees came from all over the world, some as close as Ober­lin, while oth­ers trav­eled from places like the People’s Repub­lic of China.

There were four can­di­dates for degrees from the city of Ober­lin, Rachel Luczkowski, Nathan Sabelli, Jef­frey Weaver, and Melissa George. George was the only of the four who was an Ober­lin Scholar, mean­ing she received her tuition to the col­lege for free since she attended, and grad­u­ated from, Ober­lin High School all four years.

The four grad­u­ates from Ober­lin were joined by 12 oth­ers from Lorain County to make a total of 16 who received degrees from Ober­lin Col­lege who hail from the county.

As hap­pens every year, the com­mence­ment was graced with the pres­ence of many of the college’s dis­tin­guished alumni. Thomas Frieden, class of ‘82, deliv­ered the com­mence­ment address to the graduates.

Prior to his address, Frieden was awarded an hon­orary degree of doc­tor of sci­ence in recog­ni­tion of his work as a med­ical doc­tor who has been said to have saved some 1.5 mil­lion lives by bat­tling tuber­cu­lo­sis in New York City and India. Frieden is also cred­ited with being a dri­ving force behind New York’s ban on smok­ing in pub­lic places.

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg said of Frieden, “There is prob­a­bly noth­ing any one per­son will ever do to save as many lives.”

In his address to the grad­u­ates, Frieden encour­aged them to remain opti­mistic and believe change can happen.

“Opti­mism does not say that progress will hap­pen; opti­mism says progress can hap­pen. A pos­i­tive atti­tude is a self ful­fill­ing prophecy,” Frieden said. “It’s been said that a pos­i­tive atti­tude won’t solve all of your prob­lems, but it will annoy enough peo­ple to make it worth the effort.”

In addi­tion to Frieden, sev­eral other alumni received hon­orary degrees from Ober­lin Col­lege dur­ing the com­mence­ment exer­cises Mon­day. Martha Bergmark, class of ’70, Mar­garet Cheney, class of ’76, Stan­ley Cow­ell, class of ’62, and Ntozake Shange all received such degrees.

Addi­tion­ally, James Bur­rows, class of ’62, received the hon­orary degree of doc­tor of fine arts. Bur­rows is a crit­i­cally acclaimed cre­ator, pro­ducer, and direc­tor of Amer­i­can enter­tain­ment; most notably, he is the cre­ator of “Cheers” which still holds the honor of being the sec­ond most watched series finale in the his­tory of television.

Daniel Gard­ner, class of ’89 and for­mer Ober­lin city coun­cil pres­i­dent and mayor, received the alumni medal. This year’s recip­i­ent of the award for dis­tin­guished ser­vice to the com­mu­nity was Richard Dunn, who served as the city man­ager for Ober­lin for many years.

Class of 2012 Jackie Mostow spoke to her fel­low grad­u­ates dur­ing the com­mence­ment cer­e­mony as well, shar­ing some of her story of being stranded in a small com­mu­nity near Incan ruins in Peru when flood­ing washed out the train tracks. Mostow said she learned to be cre­ative, be kind, and be appre­cia­tive dur­ing the ordeal, and encour­aged the class of 2012 to do the same.

Ober­lin Col­lege pres­i­dent Mar­vin Krislov told the grad­u­ates they are a part of the Ober­lin com­mu­nity now, and will always be able to call Ober­lin home.

“Always know that you are wel­come to come back and recon­nect with your friends and fam­ily here. Wher­ever you live, Ober­lin will always be another home for you,” he said. “On this glo­ri­ous, and hot day, we wish you a great deal of suc­cess and hap­pi­ness. Con­grat­u­la­tions class of 2012.”

Posted by Scott Mahoney on May 31 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.