Graduations - Past and Present

May is the month that I think about graduations, especially in the year 2020. It was on May 10, 1945 that I graduated from Concordia Academy in Austin, Texas. So, this marks the 75^th anniversary of that wonderful event. I was honored to have Mom and Dad drive from Walburg to attend accompanied by my Aunt Elizabeth from Austin and a “sorta” girl friend from Thorndale. I still remember the theme of the guest speaker: “He (Christ) must increase. I must decrease.” The party afterward was not very extravagant a trip to an amusement park where I invested 25 cents to hit some balls pitched to me by a machine. It was a wonderful miracle that I could graduate from this boys-only boarding school, a school devoted to training future ministers of the church. The national church paid for the tuition and parents were responsible for room and board. This was a major challenge to my father who was a teaching minister in the Lutheran church working for an extremely low salary. In fact, one reason I was able to attend is because my eldest sister Erna gave up a college scholarship to become a secretary and thus provide some assistance in paying for my school fees.

A second graduation took place in late May 1950 from Concordia Teachers College (now University) River Forest, Illinois. This year marks the 70th anniversary of that event. Again, Mom and Dad scrounged up the money to drive from Texas to Illinois to attend. More important to me than graduation is that just before we went to the ceremony, I handed Jane Scheimann an engagement ring which she has now been wearing for 70 years. I do not remember who the graduation speaker was or what his theme was. I do remember that after the event Jane’s folks (including her very old grandmother) and my parents and went out for dinner to celebrate both what was and what was to be.

As I reflect on those years of 1945 and 1950, I also recall the May of 1920, the year my Father graduated from that same Concordia Teachers College and this year, obviously, marks exactly one hundred years of that celebrated event.

There have been many, many graduations to attend since then. As I served both as a principal and the as superintendent of schools, I am sure that I have been the speaker at more than 50 graduations including speaking at three university graduations. My guess is that none of those grads remember that I was the speaker-much less what I might have said. 

Graduations in 2020 will always be remembered as the graduations that never had any real ceremony. As I write this blog we are still in the midst of the Covoid-19 epidemic and all “live” school graduations have been canceled. It gets personal because our youngest grandson Antonio was due to graduate from New York University and our “adopted” Afghan refugee “granddaughter” was scheduled to be at a ceremony at the University of California San Diego. That too, will not be held with people in attendance.

All of this causes me to just stop for a few minutes and let my mind and heart reflect. Thank God for all teachers who lead students to the point where they can graduate. I am thankful for all who study and use their gifts to learn and thus increase their ability to serve. And I don’t want to forget those millions of young people around the world who will not only not graduate but will continue to be illiterate because we still do not have universal worldwide education. In the context of all that I will open a bottle of champagne in the quiet of my house and Jane and I will salute all graduations, ours and others, both past and present!