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- Anita Smith, who’s headed to Dr. Crouch’s alma mater (Wake Forest) on the top Accounting scholarship, received the President’s Honor Award. Commencement speaker Lt. General Freakley looks on.
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- Class President Heather Norman, recently one of the two winners of the Outstanding Student Leader award, announced the Senior Class Gift to the College of $10,500.
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- Judith Williams ’61 and husband, Wallace ’62, spoke for the 50th Anniversary Class and inducted the Class of 2011 into the Alumni Association.
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- Stu Perry, who would deliver the Senior Address, and Dr. Crouch enjoyed a light moment before the audience got to see a grown man cry. As the student representative took his seat, the President said a heart-felt, “Stu, don’t ever stop crying.”
Commencement 2011 will be memorable for the 244 Georgetown College seniors who walked on Saturday (May 14) if for no other reason than they received those precious diplomas in Davis-Reid Alumni Gym instead of on rain-soaked Giddings Lawn.
Perhaps they will remember that theirs was the first class to graduate from a Georgetown College that’s free of
denominational constraints – yet, a liberal arts institution still very
proud of its Christian heritage and welcoming present.
Surely the seniors perked up and were proud when the Commencement speaker, Lieutenant General Benjamin C. Freakley, called President Crouch “a national treasure” as a leader. An officer who served in both Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm in Iraq and now head of U.S. Army
Accessions Command (AAC), the general knows a thing or two about leadership.
Maybe the presence of the 20 alumni from the 50th Anniversary Class or the reassuring remarks of class representatives Judith Wilson Williams ’61 and her husband, Dr. Wallace Williams ‘62, had an impact.
But no one in attendance will soon forget the humorous exchange between President Crouch and Stu Perry, who began his Senior Address before being introduced.
Then, who in the audience can say they didn’t choke up a bit as this lovable “class clown” fought back his own tears? Visible were a lot of heads nodding when Stu quoted his father to point out why these 244 were on this day about to walk out into the world:
“It’s not a coincidence we are all here together – it’s a God-stinence.”
You didn’t have to be there for Stu Perry’s meaningful closing line – but you would’ve laughed harder, and probably remembered it longer:
“Remember, Love always wins…and Satan is a big, stupid doo-doo head!”
