Graduation Speech - Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design - May 10, 1997Good afternoon graduates, stage personnel, faculty, parents, families and trustees. It is a thrill for me to be here with you today! It brings back a flood of memories of so many wondrous graduations I have attended in so many different places. Yet, as each has been, this is a very special day for all of you. This is the day when you go forward prepared for a life in the visual arts. More sure of yourself then when you started this journey, four or more years ago, perhaps a little less scared then you were when you started, and waiting for the new life to begin…
And so I started the graduation speech on a beautiful, warm day in May of 1997. I had come to Milwaukee from Calgary to do the speech at the request of my friend Terry Coffman, the President of MIAD. It was a lovely weekend I spent with Terry and his wife and the students of MIAD and their families, except for one slight flaw.
When I arrived at the auditorium, the stage personnel and the students were sent to a waiting room, and we had the opportunity to change into caps and gowns, as one would do for a graduation.
It being a warm day, I was offered a hanger to hang up my coat while I could do the ceremony in a robe. As a guy who suffers from sweating a lot anyway, this was a great opportunity. I hung my blue blazer next to lots of other, mostly blue blazers.
After the event, we all went into the room again, and it was a bit of chaos, but we were able to change and leave. My size 50L double breasted blue blazer was missing and in its place was a single breasted 42R! Where had my coat gone? Who would have swapped their coat for mine? Mine was a better coat than the one they left, but surely, if you wore in a 42R you would notice a 50L on the way out!
After looking around to no avail we left, and decided it would turn up eventually, and had a nice, rest of the visit.
A week or two passed, and nothing happened. I was concerned as were the folks in Milwaukee. After another week or so, they decided to let me purchase another coat and they would pay for it. While this was a generous offer, I just wanted my coat back and said I’d wait a while and see what happened.
Their Development Officer called and she told me she would write to all the male graduates and explain the situation and see if it did any good. In about two weeks, the young man who had my jacket, read his mail and decided to look. He had seldom if ever worn a blazer, and after his graduation he threw it in the car and later threw it in the bottom of a closet, where it had been for weeks.
The folks at Milwaukee were kind enough to have a cleaner clean, press, box and send my coat back to Calgary where it once again had a place of honor in my closet.
And so I started the graduation speech on a beautiful, warm day in May of 1997. I had come to Milwaukee from Calgary to do the speech at the request of my friend Terry Coffman, the President of MIAD. It was a lovely weekend I spent with Terry and his wife and the students of MIAD and their families, except for one slight flaw.
When I arrived at the auditorium, the stage personnel and the students were sent to a waiting room, and we had the opportunity to change into caps and gowns, as one would do for a graduation.
It being a warm day, I was offered a hanger to hang up my coat while I could do the ceremony in a robe. As a guy who suffers from sweating a lot anyway, this was a great opportunity. I hung my blue blazer next to lots of other, mostly blue blazers.
After the event, we all went into the room again, and it was a bit of chaos, but we were able to change and leave. My size 50L double breasted blue blazer was missing and in its place was a single breasted 42R! Where had my coat gone? Who would have swapped their coat for mine? Mine was a better coat than the one they left, but surely, if you wore in a 42R you would notice a 50L on the way out!
After looking around to no avail we left, and decided it would turn up eventually, and had a nice, rest of the visit.
A week or two passed, and nothing happened. I was concerned as were the folks in Milwaukee. After another week or so, they decided to let me purchase another coat and they would pay for it. While this was a generous offer, I just wanted my coat back and said I’d wait a while and see what happened.
Their Development Officer called and she told me she would write to all the male graduates and explain the situation and see if it did any good. In about two weeks, the young man who had my jacket, read his mail and decided to look. He had seldom if ever worn a blazer, and after his graduation he threw it in the car and later threw it in the bottom of a closet, where it had been for weeks.
The folks at Milwaukee were kind enough to have a cleaner clean, press, box and send my coat back to Calgary where it once again had a place of honor in my closet.
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