Mark Gearan is one of the smartest public officials I’ve ever met. He’s superb at his splendid ability to take positions in government for which he has had no experiences or qualification and suddenly he succeeds in become the most popular and successful person ever to hold the job- a job for which he had to preparation at all!
Communications in the White House for 3 years, a job for which he had no preparation, then one day he told President Clinton he wanted to leave that job, one of the most powerful and important in service to the President. “Without any delay”, he told the President, because he said, “they will soon have lots of experiences former Peace Corps Volunteers applying for the job as their director, and all of them will be preferred to me. They have a new rule saying that only RPCV’s can be considered eligible for that top job.” “yes.”, he said to the President, “my name has to be announced as your choice before lots of RPCV’s apply for the job…”
So the President did exactly as he was told to do. Mark’s name hit page one on all newspapers as the President’s first choice. Leaders of the P.C. quickly capitulated. Mark arrived as their boss almost instantly, and just as quickly, or almost as quickly, Mark became their imaginative, heroic and decisive leader, a visionary genius who knew how to do everything, quickly and successfully.
Now he’s leaving all of us Peace Corps addicts weeping and all at Hobart and William Smith University, all are rejoicing. Most of them have never really seen Mark, they know him only by rumors and newspaper stories. They are not sure, therefore of what he will really be like as a University President. He has never been one before, not anywhere! He doesn’t even have a PhD Degree! And he’s only a few years older than the senior class members, but they are all rejoicing.
What is it about Mark Gearan that makes him a success in his home town, that makes him a success in the White House, that makes him a success in 80 foreign countries where the PCV’s are serving even if he has known only 40 or 50 of those countries and never has seen the PCV’s service in half of those countries? Ant why is Mark and his wife and family so sure he will succeed, spectacularly in his newest job? The answer is simple. All of us here today know that answer and we rejoice in its applicability to all the students and faculty members and Hobart and William Smith College. So we say:
“Rejoice, Oh! Students and faculty and Alumni at Hobart and William Smith. The best days of your lives and the best days for your University begin tomorrow, when Mark Gearan takes charge of your lives, your fortunes and your sacred honor”.
Mark Gearan never fails. You will treasure him and all the years he decides to give you. Again, I say, Rejoice, Oh! Students faculty at Hobart and William Smith.
