The invitation to give this commencement address is a great honor for someone who graduated fifth from the bottom in the United States Naval Academy Class of 1958. To stand here in full academic regalia, and address an audience of distinguished academics and their learned students has reaffirmed my long held faith that in America anything is possible. If my old company officer at the Academy were here, whose affection for midshipmen was sorely tested by my disregard for regulations, I fear he would decline to hold the school in the high esteem that I do. I want to join in the chorus of congratulations to the Class of '99. You have succeeded in a demanding course of instruction from an excellent university.
Life seems full of promise.
Such is always the case when a passage of life is marked by significant accomplishment. Today, it must surely seem as if the world attends you. But spare a moment for those who have truly attended you so well and for so long, and whose pride in you is equal to, perhaps greater than, your pride in yourselves your parents. When the world was looking elsewhere, your parents' attention was one of life's certainties. And if tomorrow the world seems less enthralled as it awaits new achievements from you, your families will still be your most unstinting source of encouragement, counsel, and often as the world can be a little stingy at first financial support.