It is not an easy thing to be a wise man. Wisdom comes from knowledge, experience, judgment, accomplishment, triumph, and defeat.
Wisdom comes with age.
Even so, although many of us are smart, experienced, accomplished, and triumphant, we still age without wisdom. Many knew Steve O'Connell longer and better than I. Many had the privilege of working with him on projects of great significance, struggling with the major issues of his and their time, answering the unresolvable questions that dominated public and private life during Steve O'Connell's remarkable career. History creates the opportunities for achievement and accomplishment, but only a few contribute beyond themselves in ways that identify them as heroes for their time. Stephen C. O'Connell, from the record, is clearly one of those heroes. We who came later, who entered the flow of events that surround this university after Steve's remarkable period of leadership closed, found a tradition and a commitment that whatever our historical judgment of the past set a standard of behavior for the future.