By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Mayor Dick Edwards shared a draft of his address to the graduates of Bowling Green State University with his eldest daughter before he delivered it.
Her response was blunt. You’re not addressing city council.
This was a commencement address so he should provide the graduates with some words of wisdom culled from 80 years of life, most of them spent in public service.
So Edwards, whose own three daughters are BGSU graduates, obliged but not before he made references to some of the issues that have his constituents buzzing.
Edwards, whose term ends this year after eight years in office, addressed the BGSU graduates assembled Saturday morning on the Bowen-Thompson Quadrangle, the historic heart of the campus. BGSU awarded diplomas, from associates degrees to doctorates, to just over 1,000 candidates.
Edwards noted that the life of a mayor of a city with a university is neither dull nor uninteresting. And he touched on the issues that have made it so over his time in office. “Hope you took note of the new roundabout off I-75, the new front door to the campus and the city,” he said.
He noted that night he will greet those gathered for the National Tractor Pulling Championships at the Wood County Fairground, welcoming them to “Pulltown USA” and the home of Bowling Green State University as well as one of the most green energy sufficient cities in the state.
Since BGSU was founded and the first buildings constructed, “there’s been an inextricable, unmistakeable linkage between the town and the gown,” Edwards said.
Those connections are essential. Officials need to work together to maintain them. They are not guaranteed, just as he cannot guarantee the roads won’t be bumpy and in need of repair sometimes.
But he assured the crowd that despite the state of the downtown streets now, in three weeks the Black Swamp Arts Festival will be held.
That partnership between the university and the city is essential in maintaining the city’s economic health and earning it the honor as the state’s best college town from Ohio Magazine.
Looking into the future, Edwards said, “I am so hopeful that the neighborhood adjoining the campus will once again become attractive for moderately priced, single family residences.”
Then he offered his life lessons delivered from the perspective of someone in the “autumn” of a life that included service at four universities. Like his fellow 80-year-olds he wonders: “How could this have happened so quickly?”
His first bit of advice to graduates was to always shape their message with the audience in mind, no matter what profession they pursued. “Speak clearly, and the practice the art of listening.”
The second lesson was not to be so narrowly focused on their career that they miss out on other opportunities and challenges.
Drawing on the “gospel of Winnie-the Pooh,” Edwards recalled some dialogue between Rabbit and Pooh.
“I don’t see much sense in that,” Rabbit said. To which Pooh replied: “There was going to be when I began it. It’s just that something happened to it on the way.” Life is like that, and much good comes of it.
Lesson three he borrowed from President Harry S. Truman: “It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you don’t care who gets credit.”
“Don’t lose your embouchure,” Edwards said, drawing on his experience as a saxophonist for lesson four. As a teenager he performed in big bands, and later in life took up his horn again, started taking lessons at the university. He’s still a member of the Bowling Green Area Community Band.
Keeping up with music is an analogy for staying in shape in order “to age gracefully and actively,” Edwards said. “Prepare for the long run.”
And finally he told the graduates not to be afraid to unplug the computer and the television. He just spent an entire week without looking at television, instead he enjoyed the silence.
