Cumberland University had its largest graduating class and a Congressman deliver the keynote speech, but the person mentioned most often during the ceremony last Saturday graduated 71 years ago.
The university awarded 710 degrees (566 undergraduates and 144 graduate students) on a cool, windy day on the Memorial Hall lawn. Rep. John Rose, whose district includes Lebanon, talked mostly about his longtime friend Millard Oakley.
Oakley, who died April 20 at the age of 91, graduated from Cumberland’s law school in 1951. Last October he and his wife, J.J., committed a $5 million donation to Cumberland, the largest single gift in the school’s 180-year history.
The donation will be used to name the School of Humanities, Education and the Arts in the Oakleys honor, fund an expansion to the entrance of the Memorial Hall building and to fund other needs of the school.
Cumberland had planned to award Oakley an honorary degree last Saturday during the graduation ceremony but that presentation to the family likely will happen at the August convocation.
Cumberland President Dr. Paul Stumb said that this year’s graduation ceremony — the first one since 2019 with no COVID-19 restrictions – would be the final one on a temporary stage in front of Memorial Hall. Part of the Oakley’s donation will be used for an entrance plaza to the building, which construction expected to start in early summer.
The macebearer for the graduation was Judy Jordan, the university’s vice-president of finance for the past 19 years who is retiring next month.
“At one point in his life, Mr. Oakley was at a moment similar to the one you are experiencing right now – he was becoming a graduate from this fine institution,” Rose told the graduates during his 15-minute speech in which he frequently referred to Oakley as his mentor.
“He later went on to practice law, start a successful business, serve as a public official, and so much more about which I could go on and on. But the most important thing he did was extend the hand of friendship to everyone that he met, and in many cases, even those he would never meet.”
Rose compared Oakley, a four-term state legislator and former state insurance commissioner, to a large tree providing shade to future generations.
“There is an old saying many of you have no doubt heard that is attributed to multiple people and cultures, and generally goes something like this: ‘In life, plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.’ The saying challenges us to make contributions to this world that will not necessarily benefit us but will set the stage to be a blessing to others,” Rose said.
“The tree is there, providing shade for all who need it. It does not discriminate. It only gives.”
Rose told the graduates, “As you begin to embark on your post-graduation journey, I encourage you all to pick up the acorns left behind by mighty oaks like Mr. Oakley and plant them where you don’t expect to sit, so that someday way down the line, you’ll leave behind a bunch of acorns yourself — under the shade of your oak tree.”
Two days before his speech at Cumberland, Rose, who received his law degree at Vanderbilt University, led a group of 21 Republican members of Congress in sending a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Way. The letter urged them to start a criminal investigation into the potential illegal leaking of a draft Supreme Court opinion written by Associate Justice Samuel Alito regarding abortion cases.
Original source can be found here.
