98 Lyon seniors receive diplomas

For the past four years, Lyon College President Walter B. Roettger has watched the college's class of 2008 closely. He has watched the students grow spiritually, intellectually and physically. He has watched them transform from awkward teenagers to responsible young adults. And he has watched them change for the better as they prepare for the future.

But Saturday, his watching stopped. With a firm handshake and warm smile, Roettger said goodbye to the class of 2008 by presenting 98 students their bachelor's degrees.

"You will always be a part of us, and we will always be a part of you," he said during the college's 136th commencement ceremony in Couch Garden.

Roettger said while it is hard to let go, he knows Lyon has taught the students well and is confident they will help change the world.

"It's an end but also a beginning," he said to the students. "Your hard work and abilities have paid off. You have succeeded."

Commencement speaker Dr. David L. Warren, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, also said he is sure the graduates will do great things. He said as the students embark on new chapters of their lives, they will face boundary decisions – decisions that will lead them down certain paths.

"In each life there will come many boundary decisions," he said. "The class of 2008 has already made one fundamental boundary decision to come to Lyon College, and it has marked you irrevocably."

Warren said he likes to use Harry S. Truman as an example of boundary decisions, citing his choices to drop the first atomic bomb, terminate the command of Gen. Douglas MacArthur and racially integrate the United States military. The decisions, he said, were not popular but had to be made.

Warren said one of his favorite quotes comes from a Truman interview in which the president was asked what he said to his critics.

"I told them I did the best I can do. I have no regrets," Truman simply said.

Graduate Michael Brown said he has no regrets for choosing Lyon College, noting he is not the same person he was when he first entered college as a freshman. He said he has grown in every way over the past four years.

"Lyon has made us, whether we realize it or not, better, stronger people," he said.

Warren urged the students to give back in some way now that they are college graduates. He encouraged them to do something of service to the country, community and Lyon College.

Warren said when the class of 2008 meets 25 years from now for its reunion, he knows the graduates will be full of tall tales and funny stories, but he wants them to be able to say one thing.

"I hope you can say in the spirit of Harry Truman, 'I did the best I can do. I have no regrets.'"