Commencement 2009 - Villanova University

More documents

Recommendations

Info

“Listen to Varying Viewpoints” Admiral William J. Fallon ’67 A&S Inspires Class of ’09 Admiral William J. Fallon ’67 A&S, received an honorary degree and served as Commencement speaker. “Treat all people respectfully and listen to varying viewpoints. You might learn something. But challenge assumptions, and don’t believe everything you hear.” —Admiral William J. Fallon ’67 A&S He is a 40-year Navy veteran who thought he would fulfill his ROTC requirement and return immediately to civilian life. He is a combat veteran who used philosophy to understand the mindsets of those he opposed. He is a former military commander who views armed intervention as a tool of social and economic progress. Admiral William J. Fallon ’67 A&S, United States Navy (retired), never was one to get from A to B in a straight line. That independent bent, that willingness to step away from conventional wisdom and see things for himself, has served him well. It has put him on warships and in fighter planes, taken him around the world, set him amidst every U.S. military engagement since the Vietnam War, and carried him to the highest echelon of his calling. And on May 17, it brought him back to where it all started, to Villanova, where he was presented with an honorary doctorate and addressed the Class of 2009 at this year’s commencement ceremonies. The journey from naval Reserve Officers Training Corps graduate to the top post in U.S. Central Command was one Fallon could not imagine taking four decades ago. “I expected I would do my time, whatever I owed the Navy in service to the country,” he says. “Our nation historically has worked under the citizen-soldier idea, and I thought that was good. I had no intention of staying on. To imagine I’d have the opportunity to command the forces and positions around the world to try to influence events large and small wasn’t even on my radar scope.” Growing up in Merchantville, N.J., Fallon was interested in West Point, but his congressman was out of appointments. Then again, he had read all 15 volumes of Samuel Eliot Morison’s History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, so perhaps a seafaring career was nearer to his heart than he suspected. Fallon enrolled at Villanova on an ROTC scholarship as physics major, though he eventually switched to engineering; he supplemented the surfeit of science and technical coursework with classes in the arts and humanities. At times, the experience seemed overwhelming, but there was a lesson to be learned in the way he challenged himself. “It was quite a broadening experience for me,” Fallon says. “I was trying to figure out how many things I could juggle in my field and learned that one has an incredible capacity for working the brain. Sometimes when we think we’re pushing ourselves, we’re in fact only scratching the surface.” After graduating, Fallon began serving out his required time in the Navy with no thoughts of sticking around for the long haul. But he found success at every turn, beginning with his first assignment, serving as a carrier-based combat aviator during the Vietnam War, and before long his ROTC commitment turned into a career. He led a Central Air Wing in combat during 1991’s Gulf War and commanded a Navy Battle Group and the U.S. 6th Fleet Battle Force during NATO operations in Bosnia. In the wake of the September 11 attacks, when he was stationed at the Pentagon as Vice Chief of the Navy, he led missions against Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan. Other notable achievements include commanding the U.S. Atlantic Fleet and U.S. Fleet Force Command, with responsibility for the readiness of U.S. naval forces worldwide; leading the U.S. Pacific Command; and heading U.S. Central Command, responsible for all U.S. military operations in the Middle East, Central Asia and the Horn of Africa, focusing on combat efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. A thoughtful conversationalist with a drily witty, unassuming manner, Fallon is not one to trumpet his experiences. Rather, he places them within the larger 22 Villanova Magazine
Sister Teresita Hinnegan, R.N., C.N.M., MSW Receives Honorary Degree context of what he sees as the military’s necessary role in establishing “security and stability as an underpinning to any kind of economic and social progress for people. “The best example of that in today’s world is money. Money doesn’t flow to places that are unstable and insecure,” Fallon says. “Development lags, if there’s any at all. They go hand in glove, development and security. You can’t have one without the other.” Fallon retired from the Navy last year after more than 40 years of active service. His uncompromising ethics and dedication made a mark, according to friends. “The first word to describe him is loyal,” says Admiral James Eastwood, ’68 C.E. “He’s fiercely loyal to his friends, to his family, to his university and, of course, to the Navy and our country.” In his commencement address, Fallon urged the graduates to use the gifts Villanova had given them to make a difference in the world. “Treat all people respectfully and listen to varying viewpoints,” he said: “You might learn something. But challenge assumptions, and don’t believe everything you hear.” “Bill Fallon was an outstanding choice to be Villanova’s graduation speaker for the Class 0f 2009,” says General P. X. Kelley, ’50 VSB, 28th Commandant of the Marine Corps. “He is a person of extraordinary of honesty, integrity, and global experience. I hope the graduates listened carefully.” Currently Fallon is the Robert E. Wilhelm Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for International Studies and also does some consulting. He is a member of the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States and serves as co-chair of both the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Commission on Smart Global Health Policy and the National Association of Corporate Directors’ 2009 Blue Ribbon Commission. He is writing a book about his later years in the Navy and, he says, “failing at golf.” “My wife wants to know when this retirement stuff is going to start,” he says. “I said, I retired from the Navy—there’s still a lot things I haven’t done yet. Nothing’s different. It’s the same as back at Villanova—gotta try, gotta try.” As a child of the Great Depression, Teresita Hinnegan witnessed firsthand the suffering and humiliation caused by poverty. As a child of her time, she saw the injustice and unfairness directed toward women. As a child of her mother and father, she was empowered to do something about it. “I was blessed with great parents who believed change was possible,” she says. “You could do anything you wanted to do. Education and hard work were part of that scene.” Gifted with such inspiration, Hinnegan joined the Medical Mission Sisters, a small group of nuns dedicated to serving the poor, especially women and children and those without access to health care. For decades Sister Teresita has fulfilled her order’s mission with unceasing passion, beginning with a 14-year tenure as a nurse-midwife in what is now Bangladesh. After returning to the United States, she embarked on a notable career blending advocacy, service and education throughout Philadelphia. Her accomplishments include founding the Maternity Care Coalition to addresses high infant-mortality rates and poor health care for pregnant women; launching Dawn’s Place, a residence and therapeutic program for women escaping commercial sexual exploitation; and starting Roxborough’s Center for the Empowerment of Women and Girls, which addresses issues of violence and exploitation of women at all levels. Along the way Sister Teresita earned advanced degrees in nursing and social work and spent 20 years at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Nursing, teaching health-care policy to graduate nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners. Recognizing her commitment to fairness for all, especially the most underserved, Villanova presented Sister Teresita with an honorary doctorate in medical science at this year’s commencement ceremony. “All through my life, as a child and as a Medical Mission Sister, we’ve talked about justice being part of the healing process,” she says. Sister Teresita has not only lived that mission but also preached it. As a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, she sought to demonstrate that nurses and nurse-midwives could — and should — be true agents of change. “Sister Teresita inspired her students to have a passion for caring for the poor,” notes Dr. Kimberly K. Trout, an assistant professor of nursing at Villanova and one of many taught by Sister Teresita over the years. “She continually emphasized that there should be no distinction between those whom society renders as the ‘deserving poor’ or the ‘undeserving poor.’ Teresita let us know that we are called simply to serve, not to judge.” For the better part of her 81 years, Sister Teresita has served. She knows no other way. “We were taught early on, as children, to challenge injustice,” she says, “and to stand up for what we believed in.” Sister Teresita on the stage at Commencement with Kim Trout, Ph.D., R.N. a certified nurse midwife. Summer 2009 23
Page 1 and 2: A Magazine for Alumni, Family and F
Page 3 and 4: Volume 23, No. 3 Summer 2009 Villan
Page 5 and 6: International SustainAbility Confer
Page 7 and 8: New School of Law: The Rule of Cons
Page 9 and 10: Roads and Bridges: Journey to Susta
Page 11 and 12: Bottled Up: First Grad of New Major
Page 13 and 14: It’s Easy Being Green Forget what
Page 15 and 16: eduction of medical and pharmaceuti
Page 17 and 18: Summer 2009 15
Page 19 and 20: Faces By Colleen Lynne-Curley G.S.
Page 21 and 22: Doylestown, Pa., native was ready t
Page 23: “Let Us Be Fearless” Student Co
Page 27 and 28: College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Page 29 and 30: William T. Garland, O.S.A. ’58 Tr
Page 31 and 32: 25 th Anniversary of Challenges for
Page 33 and 34: ut the families of murder victims,
Page 35: Jeff Mullen and a friend from “Li

Commencement 2009 - Villanova University

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?