Commencement Address Carroll University May 8, 2011 The Ginkgo ...

I felt a failure that day, but I never forgot that leaf and tree and that it’s the principles and the
process – it’s Ginkgo Think! That is why I have given each graduate a Ginkgo leaf in their
programs today to symbolize that it’s the principles and process of thinking – Ginkgo Think –
that is what will serve you well.
The next four years here on this campus flew by – with teaching by many great professors like
Dr. Ted Michaud, who I was so glad to see here today. I met many wonderful people and fellow
students, including my dear wife of 38 years – Ann Shields Leighton – class of 1970. I worked
like crazy and learned many great Gingko Think lessons.
But like it is for you after today, it was now time for me to move on. Because of Drs. Christoph,
Michaud, MacIntyre, Bayer and others encouraging me to stretch myself like the faculty has
done for you, I got into medical school at Columbia University in New York City. Even more
remarkable was that I was presented with a letter from an anonymous benefactor who said he
would pay for the first three years of medical school on one condition – that someday, I would
pay for all the medical school costs of a future medical student when I was able. Strangely
enough, that letter was on stationery with a Ginkgo leaf imprint.
Ginkgo lesson #2: If you had help to get here (and we all have), make it a habit to remember this
special graduation day. Remember your struggles and when you are able, give monetary support
to this university and to the students who follow you (and ask them to do the same). If we all did
that, we really wouldn’t have to worry about keeping this special Carroll University here for the
many next generations.
The first years of medical school at Columbia were brutal. I worried the science and writing and
teaching I learned on this campus might not be good enough compared to what my fellow
students from Yale, Harvard, Swarthmore, Stanford and MIT had had. I was wrong again! –
because I had been prepared to think. I had been prepared for the unexpected – I had Ginkgo
Think. I learned many important lessons at Columbia, working with pioneers of medicine, many
Nobel laureates, first cardiac catheterization, discovery of a virus that causes cancer, discovery of
four base pairs of DNA and many other incredible things.
There were so many special experiences, but one stands out as Ginkgo lesson #3: I was on a
pediatric cancer assignment with a distinguished physician of the time, Dr. James Wolfe. We
were asked to see a 3-year-old little girl with a big cancer growing out of her skull. It was the
size of a baseball breaking through the skull. She was comatose, having jerking constant
seizures. Her parents were in her room, quietly crying in despair. As we walked in, several
nurses, a social worker and an ethicist asked us why were we there “That little girl doesn’t need
you and she certainly doesn’t need any treatment. She needs to be left alone to die. It’s a
hopeless situation.” “The parents have called us,” Dr. Wolfe replied. "We are here because the
parents have asked us to be here." We pulled a curtain around the tiny helpless seizing child to
examine her. Imprinted on that curtain was the Ginkgo leaf. As we talked with the parents, the
parents were clear – do anything you can, anything to help our daughter, even if it helps for only
a short period of time. Dr. Wolfe turned to me and said, “Well, Dan, what should we do Treat
this child and be ready for the criticism which will surely follow, or do nothing” I looked up
and saw that Ginkgo leaf on the curtain again. It seemed here that the principle was listen to the
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