THESE VITAL SPEECHES

The next day, the prospectors
plowed the logging road and gave my
dad some gas. We flew off to that road
to resume our trip to Alaska.
Why has this story remained so alive
to me despite the passing of nearly 50
years? This is what I think.
It’s a story about my father, and the
double-edged sword of resourcefulness
and risk-taking. It’s a story about
childhood, and awakening to the very
adult sense of one’s mortality. Most of
all, it’s a story about something going
wrong, and the challenge and triumph
of overcoming it.
I know that this audience is composed
of people from all over the university,
including development officers,
admissions professionals, university
communicators, faculty and academic
leaders. I’m sure some of you are great
at telling stories to further your important
work, and some of you are a
little less comfortable with the notion.
For those of you who are new to this
approach, I appreciate your willingness
to step off your traditional path and try
out fresh directions and possibilities.
The simple lesson in my tale of
my family’s trip is that the stories we
remember are often the human stories,
those centered on real people coping
with real challenges. If we keep this
at the forefront … if we put students
and professors, their struggles and
triumphs, and the lives that they are
45
changing, in the center of our vision …
we can tell the stories that people will
never forget.
We can get across the power of a
child’s fears … the relief when it turns
out OK … and the wonder of being
taken in by a bunch of silver prospectors
on a snowy night in the Yukon.
And don’t be afraid to relate the
funny story, too, when a cow eats
your wallet.
As a community committed to telling
the University of Florida’s story,
my sense is that we should not only
bring our minds to our task—but also
our humanity and our hearts. I thank
each one of you for being here, and I
wish you all great stories.
WINNER: EULOGY/TRIBUTE SPEECH
“The Man Who Made Winston Churchill”
Written and delivered by Hal Gordon,
speechwriter
Winston Churchill was once asked
on whom or on what he had
based his oratorical style. He replied—
and I quote—“It was an American
statesman who inspired me and taught
me how to use every note of the human
voice like an organ … He was my
model. I learned from him how to hold
thousands in thrall.” End quote.
The statesman to whom Churchill
referred was in fact an Irish-American
statesman named William Bourke
Cockran.
Who?
You’ve never heard of him, right?
Nor have most people. He’s been
almost completely forgotten. And yet
without him, Churchill might never
have acquired the soaring rhetorical
power he needed to sustain the British
people through their darkest hours.
Cockran was born in Ireland in
1854, but emigrated to America at age
17. He settled in New York.
There, he became a successful lawyer,
a member of the U.S. Congress,
and a friend and confidant of some of
the leading men of the time; men like
Delivered at the World Conference of the Professional Speechwriters
Association, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., Oct. 7, 2015
inventor Thomas Edison, publisher
Joseph Pulitzer, writer Mark Twain
and Presidents Grover Cleveland and
Teddy Roosevelt.
He also became known as America’s
greatest living orator.
But how did this man become the
model for Winston Churchill?
In the spring of 1895, Cockran
visited Paris. There, he met the beautiful
and vivacious widow of an English
lord. The widow was Jennie Churchill,
widow of Lord Randolph Churchill
and mother of Winston.
Cockran and Jennie were instantly
drawn to each other. They had a brief
but torrid love affair. And though they
ceased to be lovers, they would remain
devoted friends until Jennie died in 1921.
Some months after Cockran
returned home from Paris, he heard
from Jennie. Her son Winston—then
20 years old—was making his first trip
to America. Would Cockran please
host the young scamp when he passed
through New York?
Cockran was then 41 and a widower.
He had always wanted a son of
his own. It was natural that he would
have fatherly feelings towards the son
of his beloved Jennie. And young Winston,
who had just lost his own father,
certainly needed a father figure at that
time in his life.
I wonder: Is it possible for us to clear
our minds, even for a few moments,
of all we know of Churchill the great
man, and imagine him as he was at 20,
when he first met Cockran?
In 1895, Churchill was a newlyminted
subaltern, just out of Sandhurst.
He was short, lean, brash and athletic,
with a full head of copper-colored hair.
Up to that time, he had shown few signs
of his future greatness. He excelled at
subjects that engaged his interest, and
funked those that bored him.
During one of young Winston’s
rare conversations with his father,
Lord Randolph asked him what
he knew about the Grand Remonstrance—Parliament’s
challenge to
King Charles I in 1641.
After some hesitation, Winston
replied, “In the end, Parliament beat
the King and cut his head off. This
CICERO 2016