QUESTIONS
I started to write this note to our Wabash family about giant shoulders—how we all benefit from the generosity and example of others. Yet, the giant shoulders on which we often stand at Wabash have multiple dimensions and are molded by the giant questions we face together.
One of the great traditions of Wabash is the challenging questions we are asked to wrestle with as students. How the College embraces difficult questions is foundational to the education it provides young men. The questions are deep and have a soul to them that are reflected on after years of learning and experience. These questions ultimately shape the direction of the life we lead and the decisions we make.
The beauty of Wabash is that these piercing questions come from everywhere. We love to talk about those questions even after years. We remember with impeccable detail where we were, who asked them, and when we were asked. When we get together, we inevitably discuss them—a question that stumped us in comps, the challenging question from a coach or teammate in the middle of a practice, or the prompt that left us scratching our heads far beyond the paper or exam. These questions stay with us through life—pandemics, wars, birthdays, weddings, celebrations, holidays, and even funerals.
I still reflect on and embrace the question President Andy Ford H’04 challenged our class with on the day we arrived in August 1999, “Will you save civilization?” Before I took a single class at Wabash, this was how he greeted us in front of our parents and loved ones just before ringing us in with the Caleb Mills Bell. I recall the daunting nature and weight of that question.
In conversations with classmates during our four years together, we asked ourselves, “Can we even save civilization? How do we do it? Where do we start?”
President Ford’s question to us does not have a single or simple answer. The answer must be explored, and is why we share the stories of the broad diversity of impactful alumni in Wabash Magazine. We aim to save civilization, or at least some small part of it, as teachers, journalists, doctors, government leaders, lawyers, carpenters, psychologists, soldiers, builders, and businessmen. But we do not stop there. Our alumni go beyond their professions and devote time giving back to their local communities and not-for-profit organizations.
In May 2003, Ford looked at our graduating class, four years after asking us, “Will we save civilization?,” and provided us one last line of wisdom. He said, “We have trained you for nothing but prepared you for everything.”
Maybe there is no better description of the Wabash education and student experience than this line. Maybe he knew his answer to the question, “Will we save civilization?” all along and only gave us a glimpse of it the last time our class stood together as students.
Who was the person at Wabash who impressed upon you the giant questions with which you still wrestle that shaped your calling? It’s likely not just one person, professor, classmate, or coach. When we get together again on campus or for Wabash events around the globe, please continue to share the stories around the questions that shape us. The stories we retell are foundational to the traditions we inherit at Wabash.
Join me in honoring President Ford, who passed away earlier this year, by continuing to ask these giant questions. My guess is he will be watching down on these discussions with a smile.
M. Kip Chase ’03 | President, National Association of Wabash Men