Before I start my speech, I want to tell you that it will not be an academic address, but rather a plain straight talk based on experience and maybe a bit of unasked advice.

I think I am qualified for at least two reasons: Number one; ladies and gentlemen, you are looking at a real live 1908 model put on display on September 6, 1908 with much joy and pride! Remember that. That was a time when, if you had a car, you ran up to the front, pulled out the choke and cranked it until it burst into life with a roar. But there was no radio, no TV, no telephone, no recordings, no airplanes yet, but lots of horses and buggies. Now, decades later, thanks to the strivings of the generations that followed, we’re in an immediate www.com world - all speed and now. And I was there all the way -- 93 years!

Reason number two why I’m qualified: Most of my work was pioneering, exploring new ways, experimenting, developing, discarding and improving. Things would go wrong and the doors would close. But, you’d pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again. And, miraculously, other doors with directions and solutions would appear. I did it the hard way and it worked. I learned and it will work for you. So pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again. It’s a good tune. Da da da da da da.

Well, there are a lot of sayings. The world is your oyster, they say. But I say you have to open it. Success is just around the corner, but I say you have to earn it. Your reputation is just beginning to be formed. And I say, you have to build it.

Let me give you a part of a quotation from the Bible: “In as much as we are compassed about by such a great cloud of witnesses, we must run the race that is set before us.”. For the next 40 years or so, your image in the minds of that great cloud of witnesses will be your reputation. And one of the keys to your success is that it must be built carefully and well. How? Let me digress just a little bit. Most of you know that a great portion of my work was arranging, taking a tune and doing things with it so that the listener would be affected by it somehow. Well, and this is the heart of my speech, effective arranging is built on a tried and true principle. The verities - those principles and devices which have stood the test of time. Begun by the masters, developed through the years, they will continue as long as there are listeners. So it is with life and the building of a career. The verities - hard work, add your style, your personality and your stamp - together they spell success.

Now I know some of you may not believe this as you look with a fearful and jaundiced eye at the present day world, but remember, we started work in the depths of the Depression, which was followed by a terrible World War, several booms and busts, and hippies and yippies, baby boomers, and yuppies, cycle after cycle. You too can survive. You too can succeed.

What are the verities? This is your lesson for the day, people. There are three that are possibly the foundation stones for a great structure. One is, of course, the golden rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Just ask yourself, if I were on the receiving end, would I like it?

Number two: a healthy mind and a healthy body. Two beautiful gifts you have now. Treasure them. The mind is the most wondrous and complicated computer of all computers, present and future, capable of your wildest dreams. It’s the only computer that knows it’s a computer. And the only computer that can reprogram itself in the twinkling of an eye. Oh, what a spreadsheet, what a memory bank. Limitless, boundless. My advice? Exercise that brain and use it. Fill it full of good material. Guard against everything and anything that will dull that marvelous instrument. The body? A most efficient machine, superbly built to carry out the dictates and the wizardry of that mind. All through your life I urge you to preserve that body. Feed it properly and exercise it regularly. Give it at least the care that you would give a prize bull at the Royal Winter Fair, or your own faithful pet dog. Use it, don’t abuse it. The Greeks, of course, had a phrase: nothing in excess. I can’t completely agree with that. You have to have some fun, sometime. You have to give a little hell every once in a while. But, don’t let those excesses happen so often that they become habits, weakening that amazing body and dulling that brilliant mind.

And the last of three? A fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. Remember two things: The boss has to make a profit to stay in business, and he has to pay your salary. So help him. It’s funny how those who volunteer for special duties, do a bit of willing overtime and work just a little harder than the others, turn out to be the lucky ones that get the breaks.

Those are the three keys to verity. But may I add a catalyst? Set your goals high. Even slightly higher than you think possible ….To dream the impossible dream, to fight the unbeatable foe, to bear with unbearable sorrow, to run where the brave dare not go…and the world will be a better place for this, that one man strove with his last ounce of courage, to reach the unreachable star…What a series of lyrics to build a dream on and what a quest to build a life, a reputation and a career on. To dream the impossible dream. The classics are full of these verities. And so have your mother and father given you many -- in love -- whether you thought so or not.

May I give you the motto on the coat of arms of the Wright family? It is one word - Meritez. Be worthy. Think on that for a moment. Worthy of your forebears, worthy of Victoria, worthy of all those who have helped you and are wishing you well right now. And most important of all, worthy of yourself and your potential. So, be an arranger. Build your own arrangement, using every good principle and device that has stood the test of time, adding your own colour, contrast and ideas. Your own stamp. Never lose sight of your impossible dream. Constantly strain every muscle and fibre as you stretch and reach toward it.

If you do that, and I know you will, then as the decades roll by, the voices will begin their long triumphant climb, your strings will begin to soar, the brass will come in, building and building. And when you add the thunder of the tympani and the crash of the cymbal -- that glorious wave of success and service to your fellow man will sweep and wash you over into those precious golden years of retirement. Well-deserved and well-enjoyed, because you will know in your heart that the world is a little bit better place because you lived in it, you worked in it and you contributed to it.

So, class of 2001, from the bottom of my heart, I wish you good luck. Don’t forget Victoria, where you got your introduction, your foundation and the beginnings of your theme. Build well, the ending is up to you. It’s all a huge, never-ending relay race, where each generation passes the baton of responsibility to the next. Now it’s your turn. Grasp it firmly, and be worthy. On your marks….get set….and with God’s blessing…go!

Never lose sight of your impossible dream, but strain every muscle and fibre….as the decades roll by.