One of the challenges of leading an alumni association is striking the right balance between looking backward and looking forward. By definition, “alumni” are those of us who were at Wabash in the past, and our bond with the College is backward-looking. But what is our obligation to look forward?
The theme for this issue—an issue that urges us to “always remember”—is right in the wheelhouse of an alumni association. Here we see the legends of the past: Baker, Bedrick, Charles, Johnson, Mitchum, Peebles, Placher, Rogge, Eliot Williams, and so many others. When alumni come together these are the names I hear. I knew almost all of these men, and that alone is a bond I have had with Wabash graduates 20 or more years my senior.
But all of these greats are gone.
“Nostalgia” comes from two Greek words: nostos, meaning (in the Homeric sense) “homecoming,” and algia, meaning “pain.” And it is painful, in a way, to think that we’ll never again see Bill Placher lean his jacket against a dusty chalkboard and hear him answer a fellow student’s (or our own) self-important, fatuous classroom comment with a polite, “Well, there is that.”
But if the only thing we do as alumni is look backward, our relationship with Wabash College will be incomplete. We should always remember our time at Wabash and these legends lost, but we should never forget that Wabash College can endure today only with our continued, forward-looking support.
Most of us attended Wabash because of scholarships or grants that made it financially feasible for us to go here. I’m no exception. Those scholarships and grants were funded by the generous alumni and friends who came before us. The names of those who funded my Honor Scholarship are not known to me, and many of them are no longer with us, but it’s not too late for me to say thank you to each and every one of them.
I say thank you through my own gifts of time, talent, and treasure. Today, there are plenty of 18-year-old men like I was once, men who long for the transformative Wabash education but can’t figure out how they can afford it. Never forget that there are young men today who need us in the same way that we needed the nameless heroes of our own college days.
In October, I gave a Chapel Talk on the subject of how to be a good alumnus. To me, it’s as simple as good citizenship. Good Wabash citizenship. Recognizing that signing up as a Wabash student when we were 18 or so was a lifelong enlistment in the corps. Never forgetting that today’s young men are our responsibility, just as we were the responsibility of those nameless legends before us.
Today’s young men need education. They need role models. They need heroes. We had those things, thanks to an unbroken string of Wabash men from Caleb Mills to Byron Trippet to Dick Ristine to Tom Hays. And so many other heroes, named and nameless. We were here because they were here before us. And today’s Wabash men are here only because we were here once.
But what of the future?
George Peabody, the acknowledged father of modern philanthropy, said that education is “a debt due from present to future generations.” There is no better example of this than Wabash College and its alumni.
Our debt is not satisfied by a one-time payment. It requires eternal vigilance. When our men were down 28–7 late in the third quarter against North Central College in the 2011 playoffs and came back to win 29–28, they added a corollary to our “Wabash Always Fights” motto—Wabash Always Fights, and Always Means Always.
Always Means Always. Always remember the past, and never forget the future of Wabash. It depends on all of us. Dean Ben Rogge’s farewell to the Class of 1963 ended with these words: “If the fate of this college is not important to you, to whom then is it important?
So refer a young man for admission to Wabash. Make regular gifts to the Annual Fund. Come back to campus and meet today’s Wabash men. Be a hero. Always remember. Never forget.
Gregory A. Castanias ’87
President, National Association of Wabash Men