The 2013 Grove City College Commencement Address by Dr. John A. Sparks ’66, Dean of the Alva J. Calderwood School of Arts and Letters
Editor’s note: As one of his final works of service to his alma mater before retiring, Dr. John Sparks delivered the 2013 Grove City College commencement address, “Because Faith and Freedom Matter,” on May 18. You can watch Dr. Sparks deliver the address here or read it below. Please note that we have embedded links to Dr. Sparks’ past work and commentary in this speech.
President Jewell, honored
guests, trustees, my dear faculty colleagues, parents, grandparents, and
the members of the class of 2013. I am deeply honored to be addressing
you.
I first set foot as a freshman on the GCC campus 51 years ago, in the
fall of 1962. My parents dropped me off on lower campus at the OLD
Colonial Hall. My father shook my hand and my mother cried which was
probably true of many of you four years ago (for a few it may have been
five or six years ago). I lived in the old Colonial hall and walked
across Rainbow Bridge and back more times than I like to remember. The
U.S. President was John F. Kennedy.
The Soviet Union and East Germany have just begun the construction of something called the Berlin Wall to keep their own citizens from escaping the “Communist Paradise” into the West. 2.7 million East Germans had already fled, seeking freedom. In 1962, the Berlin wall presented, starkly, poignantly the question of Freedom.
The Soviet Union and East Germany have just begun the construction of something called the Berlin Wall to keep their own citizens from escaping the “Communist Paradise” into the West. 2.7 million East Germans had already fled, seeking freedom. In 1962, the Berlin wall presented, starkly, poignantly the question of Freedom.
