OT? Graduatin' Season. Who had the Worst Commencement Speaker?

I'll stick strictly to the contents of the speeches and say that my speaker was Rick Snyder and he decided to tell us the story of how he discovered bagels.

The next year Sanjay Gupta spoke and told everyone where on campus he was conceived and then told the graduates he would buy them drinks. I felt a little ripped off.

Mark Emmert was mine. Sad, I know.

to inflict one final jolt of pain on graduating students and their parents. With very rare exception, they're either excruciatingly dull, vapid, shallow, stupid, preeningly moralistic, or boring.

The commencement speaker for my graduation from UM's architecture school in 1978 was Walter Mondale. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Cathy was the speaker in 94.  Bush Sr. was 93 and Hillary Clinton was 95.  Ack!

Not from my own college graduation, but from a relative's college graduation ceremonies at Syracuse University in 2006 at the Carrier Dome (note Syracuse alum, Jim Boeheim's college rommmate, Detroit Pistons star, NBA Hall of Famer and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing seated near the commencement speaker on the left side of the screen)

One of my sons picked up two U of M degrees.....Obama and Larry Page were the speakers.  Politically, you can't do better than a sitting president and rumor has it that Larry Page didn't do too badly in the business world.

The Obama thing was a pain...had to get there early for security, and then you had to wait for his highness to fly out of there after a few thousand hand shakes.

The speech was bland (mostly) and dragged. However, I laughed my ass off when he made the point for us Michigan grads to "be proud of your size"

and you and your 95 classmates win, hands down.

I went to a small private school in Michigan and my college graduation was cancelled b/c there was a norovirus outbreak on campus, so the health department said we couldn't hold an event that brings in people from all over the midwest and risk getting more people sick. So they held it the next weekend but I went to a friend's wedding instead.

I don't really get the hubub w/ graduations. They are awfully boring to sit through, with or without a good speaker. I can see it being important to a family that is seeing a first generation college graduate or something like that but man, I have loathed every one I've ever attended.

Funny.  I read the title of the thread and thought, "Shit...no one can beat Cathy!"  Many years later, it seems everyone from '95 is still thinking, "Cathy?"

May, 1991: George Bush the First.  Such a bad public speaker.  

Mine in Winter of 2003 and my then fiancee and now wife's graduation in Spring 2004.

My commencement speaker was Thomas Miller, the US Ambassador to Greece. I don't remember a word he said unfortunately, he just didn't make much of an impression at all.

My wife had Automobile Magazine's founder David Davis, who was already mentioned previously as being funny for pointing out how the student body was upset he was there as he was kind of a no-name guy. He gave a good speech though, better than mine 4 months prior.

I wish I had been at Northwestern for their speaker in 2011 though, that speech was hysterical. "Northwestern's Alumni list is truly impressive. This University has graduated best selling authors, olympians, presidential candidates, grammy winners, peabody winners, emmy winners...and that's just me!"  Here's a link to the transcript of his speech, its some funny stuff:  LINK

Not my graduation (I was still an undergrad) but I watched his speech. I actually didn't mind it, but he had about the same tone and sophistication as on his tv show.

This has actually been a board topic before - probably last year, I'm guessing. 

Anyway, I answered 1988 Marshal D Shulman and was criticized by another MGoer, but I stand by my opinion.  That dude'ss speech literally harshed my buzz.

 

Ughh.  Yes I went Ohio being an Ohio boy and couldn't afford Michigan tuition.  It was 1997, and my feelings were, I got to listen to this blow hard talk about his Heismans again?  Thankfully right when he got up to the podium, it started pouring.  They canceled the rest of graduation and I picked up my diploma in a Michigan shirt later in the day.  I was wearing a Michigan shirt under my gown in the shoe too.  Ticked off my classmates, so it brings back good memories!

I went to GWU and we had Michelle Obama. The speech was terrible and combine it with the fact it was long and it was a 100 degree humid day in DC, it was miserable. Her speech just seemed rambling and disjointed. To this day I still have no idea what her point was.

Some old african american woman droning on about "she-roes".  I ask any of my friends that graduated with me that day.  No one can remember her name.  We just remember the LSA president made a comment in the daily that the administration could have done better. . .

For the most part, you don't really remember much about the graduation speech cuz a lot of them have the same message. "Take on the world" "anything you put your mind to, you can accomplish" "nothing is impossible" that type of message. 

However, you remember who spoke at your graduation. We had Governor Snyder. I thought he had a pretty good speech, but it wasn't memorable at all. Meanwhile, the year before had Obama. Obama's speech was pretty awful, since he talked about the need to put partisan difference aside rather than inspiring the class like he did during his first presidential campaign. STILL, those kids got The President at their commencement. The year after was Sanjay Gupta. This year was Dick Costollo. When you look at some of the past speakers, Snyder is one of the most underwhelming from a name perspective. That's why I'd contend Snyder, and it has nothing to do with his speech.

Lawrence Kasdan:

 

 

Any Workaholics fans out there?   If so, you'll love to know that Anders Holm delivered one of the keynote commencement addresses at UW-Madison this year.  He's a Wisconsin alum (former swimmer, too?), so there's a definite connection.   My favorite snippet from the local Madison newspaper:

 

 

He specifically welcomed the “Badger grandmas” and told them “it’s mind blowing to think that just 50, 60 years ago you guys were pioneering the walk of shame.”

 

Basically, "I got blown up in Iraq, buy my book."

But I graduated on the Diag, bitches. 

Law school was some famous int'l arbitrator. He spoke on all his famous accomplishments and how great he was and how he was flying to Europe after the speech. 

I graduated in Dec. (1980) with a BS in Computer Engineering, so we had a small commencement ceremony for the Engin school in Hill Auditorium.  That was the good part.  The bad part was the speaker was Coleman Young who was in his early years as mayor of Detroit.  He was a snooze and a half.

Best an all star guy....GO BLUE

and our grad speaker was the late David Halbestram. I know he was a respected journalist and author but, quite frankly, I found his speech the opposite of memorable. I went to graduate school at Syracuse and we had Bill Clinton who, whether you agree with his politics or not, gives great speeches. I think it has a lot to do with his charisma. Whereas Bill is very upbeat, David Halberstram was along the lines of Kissinger.

No shit.

Mine was Javier Perez de Cuellar, Secretary General of the UN.  The year before it was Gov. Blanchard and the year after it was Mike Wallace from 60 minutes.  Here's a list: http://bentley.umich.edu/research/guides/commence/.  I think I would have liked Jeff Daniels' the best.