Today I drive to Galesburg, Illinois, to Knox College campus. My oldest grandchild – Lindsay – is moving into the college and enrolling as a freshman. At 11:45 am photos will be taken of the legacy families. Those are the kids entering Knox with relatives who have graduated from Knox. Ann Deardorff Safford Huneke is Lindsay’s grandmother. She graduated in 1967. George Safford, me, is Lindsay’s grandfather who graduated in 1965.
In my case – a native Californian displaced to both Massachusetts and New York before moving to Knox – I haven’t visited the campus since 1970. That’s 49 years if your are counting. I graduated 54 years ago. That doesn’t even seem possible. Ann and I married in 1968 and divorced nearly 26 years later. Both remained in Illinois following graduation and never lived outside the state. We made meaningful lives in Illinois that Knox was instrumental in making happen.
The legacy is now passed on to Lindsay who is a talented student in theater, music, English and more. Knox is the liberal arts institution that will help her discover what she will do with the rest of her life. Just like her grandparents.
Higher education is in our family blood. Most of us have college degrees, many have post graduate degrees. One even made a career working for the University of Illinois at Chicago. Volunteer work and nonprofit organizations filled in the years to magnify the outcomes of a Knox experience. And that is what happens when acorns grow into mature oak trees. The outcomes cannot be forecast. Nor can they be defined well. They just are, and that’s a good thing.
I’ll have captured thoughts of this day for some time to come. I’ll share them soon in this space if they seem noteworthy.
September 13, 2019
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