PRICE — The dean of Brigham Young University's law school drew distinctions between "knowing and doing" as well as between "doing" and "being" in an address to College of Eastern Utah graduates Saturday.
Kevin J. Worthen, a CEU graduate himself, was the principal speaker at exercises honoring 367 associate's degree recipients and 37 students who had completed vocational certificates. Prior to the address, the college conferred an honorary doctorate on Worthen.
Placing the hood were Bradley King and Michael King, boyhood friends of Worthen who are now CEU vice presidents.
Worthen grew up in Dragerton, Carbon County, and graduated from CEU in 1978. He received his bachelor's and law degrees from BYU.
He was a law clerk for a U.S. Supreme Court justice and was in private practice in Phoenix before joining the BYU law school faculty 17 years ago. He was appointed dean in 2004. He also serves as chairman of the Utah State Constitutional Revision Commission.
A second honorary degree was awarded to Brend Schikora, founder of the First European Trust, a foundation that has contributed tens of millions of dollars focused on education and economic development. Schikora was unable to attend the commencement.
He started his career as an engineer on a ship. After working and saving, he completed a college degree in electrical engineering. He became a research scientist and later developed a system for identifying sea-based mines. He shifted into computer software and developed a system for analyzing stock and commodities markets. Subsequently, he set up an investment firm that made the millions that he has pumped into his foundation.
In his commencement address, Worthen presented several anecdotes to make the point that what a person is — not what he or she knows or does — is the measure of success.
Worthen talked about basketball great Bill Russell, who stood nearly 7 feet tall. When people asked him if he was a basketball player, he always said, "No," Worthen related. Asked to explain, Worthen said, Russell would say, "Basketball is not what I am, it's what I do."
Worthen drew another example from early American history. During the Revolutionary War, some leaders in the Continental Army threatened to try to take control of the country because they hadn't been paid. When George Washington met with them, he pulled out spectacles to read a document. "I have not only grown gray but nearly blind in the service of my country," Washington said. The rebels were so moved that they backed off from their scheme.
"The virtue of what Washington had become, his character, not what he had done, carried the day," Worthen said.
The law school dean also mentioned the ethnic diversity of Carbon County. The local community has a "strong tradition of openness and support for everyone."
That tradition has influenced the atmosphere at CEU, he said. He urged students to remember and live those community and college values. -->
Two CEU students were recognized as co-valedictorians. Harley Watkins, a native of Blanding, completed his associate's degree in criminal justice while working as a Utah Highway Patrol trooper. Veva-Marie Whitear not only earned top grades but played on the women's basketball team at CEU. Her goal is to become a high school coach.
In separate exercises Friday in Blanding, associate's degrees were conferred on 99 students at CEU's San Juan campus and at the college's learning centers in Monticello, Monument Valley and Montezuma Creek, all in San Juan County. Forty-five of the graduates are Native Americans. The principal speaker was France Nielson, the 2004-05 student body president at BYU. Nielson grew up in Blanding and attended CEU's San Juan campus.
During the Blanding ceremonies, an honorary doctorate was conferred on Pete Black, owner of a Blanding-based minerals company, a former CEU faculty member and currently chairman of a community advisory board to the San Juan campus.