President’s Tribute
Peter Sammartino’s Legacy

Fairleigh Dickinson University Annual Fall Convocation

September 29, 2004

We humans are fascinated with certain milestones. We love being first, and we especially love celebrations that revolve around the numbers one and zero. There are certain landmark years that attract special attention. And it doesn’t matter that you’re not really that different when you turn 30, 40 or 50 as you are when you become 29, 39 or 49, but it just feels more significant. In the same way, your 10^th wedding anniversary has a much different feel than your ninth. It’s somewhat irrational but it’s true.

So the 100^th anniversary of the birth of founder Peter Sammartino offers us a special opportunity for reflection and celebration. But while I appreciate the fact that this is a milestone year — that one century has passed since this remarkable man was born — his story to me is not special because of any number. What’s special for me is the amazing life he led and the incredible legacy that still lives on. And that’s worth celebrating all the time.

Peter Sammartino’s life is a testament to the human capacity to envision something greater than ourselves, to persevere in the face of daunting obstacles and to devotedly strive to fulfill those visions.

I never met Peter Sammartino, but I do have a sense — from reading nearly everything he wrote, from talking with friends like Mal and Sister Margherita — of what he valued. I understand his desire to keep it personal and to focus on each individual while responding to the most important trends in society. And his dream — to build a university of international renown and to prepare students for leadership in a global age — is today my dream.

While it’s a tremendous honor to hear from those who knew him, I always wish I could somehow just share a few moments with Peter.

If he and I met, I would first applaud him for his courage in very uncertain times and his trailblazing efforts to instill global lessons and encourage international dialogues. The challenges when Fairleigh Dickinson was founded were immense. In the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and on the eve of World War II, few would have dared to go ahead. But Peter was like few others.

He understood well the conflicts that swirled around him and he knew that education was a critical part of the solution. In cultivating international connections among scholars and students, he emphasized that true understanding of each other was essential if we were to forge a more peaceful future.

Today, unfortunately, we still face a world filled with strife and conflict. But like Peter Sammartino, I believe the road to global peace begins with education — an education underpinned with the fundamental values of tolerance, respect and freedom. We must resist those who preach hatred and those who seek to blame a specific group or culture. A global education — a true liberal education — diminishes ignorance, isolationism and inflexible views of the world. It is ignorance that feeds hatred and fanaticism. The only hope for peace and justice in our world is education. As H.G. Wells once wrote, “Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.”

If I could meet with Peter, I would share some of our efforts to provide a global education. I would tell him our relationship with the United Nations — a relationship he started — is once again thriving. I would tell him about our Core program and the recent evolution to The Global Challenge, our nationally-recognized on-line course. I would tell him about our international partnerships in Spain, Cyprus, Turkey and the DR, our growing relationship with the World Health Organization, global virtual faculty, gig.org, the flourishing Wroxton campus, and our ACE internationalization Lab Team evaluation. There would be so much to share.

But most of all I would thank Peter. I would thank him for building an incredible foundation on which we now can add new levels of excellence. And I would express how grateful I am for the inspiration he provided. Of course, I can’t tell him these things, but I wanted to tell you.

Now we go forward, inspired by Peter’s vision and his life’s work. Fortiter et Suaviter, with strength, conviction and with pleasure, we now seek to continue his mission and add our chapter and verse to an extraordinary tale of innovation and distinction.