The Inauguration of Albright College’s
14th President, Dr. Lex O. McMillan III

More than 700 college delegates, alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends attended the festivities on campus on May 7, 2006, as Lex O. McMillan III, Ph.D., was installed as Albright College’s 14th president.

Inauguration day began with a multifaith worship service featuring a homily by The Reverend Paul Clark ’73, chaplain and director of Albright’s Multifaith Center. In his homily, The Mountain of the Lord, Clark said,“We need to remember and we need to imagine. We need to remember who we have been and who we are…and we need to imagine in some very serious way who we want to be in the future.” Clark then invited all clergy in the audience to join him at the altar for a blessing.

The installation ceremony began as the Ceól Néamh Pipe Band led an academic procession from the Campus Center to Memorial Chapel. Board of Trustee Chair, Salvatore M. Cutrona Sr. ’73, officiated.

McMillan accepted his charge as president and was presented with the symbols of office – the charter, seal and mace.

Michael J. Birkner, Ph.D., professor of history and Benjamin Franklin professor of liberal arts at Gettysburg College, where McMillan previously served as vice president for college relations, introduced the President as “the man for whom faith, family and commitment to worthy causes are central to his identity.” Birkner said, “I am convinced that when the historians are ready to evaluate what he has accomplished here at Albright, Lex McMillan will join Warren Teel, Warren Klein, Arthur Schultz and Harry Masters on the list of Albright’s most distinguished leaders.”

In McMillan’s inaugural address, Promises to Keep, he spoke with emotion about the individuals who have helped him to pave his way. “These three figures of such importance in my own story seem to me to embody three cornerstones of our mission,” he said. “The first cornerstone is our commitment to academic excellence in a studentcentered community. The second is our belief in the fundamentally social dimension of a liberal arts education, that this education is not a commodity to be taken off a shelf, but an experience that involves others, ideally in a residential context. Third, is our recognition that we are members of a larger community to which we must contribute and from which we must seek support.”

“This last element,” he said, “includes our enduring gratitude for our fundamentally philanthropic nature, our recognition and celebration that we are stewards of a gift that has been lovingly handed down through generations and that we have a responsibility to pass this gift on to the next generation stronger and more secure than when we received it. In all three of these dimensions, we have much to celebrate, but we also have promises to keep.”

Greetings and congratulations were delivered during the ceremony by representatives of Albright’s constituencies including: Congressman Jim Gerlach on behalf of the United States; P. Sue Perrotty ’75 on behalf of Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell; County Commissioner Judith L. Schwank on behalf of Berks County; Mayor Thomas McMahon on behalf of the City of Reading; The Reverend Doctor David L. Fife ’58 on behalf of the United Methodist Church; Don L. Francis on behalf of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania; Paul Roedel, retired CEO of Carpenter Technology Corporation, on behalf of the business community; as well as faculty, staff, parents and students.

The installation ceremony was the capstone of Alumni Reunion Weekend which featured an all-campus barbeque on Friday evening to kick off the weekend’s festivities, class reunions, the 40th anniversary of WXAC, a Phi Delta Sigma Sesquicentennial Tea and the elegant Sesquicentennial Ball on Saturday evening.

Promises to Keep
Excerpts from President Lex McMillan’s Inaugural Address

Brothers and sisters, WE have promises to keep! These promises are deeply rooted in the history of Albright College, which we celebrate this Sesquicentennial year. These promises are also deeply rooted in the soil of our nation – a nation of immigrants and passionate pilgrims, like Jacob Albright, who came to this land of promise seeking freedom from tyranny and who founded small academies of learning all across our nation in the early days of our young republic. And finally, I believe that these promises are rooted in a shared vision of a learning community, a place of academic excellence certainly, but also a place of caring and compassion, of tolerance, of humane values, of enduring friendships, and of civil, rational discourse in a world where the forces of intolerance and irrationality threaten the existence of all that we hold most dear…

“…In this Sesquicentennial year, we recall and celebrate what we have been for the past 150 years… But we also look to the future, to what we can become in the years ahead, and here I think that all will agree: We have promises to keep!”

…In this Sesquicentennial year, we recall and celebrate what we have been for the past 150 years. We celebrate the vision, the courage, and the perseverance of those who founded, re-founded and nurtured this small college through wars, financial panics, schisms, relocations, and dramatic social change. We celebrate the many contributions of committed faculty and staff throughout our history and continuing today. We celebrate our students and alumni who were nurtured here and have gone forward to become contributing members of society. And we celebrate generations of benefactors who have contributed their time, their talents and their treasure to advance our mission. But we also look to the future, to what we can become in the years ahead, and here I think that all will agree: We have promises to keep!

Read President McMillan’s inaugural address in its entirety HERE