Enjoy the Giants among Men while we still have the opportunity.

As some of you know, I’m a senior political science major at ODU. I have had many world class professors while acquiring my degree, but one of them, Dr. Bill Whitehurst, has had a remarkable impact on who I want to be.

For those who don’t know Dr. Bill, as he likes to be called, he is a W.W.II veteran, a former Dean of ODU, a former congressman, and for 30 years has been the Kauffman Lecturer at ODU.  Being a man of advanced age, his mental acuity is something that should impress anyone in their twenties. On the average day he is able to lecture about his time in Congress with more intricate detail than I would be able to use to describe yesterday.

The 70th anniversary of the Allied victory over Japan was important to Dr. Bill. He told the class about how, as a young man, he sold “EXTRAS” on the corner of Ghent Square announcing that the U.S. would be declaring war against the German Reich. Little did he know he would soon be flying over the USS Missouri as part of a massive flyover by American forces as Imperial Japan surrendered to Douglas MacArthur. He was part of one of the greatest moments in the history of our Republic.

After the War, he received his bachelor’s degree from Washington and Lee University. Dr. Bill would take a job at the young Old Dominion College, which was little more than an administration building and two old barracks. He would eventually rise to become Dean of Students. In 1968, he ran for Congress and became the first Republican to win a seat in Hampton Roads since the Great Depression.  He asked Jerry Ford for one of two seats on the Armed Services Committee. He retired from Congress 18 years later.

He didn’t want to be an old man in Congress. Instead, he wanted to get back home. George Kauffman, a wealthy industrialist, wanted him to come back to the university, so he funded an endowment that would pay Dr. Bill the equivalent of his congressional salary.

ODU does not understand how fortunate it is to have such an icon helping to groom the next generation of leaders. Even though he is past 90 years old, Dr. Bill is far wiser than many people his age.  I have appreciated hearing his stories of the war. Not many of these heroes are left, and more are lost to history every day.

Enjoy your time with the heroes of the Second World War. Listen to them talk about our nation’s darkest and brightest hours while you still can. We are blessed to have such giants among men still with us.

I can’t begin to express my gratitude to such heroes, who gave so much to America, and helped usher in its bright future.

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