Paul Harvey..."and thats the Kansas State story..."

Paul Harvey News & Comment
September 30, 2003

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If you build it, they will come.

I know. I was there.

I saw for myself in the middle of the endless plains of Kansas.

I found a field of dreams, a grand garden a mile square.

With a hundred varieties of trees, immaculate lawnscapes, indigenous limestone architecture sheltering a family of 23,000 beautiful young people.

Kansas State University.

Kansans traditionally have tended to bloom where they are planted.

Harry Truman.
Alf Landon.
William Allen White.

The latter, the editor of the Emporia Kansas Gazette with colloquial wisdom that exported his ideas and ideals to the whole world.

As does Kansas State University.

It used to be axiomatic that any campus population of more than a thousand tended to become a campus of numbers rather than names.

And, it does take, at K-State, a rec center with 18 basketball courts and there are most of a dozen inviting dining rooms.

Yet, more than half of all the students live on campus. And that makes a difference.

You're likely to find full professors teaching freshmen. That makes a difference.

Because de-personalized numbers become re-personalized.

Example, in 40 airplanes student pilots are trained at Kansas State two at a time, in four place planes.
So the instructor has one student alongside and another looking over his shoulder.

De-personalized numbers re-personalized.

I was at Kansas State to deliver this year's Landon Lecture to students, faculty and alumni.

My host had arranged a personal while with President Jon Weflad. Until this visit, I had measured his administrative genius by the proportion of recognized scholars at K-State. This trip, I was able to visit the past with a borrowed intellect which embraces ancient history as you and I remember yesterday.

Intriugued by the world's most effective leaders …………. Well, he particularly esteems the talents of five of them, starting with Ghengas Khan. And, well Dr. Weflad's instant recall of names and dates and palces just confounds us mortals. So, it entertained all of us who know and admire Dr. Wefald when his dear wife confided that this year he forgot the 40th anniversary of their marriage.

But, anyway, so much for my first visit to the high ground in the flat land of Kansas.

From this day hence, when you hear Paul Harvey trying to explain the news it is quite likely that I will be including without knowing some pearls of wisdom greater than my own.

Thank you President Wefald. Thank you Kansas State, each 23,000 of you.

I'll see you again in a few miles.