Commencement speaker urges grads to help solve world's problems

Dr. Ken Emonds, a 1968 graduate of Chadron State, is the founder and clinical director of the New England Center for Orthomolecular Medicine at North Hampton, N.H. He said the 12 months he spent at CSC after earning a bulk of his credits while studying for the Catholic priesthood, was a transformational experience for him.

“The vast windswept landscape foreshadowered the openness and honesty of the people and I liked it here,” he said. “I always have a nostalgic feeling being here. After all, this place really changed my life. It made my professional growth and development possible.

“Chadron State is what it is,” he continued. It is a unique, unpretentious, friendly campus where you get a truly excellent education at a very reasonable cost. You get all of this plus you get to live in the sacred area of the American Indian and feel the romance of the Western cowboy.”

Emonds was introduced to Chadron shortly after graduating from high school in Connecticut while spending a year hitchhiking through the 48 states in the continental U.S. He returned to enroll at CSC in the fall of 1967 after spending four years as a contemplative monk in eastern monasteries.

He later taught high school English 12 years at Plymouth, Conn., earned a master’s degree in psychology, did graduate work at the Yale University Medical School and studied four years under Dr. Linus Pauling, one of the nation’s leading scientists in the 20th century, a two-time Nobel Prize winner and the founder of orthomolecular medicine.

The latter is described as a practice in which disease and mental illness may be cured by restoring optimum amounts of substances normally present in the body. Emonds is among the approximately 300 orthomolecular physicians in the U.S.

Emonds told the approximately 200 undergraduates in attendance that he believes each of them has a unique purpose for being on earth.

“Your great challenge is to discern that purpose. There are many roles you will play in the evolution of that greater purpose as you grow in knowledge, experience and wisdom,” he said. “If you really listen to that inner voice you will discern your life’s work and purpose. God knows we need your help.”

“The world is a mess,” Emonds continued. “We face tyranny and terrorism, diseases like AIDS and cancer, famine, poverty, national and global debt and increased chemical pollution of our air, water and food. Do not get discouraged. We are at our best when things are at their worst.”

Emonds advised the graduates to not seek an easy life. He said those who do are bored, empty and unfulfilled because there are not striving to do what they are meant to accomplish.

The speaker said only 9 percent of the world’s six billion people have graduated from college, and that their graduation proves much about their character.

“You have the ability to set a goal and you have the discipline to work long enough and hard enough to accomplish that goal. You have learned how to learn. Those skills and traits will transfer to the workplace.”

Just prior to delivering the commencement address, Emonds was presented Chadron State’s Distinguished Alumni Award by CSC President Tom Krepel.