This morning's commencement ceremony is both a celebration of the Class of 2025 and the continuation of a cherished academic tradition that connects Duke students and alumni across class years and generations.
And today's ceremony is special in this regard, as we honor the 100th anniversary of the first Duke University commencement.
held just months after James B. Duke's indenture of trust sparked the transformation of Trinity College into Duke University.
As we conclude our formal celebration of this centennial year, we're also looking forward to the pivotal roles that Duke students, faculty, staff, and alumni will play in addressing the tremendous opportunities and the challenges of the next 100 years, and in doing so, we may find helpful perspective in the life experiences of the class of 1925.
In June of 1925, the first students to graduate from the newly named Duke University gathered in Craven Memorial Hall on East Campus.
where they were addressed by Curtis D. Wilbur, the Secretary of the Navy.
Among the 187 members of the Class of 1925 were several individuals of note, including Yasuko Ueno, the first Asian woman to graduate from our university, graduate student Mike Bradshaw, Jr., who was one of the Chronicle writers who was credited with first referring to our athletics teams as the Blue Devils.
And Charles E. Jordan, who received his law degree that day and whose lifetime service to Duke and Durham would later be recognized in the naming of Durham's Jordan High School, located just a few miles from here.
They and their classmates would go on to live lives of purpose and principle in a variety of settings that would have made our benefactor, James B. Duke, proud.
Indeed, at the time of their graduation, the majority of the class reported an intention to pursue teaching, business, medicine, or religious work.
