To the impressive litany of titles retired Gen. Colin L. Powell has collected in his long and distinguished career, it may be time to add a new one:

Weather prognosticator.

Even though Franklin & Marshall College announced a detailed backup plan in case a rainstorm hit during Saturday's graduation, when commencement speaker Powell stepped up to the podium he jokingly assured everyone such precautions were unnecessary.

"It's not going to rain," he said. "I'm here."

And though skies were foreboding and the sun shone only a minute or two during the 2½-hour ceremony on Hartman Green, not a drop of precipitation fell on the 500-plus graduates who got their diplomas, joined by a multitude of family and friends.

Powell, who received a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the college, used his address to share some advice with the grads about how to make a difference, even if they don't yet know where life will take them.

His sense of humor — kept well under wraps in his public roles during several presidential administrations — also came across loud and clear, delighting those in attendance.

Colin Powell addresses F&M grads

Facing challenges
Before Powell's speech, F&M President John A. Fry talked about the tough job climate the Class of 2009 faces. "Make no mistake about it, you are graduating from college at a challenging time," he said.

But, Fry said, he had "full confidence" the new grads will rise to the occasion. "No one will ever take away your liberal arts education. ... It belongs to you," he said.

And with that comes "an awesome set of responsibilities" to respect, empathize with and serve others, Fry said.

The current global recession was caused by shortsightedness and simple greed, he said, and "you are leaving college with values entirely different from those.

"I ask you to hew to that set of core values," Fry said.

Several honors were presented at graduation. Kerry H. Whiteside, the Clair R. McCullough Professor of Government, was given the Bradley R. Dewey Award for Outstanding Scholarship; Robert N. Jinks, chairman of the biology department, received the Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award; Marty McGrath, assistant director of facilities and operations services and events management, was given the Richard Kneedler Distinguished Service Award; and Jay M. Anderson, the Richard S. and Ann B. Barshinger Professor of Computer Science, received a Socrates Citation upon his retirement.

Aditi Malik, a government and economics double major from New Dehli, India, won the Williamson Medal, the highest award bestowed upon a graduating senior.

In addition to Powell, three others received honorary doctorates: Myles Brand, president of the NCAA; 1954 alumnus Thomas G. Phillips III, benefactor of F&M's Phillips Museum of Art; Deborah Bial, founder of the Posse Foundation; and 1941 alumnus Richard D. Winters, a World War II veteran memorialized in the Stephen Ambrose book "Band of Brothers."

Brand and Winters were unable to attend for health reasons.

'An even more perfect union'
Powell, a retired four-star general, was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War and secretary of state under President George W. Bush. Now involved in a number of philanthropic efforts, he founded the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies at his alma mater, City College of New York.

Powell was in the news recently when former Vice President Dick Cheney accused him of abandoning the Republican Party, and said conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh is a better GOP spokesman than Powell. In his graduation remarks, however, the 72-year-old Powell avoided any topic that was remotely political.

He began by recalling his own graduation from CCNY 51 years ago.

Powell wasn't planning to attend the ceremony, he said, because the class was so large no one got the chance to walk across the stage and pick up a diploma.

Instead, he hung out with some friends in a neighborhood bar. That is, until his mother got wind of where he was and "immediately dispatched" several of his cousins to escort him to graduation, Powell recalled.

The commencement speaker, by the way, was Dr. Jonas Salk, who developed the polio vaccine. "Will you remember your graduation speaker 50 years from now?" Powell asked the Class of 2009. "It's Powell, P-O-W-E-L-L, and don't you forget it," he said, to laughs from the crowd.

At one point, when Powell mentioned that CCNY is in Harlem, a young woman cheered loudly, to which he replied, "Thank you, my love."

Powell admitted that his academic performance at college left something to be desired. "I wasn't considered one of CCNY's great success stories at the time," he said. "It took me 4½ years, two changes of major and straight A's in ROTC for four years to raise my average to 2.0, the minimum needed to graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree and a commission" in the Army.

"Now, of course, I'm considered one of the greatest sons of CCNY," Powell said with a smile. "So those of you sitting here who are not graduating with a 3.8 or better, have faith, my young friends, have faith."

And he told the grads not to fret if they didn't have their life mapped out. "I can assure you there is a path," he said. "Keep looking for the one thing you love ... [and] give your time, talent and treasure to others."

Powell also praised the other doctorate recipients for their impressive achievements, telling the Class of '09, "These honorees reflect what we expect from each of you."

Last month, Powell said, he spoke at the Lincoln Memorial to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Marian Anderson's performance there. Anderson, an African-American contralto, sang at the memorial after being denied the chance to do so at segregated Constitution Hall.

"It was a very, very moving ceremony," Powell said, and reminded him of his own rise from humble origins as the son of Jamaican immigrants.

"We are still the best hope ... as long as we continue to enrich ourselves with new generations of leaders such as you," he said.

"Don't sell the world short and never sell America short," Powell said.

"We are counting on you to make this an even more perfect union."

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Paula Wolf is a staff writer for the Sunday News. She can be reached by e-mail at pwolf@lnpnews.com.