Estelle Parsons ’49 urges Class of 2005 to ‘find your own way’

Photo: Nina Lentini / Estelle Parsons delivers the Commencement address.

More than 55 years after her own CC graduation, actress Estelle Parsons ’49 returned to campus to urge 424 graduates to be creative in all their endeavors — in nurturing family life, in caring for the environment, in conducting business and in demanding that the government support the arts.

“Society wants you to be passive, sit back, be quiet,” she said. “Don’t do it. Find your way. You have only one life and nothing but your own creativity to call your own.”

Parsons quoted John Donne, Langston Hughes, and Shakespeare, and wowed the graduates by singing a riff from jazz singer Sophie Tucker’s theme song, “Some of These Days.”

Parsons, who was given the Academy Award for her performance in “Bonnie and Clyde” and who is still performing on the stage and screen, received an honorary doctorate of fine arts degree.

Photo: Nina Lentini / The Connecticut College Class of 2005.

Two other awards were made at Commencement. Peter Merrow Luthy ’05 was awarded the prestigious Oakes and Louise Ames Prize for his senior honor thesis titled, “Functional Analysis and Its Applications,” and Phillip J. Gedeon ’05 was awarded the prestigious Anna Lord Strauss Medal for his significant contributions to the College, the community and the state.

Using the campus as a metaphor for values, practices and life questions, President Norman Fainstein urged the graduates to “lead beautiful lives” by considering how to balance the desire to create an “enclave for yourselves and your loved ones” with obligations to others.

Touching on international events, Fainstein told them, “It is now up to you to decide for yourselves and for future generations in our global societies where we should strike the balances between religious commitment and religious tolerance, between religious belief and human reason.”

Christopher Civali ’05, president of the Class of 2005, reminded his colleagues that they were all freshmen on the day two planes were flown into the World Trade Center.

“I remember thinking how eerie it was that it was an otherwise gorgeous day. I remember that we walked across this green into the Jane Addams common room and watched in horror as the Twin Towers fell, wondering if anything would ever be the same again.”

Emily Chamberlin ’05, elected by her class to speak at Commencement, spoke about the various ways to define diversity. “In my first class at Conn, I met Erin, an average-looking white girl from Texas,” she said. “I learned that Erin had spent much of her life … in Morocco and in Malaysia . She consistently enriched class discussions with her global perspective on gender, identity and life.

“While today has ‘ending’ written all over it, we can take the essence and the best part of Conn with us,” she said.