THE GRADUATION CEREMONY at Walden
University is a moving experience. It is not at
all unusual to hear some child cry out, “Way
to go grandma!”
At one such ceremony, Lovely Thorton, a
black woman married to an Air Force Chaplin
in Germany, was selected to give the commencement
address. She had earned the right
by having the best Ph.D. dissertation that year.
A hush fell over the crowd as Lovely
Thorton approached the podium.
She began with a poem.
No child, ain’t no time for school or play,
Got to pick some cotton today.
No child, ain’t no time for school or play,
Got to pick some peas today.
As Lovely Thorton told the story of her
rise from being the daughter of a sharecropper
in Louisiana, Bernie and Rita Turner’s
hearts swelled with pride. It was for just this
moment that they had built Walden University.
Each graduate was a pebble cast in the vast
pond of society, creating ripples of positive
societal change.
MOST BOOKS OF THIS NATURE are either autobiographical
or biographical. This book is a
hybrid. The author and the subjects both have
a speaking voice.
Bernie and Rita Turner are highly accomplished
individuals. Before joining forces to build
Walden they were each standout individuals in
their professions. Once they joined forces the
dynamic was unstoppable. There were actually
two points at which that dynamic joining took
place. The first was the spring evening in 1954
when they first met. Ordinary couples meet and
sparks fly. In the case of Bernie and Rita it was a
full-scale lightning storm, the intensity of which
only time can abate. The second dynamic joining
occurred in 1970 when Bernie proposed Walden
University. Their fateful drive down the Tamiami
Trail to the Cove Inn is the stuff of legends.
Now I invite you to delve into one of the most
amazing stories of true Americana. Consider
two caricatures of heroes: the noble, idealistic
dreamer and the hardnosed, unrelenting business
entrepreneur. One can see terrible wrongs
in society and strive for social justice. The other
can see unmet economic needs and, often
against bitter obstacles, create solutions and
make a profit. What happens when the two mesh
to form one dream and one enterprise? This book
is the answer.
—Wade Keller
