On the recordFebruary 16, 2011
I am proud, for many reasons, that I am a graduate of Swarthmore College. But among those reasons is the fact that as a graduate of Swarthmore, I am in the same company as Eugene Lang, a 1938 graduate of the college. Few if any of our school's many distinguished graduates have matched Gene Lang's ability and determination to use his talents in the service of his fellow man. If his resume consisted only of his extraordinarily successful business career, Gene would be an admirable figure. As founder of REFAC Technology Development Corporation, in more than a half a century of work, he has helped foster innovation, particularly in manufacturing, by helping American inventors and entrepreneurs profit from their ideas. But what he has done with the earnings from that business is truly remarkable. In 1981, Gene paid a visit to P.S. 121, the Harlem elementary school he had attended as a boy. He was going to speak to a group of sixth graders preparing to move on to middle school. Before his speech, he spoke with the principal, who told him that three out of every four of the students he would address would never finish high school. To a man who entered college at the age of 14 and had an advanced business degree by his 20th birthday, this was unacceptable. And so he told the students that day: Education has allowed me to follow my dreams, and it can do the same for you too.
