By Jay Mathews and Michelle Boorstein
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, May 21, 2007

Novelist John Grisham reminded students and guests at the University of Virginia's commencement yesterday that when he graduated from college in 1977, everyone in his class "knew someone . . . who went to Vietnam and came home in a box -- 58,000 boxes."

"We were told it was necessary to protect our interests," he said. "We were told we were winning, and winning, and more troops were needed." So, he said, one of three important things he has learned in the 30 years since he graduated is: "When politicians get an itch to go to war, don't believe much of what they say."

At the University of Maryland at College Park, commencement speaker Steny H. Hoyer's remarks last night also struck a political tone.

At the beginning of his remarks, Hoyer (D-Md.), the House Majority Leader, recognized the presidents of the undergraduate and graduate student bodies, saying to the crowd's laughter, "I do have respect for presidents."

Hoyer recalled that the country was also in a time of upheaval in 1963, when he was named the university's outstanding male graduate. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was the commencement speaker, Hoyer recalled, and the Cold War raged, U.S. involvement in Vietnam was escalating and the civil rights movement was gaining speed.

He encouraged the university's more than 6,300 graduates to heed the call of public service. "Today your neighbors at home and around the globe need you to step up," Hoyer told graduates.

The U-Va. and U-Md. graduation ceremonies were among several in the region yesterday. Speakers at George Washington University's commencement included former D.C. Council chairman Linda W. Cropp and CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer.

At Trinity University in Northeast Washington, graduates and guests heard a speech by Barbara Lang, president and chief executive of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce.

At a ceremony on the main campus lawn at 37th and O streets NW, the Georgetown University Law Center awarded 667 juris doctor degrees. Nina Totenberg, legal affairs correspondent for National Public Radio, was listed as the speaker. Georgetown's medical school graduation also was yesterday.

Grisham lives near Charlottesville and has a son who graduated from U-Va. He told the students that another lesson he learned was: "Your generation must have the courage to save the environment because prior generations did not."

Grisham warned, however, that it does little good to start planning one's life. He said he was sure when he graduated from Mississippi State University that he was going to become a lawyer and "make a lot of money representing wealthy people who did not want to pay all of their taxes." He had no thought of writing a book and did not pull out a legal pad to write the first sentence of his first novel -- the beginning of what became more than a dozen bestsellers -- until 10 years later.

U-Va. awarded about 5,900 undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees in yesterday's ceremonies. The ranks of graduates on the Lawn were so vast that some students tied distinctive balloons to their mortarboards so their families could pick them out of the crowd.

At Trinity, more than 4,000 guests saw more than 400 degrees awarded.

"I want to leave you with one last piece of advice that I've benefited from my whole life: Give back!" Lang told the graduates.

GWU's ceremony, where 6,000 degrees were awarded, filled three blocks of the Mall. Babies were placed on blankets under trees, children unwrapped sandwiches and grandparents snapped photos of the stage, which had a dramatic backdrop of the U.S. Capitol.

At times it seemed like the weather had a faulty off-on switch, with powerful sunshine one minute, showers the next. University volunteers went from tossing water bottles to packaged slickers into the crowd.

"Folks, that is like life," Cropp, who received an honorary degree, told the graduates. "There will be constant changes. Just keep going. When you are confronted with pressure, learn from it."

The graduation was largely overseen by outgoing President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, who in a printed farewell handed out to attendees compared his feelings about the school to a love affair.

"We haven't been just hooking up -- we've been going steady, you and I and all the students who came before you," he wrote.

Staff writer Elissa Silverman contributed to this report.