William Greiner's Ten Life Lessons

As a follow up to my last post, I wanted to highlight a portion of a tribute delivered at William Greiner's memorial service. Judith E. Albino, one of the speakers and a President Emerita and Professor at the Colorado School of Public Health, gave a heartfelt and memorable speech in which she recalled ten life lessons she learned from William Greiner. I've reproduced her list below:

1. Do the right thing, and if you do, you won’t need lawyers – at least not often.
2. There are few real obstacles to reaching our goals, only different, sometimes circuitous – but often, far more interesting – routes for getting there.
3. Ambiguity is good – it means that everything is still possible.
4. Words are powerful – know what they mean; use them well, and use them precisely.
5. The influence of history is real and undeniable; in other words, context is critical in every decision.
6. There’s always another way to look at a problem, and the best solutions require multiple perspectives.
7. People do the best they can – acknowledge that, and give them credit.
8. The most important title you’ll ever have in a University is Professor – and Bill, of course, was the consummate professor.
9. Buffalo, New York, is just about the greatest place on earth, and the University at Buffalo definitely is the greatest academic institution on earth.
10. Finally, it is important to be fair, and to respect, love, and take care of your family, your friends and your colleagues (even if those colleagues are not always your friends), as well as your university and your community – and of course, your dog.

Note: The above list was part of a larger speech delivered by Professor Judith E. Albino and was delivered during the William Greiner tribute on February 2, 2010. It's likely that UB will be posting her speech in its entirety, along with all the other tributes, soon. When that happens, I'll link to her speech in its entirety.