Daniel Webster College

NASHUA — College graduates may not remember what their commencement speakers tell them years from now, but Daniel Webster College commencement speaker Frank Deford still had a message he hoped they wouldn’t forget: Always be amazed by life’s surprises.

Deford also reminded graduates at the school’s 40th commencement yesterday to keep an open mind to those times in life.

“May I make a small suggestion: Just let yourself be surprised in life. Keep your mind open at all times, particularly the strangest of times, because you will probably learn the best things in the most unlikely of places.”

Deford, who has been called the world’s best sportswriter by GQ magazine among his accolades, addressed a crowd of nearly 1,000 people under a massive covering while driving rain poured outside and added that he didn’t mind being forgotten in the annals of history.

“(In a survey) 99.77 percent of all college graduates polled could not recall a single thought uttered by their graduation speaker.”

The college’s 210 graduates came from places as far away as Panama City, Panama, like Walter Stocker, who graduated with a degree in aviation/air traffic management, to Bondville, Vt., where senior class speaker Willam Kilday hails from.

Kilday was one of 175 graduates completing a bachelor’s degree, while 19 students completed associate’s degrees and 16 graduated with master’s degrees. Kilday stressed to graduates the importance of being lifelong learners.