Back in the 1940s, we had chapel at Walla Walla College three times a week. This particular day, E. Straus Cubley, head of the Business Department, had the podium. He was an impressive man, iron-gray hair, better than 6 feet tall, athletic in build, impeccably dressed. He started his lecture with a confession: “I was let go from three good jobs because I couldn’t seem to manage to get to work on time, I didn’t take care of my assignments on time; I was chronically late.”
He went on to detail how he overcame that problem. One statement he made stuck in my mind. “You have to plan to be early. It is the only way to be dependably on time.”
As Cubley pointed out, being on time is a way of showing both courtesy and respect for the person with whom we are meeting.
Since the eminent Dr. Kretchmar had been drafted by the military, Ralph Davidson taught the math and sciences classes. Davidson was a small, quiet, unusually perceptive man. One day at the beginning of our trigonometry class he wrote one the blackboard,
“Don’t make excuses; make good.”
These have proved to be the most memorable, most valuable lessons from my college days.
