Delaware, Caesar Rodney, DuPont and Life Lessons

On December 7, 1787 Delaware became the first state to ratify the United States Constitution, thus earning its nickname, “The First State.”  This Mid-Atlantic state is a gem of history and typically American success stories.  Yes, I know it gave us Vice President Joe Biden, but it also gave us Caesar Rodney (more on him later).

            I love the state of Delaware for very personal reasons.  Thanks to a grant from DuPont (via Conoco) I was invited to earn my second master’s degree (in economics) from the University of Delaware at Newark.  They paid for my tuition, books, room and board, transportation, even a generous stipend for two summers of work.  I filled in the rest of the requirements with doctoral classes at home, produced a 5 part television series on economic education in the elementary classroom, and a thesis, “The Economic Impact of Acid Rain Remediation on Coal Fired Utilities in Missouri” (a piece of work comparing mils of revenue to microns of emissions and guaranteed to solve insomnia).   That degree upped my teaching salary and gave me the degree necessary to get a night job teaching economics at the community college.  For the next decade that job, two nights a week, three semesters a year, helped put two daughters through college.

            Lesson # 1:  Working two jobs is neither fun, nor easy, but it is sometimes necessary, and there is some honor in being able to say, “Yes, I will.”

            The University of Delaware’s mascot is the, “Fighting Blue Hen” though the creature being depicted is clearly a rooster.  Cock fighting was a common amusement at the time of the Revolutionary war and the blue game cocks from Delaware were legends of success and ferocity.  Evidently the good Presbyterians who formed the University of Delaware decided that it was not proper for the students to be shouting support for their team by yelling, “Go Blue Cocks!”  So some gentle soul softened the impact by calling these blatantly male birds, “hens.”   “Go Blue Hens!” may be more politically correct, but we all know what these birds are. 

            Lesson # 2:  Changing the name of something doesn’t change what it is.

            Delaware had many soldiers in the Revolutionary War due in part to the efforts of its greatest son, Caesar Rodney.  Rodney is best known for his historic 70 mile ride, through a thunderstorm, on the night of July 1.  He covered the distance from Dover to Philadelphia in time to break a deadlock in Delaware’s vote for independence.  Asthmatic and suffering from a cancer on his face, he did what needed to be done even when ill and crying for rest.

            Lesson # 3:  Duty and honor are exacting, but worthy, task masters.

            My time in Delaware was made possible by the generosity of the DuPont family.  DuPont and Delaware go together.  They are a family and a state linked by shared success.  Eleuthere Irenee DuPont de Nemours escaped France during the dark days of the French Revolution and came to this country with a list of ways to make a living.  When one after another turned sour, he began making explosives on the banks of the Brandywine River in Delaware.  The rest is history.  He and his progeny have been leaders in good conduct and civic responsibility while providing cutting edge technology and employment for tens of thousands of people. 

            Lesson # 4: You can do well while doing right if you choose. 

            Delaware is the state I would have chosen to be this nation’s diamond; the first state, on which the others rest comfortably. 

            Learn your lessons, and keep the faith.