We have entered the season of college and high school graduations – celebrations of academic accomplishment. It’s the season that reminds me of my last day in 1972 in a college classroom and the farewell words of my favorite professor, Dr. Richard H. Buskirk. I will divulge his prophetic words after I have provided a small dose of who the Doc was.
Dr. Buskirk steered into academia from the real world of business. A working turf that included
Chicago’s iconic Merchandise Mart in the 1960s as a sales rep for men’s clothing manufacturers.
His stories from the Merch Mart are legendary, but that’s a topic for another time.
The point is that it’s Doc’s real-world experience that laid the foundation of his classroom credibility.
I entered the realm of Doc Buskirk at Cal State Fullerton.
The Doc was the head of the business school.
He also taught several classes and authored textbooks used throughout the Cal-State system,
which he marketed through a carefully selected publisher.
After all, he was a marketing professor who could genuinely sell.
I was fortunate to witness many of Doc’s iconic classroom moments.
As an example, I vividly remember the Doc arriving a bit late to the classroom.
He rushed to his desk, gathered his notes, and asked, “What chapter are we at?”
He borrowed a copy of his required class textbook from a classmate.
And as he skimmed the chapter, his face transformed into a scowl of disgust.
He then held the book above his wastebasket and dropped it.
And as it merged with existing trash, he yelled, “I can’t believe I wrote this bullshit.”
A class of twenty-five students broke out into laughter.
Doc Buskirk then asked our class,
“What do you want to talk about?”
I raised my hand. Doc says, “OK, Ed, go.”
“Doc, our classes are primarily aimed at serving the corporate world.
Aren’t we going to talk about going into business for ourselves?”
He looked at me and said, “Are you crazy?”
Keep in mind, he had previously owned and run a successful business.
He asked for a show of hands, “Who agrees with Ed?”
Nearly everyone raised their hands. The Doc was stunned.
We weren’t interested in the big corporate careers of the day: IBM, 3M, Procter & Gamble, etc.
He recognized our response as a change in young attitudes and applauded our aspiration.
Well, Doc picked up on our plea and launched into a from-the-hip lecture.
Doc first turned to his classroom chalkboard and wrote, “Stay away from the government”.
Doc continued with an eruption of real-world guidance, including some ‘inside baseball’ info you won’t find in any textbook. Think ‘Back to School’, Rodney Dangerfield’s Thornton Melon, preempting the lecture of the smug academic-only business professor with the street facts of big-city business, as students raced to record/write every word. That’s a rough sketch of who Doc Buskirk was.
OK, got it?
Now, let’s return to that last day of class in 1972 and Doc Buskirk’s farewell words;
“As they hand your diploma, you should have this thought, and only this thought, in your head.
You don’t know Sh-t. Your education is about to begin.” The Doc was prophetically right.
Good luck to the class of 2026.
That’s it.
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