When I returned to West Virginia University in 2015, after nearly 30 years at Ohio State, I was coming back to a place that shaped my life.
I grew up in Charleston, where my father was the editor of the Charleston Gazette. He was a WVU graduate, as are my brother and I. I spent eight years at WVU, first as an undergraduate and then as a medical student. The University gave me the opportunity to become a physician and opened doors I could not have imagined when I first arrived in Morgantown.
I went on to Ohio State University, where I met my future wife, trained, built my career, and raised my family. Those years gave me extraordinary opportunities to learn, grow, and work alongside remarkable people.
But when the opportunity came to return to WVU, I felt something different. I had the chance to give back to the University and state that had invested in me. I wanted to bring what I had learned back to WVU. This meant helping build a true academic medical center so that fewer people would need to leave the state for excellent care and to improve the health of West Virginians. We have begun this journey and while we have accomplished a lot to date and a lot together, there is still much to do.
What I have come to understand is that home is not simply a place we return to. It is a place we remain part of, even when life takes us somewhere else.
That is what makes Homecoming special.
Returning to familiar buildings and streets brings back memories, but what brings those places to life are the people. Former classmates, teachers, mentors, and friends. Years may pass, and our lives may take different directions, but the relationships we formed remain.
There is something powerful about that kind of belonging. We are reminded that none of us becomes who we are entirely on our own. We are shaped by teachers, mentors, and friends who challenge us, encourage us, and see possibilities in us that we have not yet recognized.
Homecoming gives us a chance to remember those connections and renew them.
I see this especially clearly during our School of Medicine M.D. Alumni Weekend and all alumni gatherings across our health sciences schools.
Graduates return from different places and different generations. Some are early in their professional lives. Others have spent decades caring for patients, teaching students, conducting research, or serving their communities.
The world of healthcare has changed enormously during those years. The technology, science, and tools available to our graduates today would have been difficult to imagine when I was a medical student.
Yet something important has remained.
The heart of our work is still about people. It is about caring for others, relieving suffering, creating opportunity, and making life better for the communities we serve.
That shared purpose connects us across generations.
I think about my teachers and mentors. Their influence did not end when I graduated. It continued through the patients I cared for, the students I taught, and the people I had the opportunity to mentor.
I see that same connection in our alumni today. They return to share their experiences, support scholarships, mentor students, and help the next generation find its own path. And our current students bring new ideas, energy, and perspectives that teach us as much as we teach them.
This is how a university becomes more than a collection of buildings, programs, or degrees. It becomes a community that grows across generations.
When I came back to WVU, I wanted to repay what this place had given me. Over time, I have come to understand that the best way to do that is to pay it forward. To help create opportunities for people we may never meet, just as others once did for us.
The word doctor comes from the Latin for “teacher.” I think that is fitting. We teach, and in doing so, we continue to learn. We care for others, and in doing so, we become part of something larger than ourselves.
That is what I see when our alumni come home. Different generations, different experiences, and different lives, connected by a shared purpose.
E pluribus unum. Out of many, one.
Together, we are part of a long blue and gold line. It connects those who came before us with those who follow. It reflects our land-grant mission, our commitment to West Virginia, and the privilege of service to others.
Homecoming is more than a memory of our past. It is a promise to our future.
A place we belong and a place that shapes us still.
Almost heaven.