“Who, what and where would I be if I’d never gone to Clemson?

Clemson University kicked off its 123rd academic year with inspirational words from Dr. Spence M. Taylor of Greenville.

Taylor, who is a Clemson alumnus and president and chief academic officer of Greenville Health System Clinical University, began his remarks with a rhetorical question:

“Who, what and where would I be if I’d never gone to Clemson? “I’ll bet that I’d have fewer orange shirts, and I doubt that my 83-year-old mother would have Tiger Rag as her cell phone ring tone. But… the answers get a little more serious: I may not have married my wife, who I met here. I may not have kids. I may not be a surgeon. Clemson is the institution to which I identify. I truly love this university.”

He went on to describe how his ties to Clemson helped shape his professional life, aiding him at key points of his highly distinguished career in medicine.

“In an almost mysterious way, Clemson has intervened over and over in my professional career — not as an alumnus, but in a more intrusive way, usually when least expected, often in a life-changing fashion. Again and again Clemson has been the tether to which my professional career has been attached and the catapult in which it has been propelled.”