John Wild

Admittedly, I was a screw up when I attended Bloomington during the spring semester of 1966. I graduated from an academically strong high school in Indianapolis and worked that fall at Allison's Transmissions to earn money to attend college.

I was accepted into IU Bloomington, so I packed up and headed to Teter Quadrangle. From there, I found myself without parental supervision and partied hardy. In the process, I lost my student deferment and was not invited back. When the inevitable draft notice came that fall, I decided the Air Force beat being drafted into the Army or Marines, and I passed their version of an acceptance test (credit my academic high school) and enlisted on a delayed enlistment program. The Air Force couldn't schedule me in until February of 1967. To make a short story shorter, I spent one year in Thailand, and two and a half in Germany, plus six months in the states getting my training. A funny thing happened during my four years of avoiding getting killed in Vietnam: I grew up and flew right.

I realized that college was a necessity, which led me back to Bloomington in February 1971. Unfortunately, IU Bloomington didn't want me. So I came home to Indy and decided to try IUPUI, which, to my pleasant surprise, allowed me to enroll for the summer session, but limited my hours to six.

I took Political Science and Intro to Philosophy and got B's in both. The fall semester, with my probation removed, I enrolled in 12 hours and got A's in each of the four courses. I graduated in 1974 with my BA in Political Science, helped along with 31 hours earned while I was in the military.

I went on to become a Distinguished Alumnus in 1998. In 1999, I was privileged to address the Liberal Arts graduates with a speech entitled "Graduation Night in the Garden of Good and Email." I subsequently went on to retire as a CEO of an education finance authority in 2004, with a six-figure pension. I owe it all to IUPUI.