He is best known as the melodious-voiced catalog king “J. Peterman” on the Seinfield  show, but actor John O’Hurley ’76 said it was “truly a singular honor” for him to address members of the Class of 2006, their families and friends, and dignitaries as the keynote speaker at the College’s Eighty-Eighth Commencement Exercises on Sunday, May 21.

Prior to his address, O’Hurley comically chastised College President Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P.—who had introduced O’Hurley—for not mentioning that O’Hurley is “the grim reaper of television.”

O’Hurley went on to challenge the graduates to live “an extraordinary life” and to be “willing to make the leap to achieve what you imagine.” His address, which also featured both comic and serious reflections on his College years, captivated the overall crowd of approximately 12,000, which showed its appreciation with a standing ovation. 

An accomplished television, stage, and screen actor with ongoing and upcoming projects, O’Hurley made his Broadway debut this spring as the male lead, Billy Flynn, in the hit musical Chicago.

Beyond the field of entertainment, he is part owner of the real-life J. Peterman Company and a principal partner in two venture capital companies. He recently released a CD of his piano and cello compositions with renowned cellist Marston Smith called Peace of Our Minds, and his first book, It’s OK to Miss the Bed on the First Jump: And Other Life Lessons Learned from Dogs, will be published this fall by Hudson Street  Press/Penguin USA.

A philanthropist who supports many charitable causes, O’Hurley has helped to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for his favorite charity, Golfers Against Cancer.

O’Hurley was accompanied at the Dunkin’ Donuts  Center by nearly a dozen family members, including his wife, Lisa, and mother, Jean, and three fellow PC graduates: his father, John G. O’Hurley, M.D. ’48; his brother, Neal T. O’Hurley ’79; and Neal’s wife, Christine Lynch O’Hurley ’79.

The day before commencement, O’Hurley got his first look at the College’s new Smith Center for the Arts, in which he sponsored the music rehearsal room. “I was blown away by it, just blown away,” he said when asked about the center.

Special memories
During his speech, O’Hurley recounted the trials of his undergraduate years— such as the Raymond Dining Hall menu or “. . . surviving Western Civilization, that five-disciplined tour across the history of man . . .”—many of which still rang true with the Class of 2006.

One of his special memories, he said, was “ . . . the awe that I felt as a freshman, walking into this arena for the first time to watch the Friars play. Those were the days of Marvin Barnes and Ernie D. and it was Providence College's first Final Four.  [It felt like] I was standing in the shadow of giants.”

O’Hurley’s own “playing court” was PC’s 99-seat Friar’s Cell, the theatre in the basement of Stephen Hall [now the Feinstein Academic Center]. “In my mind it seemed like we were entertaining millions,” he recalled. “It was the center of my universe, and they were some of the most important moments of my life.”

His most vivid memory, he said, was his own commencement. “I was proud of what I had accomplished over the last four years, as I hope you are,” he said. “As much as I enjoyed the celebration of graduation, inside I was scared to death about what was next. I thought I knew where I wanted to go in life, but I had no idea how I was going to get there.”

The road to an “extraordinary life”
O’Hurley gained his sense of direction through a conversation with a 75-year-old Russian immigrant, he said.

“I asked him one evening why he was a success, and not just a financial success, but successful both in the quality and the spirit of his life. . . . He said, ‘John, you have only two choices in life—you can have an ordinary life, or you can have an extraordinary life. That’s it. It has nothing to do with money, or power. It has everything to do with the power of your choices.’”

O’Hurley said he has made those words “the theme of my life” and noted that to him, “An extraordinary life is a life of achievement, a life of meaning, and a life of reflection.

“Achievement begins with imagination,” he said. “ . . . Dream large, dream small, but trust what you imagine, because what you daydream about is what you are supposed to be doing. What you imagine is one of the only ways God can talk to you.”

Explaining his second component of an extraordinary life, O’Hurley told the graduates, “ . . . An extraordinary life has meaning, and meaning comes only from love. Love for another, love for God, and love for yourself. . . .”

“The final aspect of the extraordinary life,” he said, “is the thing that makes it all so worthwhile, and that is perspective [reflection]. You have heard people tell you ‘Never look back, always look forward’. . . I say, nonsense—always look back and as often as you can in the years ahead. It is the only way you know how far you have come.”

He added, “The enjoyment of that progress will make you ppreciate all those who were part of your story—your parents, your family, your friends, your teachers and places like Providence College.

“And from your appreciation will come what is perhaps the extraordinary virtue of the extraordinary life—and that is generosity. You will give, because you know you have been given so much.”


Editor’s note: The full text of John O’Hurley’s commencement address can be found at www.providence.edu/commencement2006.


(Source: The Spectrum, Volume 13, Number 17; May 26, 2006)