The Morgan State University band struck up "Pomp and Circumstance" when Clayton Stansbury waved his white-gloved hands from atop the promenade at the other end of the football field. The faculty - flanking him on his left and right - paraded off the promenade and down the steps when he said, "OK. Go."
The soon-to-be-graduates turned to the left when he turned and sat when he motioned them to sit. And they moved their gold tassels from right to left as he moved his tassel for the 35th consecutive year, as the students took a symbolic step into adulthood with yet another class.
Stansbury's family calls him "Mr. Morgan" because for the 35th time Saturday, this university's graduation moved on his mark. It was his last graduation, or so he says. The 76-year-old, according to relatives and friends, has about as much a knack for retirement as Michael Jordan.
"He'll slip back for a minute and then something tells me he'll be right back in it," says Michael James, a retention coordinator at the university.
Elected by the faculty as chief marshal of the university's commencement in 1974, Stansbury, Class of 1955, has directed the honors program, served as vice president for student affairs - the first Morgan graduate to reach that rank - and "retired" as professor of psychology.
Holding the university's wood-and-metal mace - a staff of sorts adorned with plaques - Stansbury has led everyone from President Bill Clinton to this year's commencement speaker, NAACP President Benjamin Jealous, down the concrete steps and onto Morgan's blue-and-orange track.
"I've been here, and I'm tired," he says of his pending second retirement.
Don't believe that for a minute, advised his niece, Erica Waters.
Stansbury still cared enough to stop a tardy and disheveled professor from sprinting to catch up with his colleagues.
"No, no, no," Stansbury told architecture professor Leon Bridges. "Put that thing on. You're not going down there like that."
Stansbury helped Bridges get his hood on, held his belongings while he zipped his gown and then nodded in approval.
With Bridges on his way, Stansbury asked Waters for the time.
"9:31," she replied. A precise answer is always required, she later noted.
"Good, we're on time," Stansbury replied, clasping his hands.
That gave him a brief moment to nag Waters about returning to Morgan for her doctorate.
