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I thought it was pretty cool when I commanded USS America, one of our twelve aircraft carriers.
And we had six of them on the East Coast, and of the twelve commanding officers of those
national treasures, eleven of them were Naval Academy graduates, and I was the only non-Academy
graduate and I went to NC State. I thought that was real cool.
I didn’t go to Naval Academy, I went to NC State. I earned this opportunity. Go Wolfpack.
Ralph Suggs, call sign “Benny,” and CHASS graduate. I have a B.A. in psychology, in
1969. I think you wanted to know why I came to NC
State. No-brainer, actually. I had some serious aspirations about attending a top-notch school
and I wanted to go to one of the big four. I guess, even early on, I had some pretty
lofty dreams, and I just had a really, really good feel about NC State. So when it came
time to apply, I applied at several colleges, but NC State was the one I was hoping most
to be accepted in. And I got accepted by all of them, but the NC State was a pretty obvious
pick, and I wouldn’t trade that decision for anything.
Had a lot of great faculty and mentors along the way that believed in me and actually saw
a lot more of them than I ever thought was even possible. That they had the audacity
to make me think that the sky was the limit, and the guy that was the biggest culprit and
the neatest, neatest gentleman I met when I was here was Dr. Slater E. Newman, psychology
professor. He saw things and potential in me, I think, that I never knew was even possible.
But he believed it. He made me think that anything was possible.
So, he made a heck of an impression on me, and I’ve admired him forever. But I always
used to ask myself, “What would Dr. Newman do right now?” He’d do the right thing,
for the right reasons. But he had a profound influence on my life.
He was a gift. And he still is. But I’ll tell you what, he was surrounded by a lot
of other really, really great folks that just did a super job and put everything they had
in to their students and their program at this university. And it made a tremendous
impact on me, and seriously, I thought anything was possible; they actually had me believing
that. And they were right. When I got out, I had a great background,
so when I went to Navy flight training, and one of the few people in my class to qualify
for jets—I had no trouble academically. Later on, at the Armed Forces Staff College,
same was true. And then later on, with a couple of opportunities at the Naval War College,
and the last one being as a chief of naval operations fellow for a year, I had no problem
academically. And the reason was, I think, that NC State
just gave me such a great, well-rounded academic foundation, that I was able to perform well,
actually, in a very competitive way. So, like most students, they teed you up for success.
So, it was a great fit for me. So I’m really, really proud that I went into psychology and
it’s really helped me tremendously, both in my Navy career and certainly in my last
ten years as a, quote, “senior executive” at Harley-Davidson Motor Company.
Yeah, it was kind of an interesting path, to be—drive a tank and fighter jets and
be a leader of aircraft carriers and carry battle groups, as a psychology major. But
I’ll tell you one thing, it sure helped me be very sensitive to people, their performance,
and their feeling of worth and dignity. And I think CHASS really, really gives you that
profound feeling of what the human being is worth.
I think CHASS developed, in me at least, that sensitivity to go in completely open-minded
and look at everything as objectively and fairly as you possibly could, in a nonjudgmental
way. You have to understand the human element. CHASS sort of gives you that frame of reference
so that when you do graduate from here, you know that this world out there, it can have
a lot of ambiguity, but in all this chaos, that there can be some processes and some
approaches where you can get some tangible ideas on how you can effect change in a positive
way. I’m not sure that’s a solution that most engineers—with all respect—would
come up with. There’s not a formula for it, at all. But a human element is the key.