William Penn University Graduates Head Off To Their Future

Musco President Joe Crookham gave the commencement address at William Penn University on Saturday.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The doors opened at 8am at the Penn Activity Center. For many, this would be the last time they entered the school as a student.

William Penn University was founded by Quakers in 1873, and has been offering post-secondary and adult education programs since that time.

This year’s commencement speech was given by Joe Crookham. Crookham is the president of Musco Lighting headquartered in Oskaloosa, Iowa.

Crookham has served on the Board of Trustees for William Penn University since 1996, and currently serves as Vice Chair of the Board. Besides his duties with Musco and the Board of Directors, Crookham teaches a political science class at William Penn.

Crookham’s other volunteer efforts have included serving as a trustee on the National Parks Foundation, as well as the International Little League Baseball Foundation Board. He holds an undergraduate degree and M.B.A. degree from the University of Iowa, and a Juris Doctorate from Drake University.

Crookham shared with students, “It’s been my experience that the world’s made up of a lot of good people.” He then used his own real-life experiences to outline the good people that have been part of his success along the way.

Crookham shared his first memory of his time in college, and the house mother who taught him “manners and things like that. But then she taught us the most important thing I’ve always remembered. Good manners are the ability to make the other person comfortable. You remember that, you’ll get along with people and meet a lot of good people out there.”

Crookham gave examples of kind people that helped him and his company grow along the way. A simple returned letter from an employee at Stanley tools, and the work with good people at ABC sports to light a game at Notre Dame. A good comment by good people at that first game helped to propel Musco Sports Lighting into the future.

“Nice people. There’s just a lot of them out there,” said Crookham.

William Penn Commencement 2015

Crookham shared his first international sales experience with the graduating class. It involved the lighting of a horse racing track in England. Within a couple of hours after meeting the gentleman, an agreement was in place, and Musco Sports Lighting was now an international company.

“It was just another nice person that called,” said Crookham.

“He had one more nice thing he did for us,” added Crookham. “When they got ready to have their opening event for the race course, he called an invited my wife Jeanie and I to come over for the opening event. He said ‘the Queen is a big fan of horse racing and the horses, and she’s coming to the race, and if you come over, I’ll introduce you to her.'”

“That’s gotta be pretty special,” said Crookham.

Crookham said he spent some time learning the protocol of what to do when you meet the Queen, “And so we’re standing down alongside the track when she comes in. The car drove up on the track, she hopped out of the back of the car, reached out and said, ‘Hi, pleased to meet you. I’m so glad you came over here to light this track for us, because we’ve never lit tracks in England before, and you have a lot of experience in it. So we get the benefit of all your experience in lighting our first race course.'”

“Now, she’s not running for office. She doesn’t need my vote. She doesn’t need a job. She took the time to know those kinds of things. To be able to say those kinds of things to me and make me comfortable. Then she talked to my wife. The Queen of England. She’s just a nice person,” added Crookham.

A final story shared by Crookham involved the cheetah. A trip to Tanzania with his wife Jeanie to go on safari with some researchers. One of those researchers was from England and told about problems the Cheetah was having in surviving.

“She pointed out to us the cheetah is the fastest mammal on earth. Sixty miles-per-hour at cruise. When it gets in a hurry it can hit about 75 miles-per-hour. It’s very agile, very strong, has a lethal bite, and, she explained to us, it’s an endangered species because of it’s inability to survive in the wilderness,” said Crookham.

“The problem is, they have a 95% mortality with their cubs. The reason they do, is cheetah’s tend to live alone. And so, a mother cheetah with 4 cubs surrounded by 20 hyenas has got 2 really bad choices. She can throttle up and [run], in which case she’s OK, but the cheetah’s cubs are gone. Or she can stay and fight, and even with all her skills, at 20-to-1 odds she may not win that battle,” said Crookham.

“The moral of the story and the reason I have this sitting on my desk,” Crookham says as he touches a cheetah statue, “is because you always want to remember to be a team player. It doesn’t matter if you’re the most gifted, the most talented in the world. If you’re not a team player, you may not survive.”

The graduates of 2015 then received their honors. After, they made their way to the front of Penn Hall, where they were inducted into the alumni of William Penn with the Blue and Gold Ceremony.