Marian Fontana
Field: arts
Marian Fontana, whose firefighter husband died on September 11th, reflects on her life before and after the attacks, arguing that true success lies in noticing and cherishing small everyday moments rather than pursuing only grand goals. She shares personal anecdotes about her husband Dave, raising their son Aidan, and coping with grief, alongside the story of a 9/11 victim's list of life goals. She encourages graduates to live in the moment, show compassion, and dare greatly as they enter their careers.
Key moments
- 01 Accepting an honorary law degree and reflecting on the difficulty of giving advice
- 02 Recalling her husband Dave, his firefighting calling, and his death on 9/11
- 03 Redefining success as noticing small, tender moments in life
- 04 Describing her community's support and her experiences at her son's baseball games
- 05 Sharing Ann Nelson's list of life goals and closing with a Teddy Roosevelt quote
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Marian Fontana at Massachusetts School of Law, 2006
A commencement address about grief, justice, working families, public service, dignity, and daily courage.
Speech arc
- 019/11 loss
Opening move
- 02Private grief
Speech beat
- 03Changed city
Speech beat
- 04Power of law
Speech beat
- 05Practical justice
Speech beat
- 06Working families
Speech beat
- 07Daily courage
Speech beat
- 08Useful life
Final charge
Law: Use the law for people without power
Fontana frames legal training as power that can either shelter vulnerable people or exclude them.
Power
The law shapes access, opportunity, and dignity.
Choice
Graduates decide whether their knowledge protects or distances people.
Service
The charge is to make justice real for those with the least leverage.
Fontana frames legal training as power that can either shelter vulnerable people or exclude them.
Grief: Loss becomes public purpose
Personal grief after September 11 is transformed into a demand for fairness, memory, and useful work.
Memory
The loss of Dave Fontana anchors the speech in lived consequence.
City
A wounded public community reveals courage and interdependence.
Purpose
Grief can move outward into work that makes life more just.
Personal grief after September 11 is transformed into a demand for fairness, memory, and useful work.
Justice: Justice is practical
The speech treats justice as documents, process, patience, listening, and outcomes that change lives.
Facts
Know the law, know the story, and attend to details.
Procedure
Rules determine who gets heard and who stays outside.
Impact
Public service is measured in lives changed.
The speech treats justice as documents, process, patience, listening, and outcomes that change lives.
• Key takeaways •
Use law for inclusion
Connects to service.
Let grief serve fairness
Connects to justice.
Make justice practical
Connects to grief.
Stand with working families
Connects to dignity.
Choose courage daily
Connects to courage.
Closing charge
Fontana asks graduates to choose voice, risk, compassion, and service over comfort or numbness.
Courage is a daily choice
Voice
Moral courage begins by naming what is wrong.
Dignity
Stand with working people and families whose voices go unheard.
Practice
Small choices build the habit of public responsibility.
Fontana asks graduates to choose voice, risk, compassion, and service over comfort or numbness.
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Transcript
The previously catalogued transcript link is no longer live and is queued for re-sourcing.
Machine transcript available for archive analysis; it is unverified and may contain transcription errors. Machine transcript source ->
Provenance
BROKEN transcript link (checked 2026-06-26): graduationwisdom.com repurposed into lifestyle blog; speech pages gone. Provenance: Imported from NPR commencement archive; cross-referenced with Open Commencement DB
NPR archive last updated in 2015; destination availability has not been exhaustively rechecked | Open Commencement DB transcript; not independently verified against the original recording | Transcript URL dead (graduationwisdom.com repurposed into lifestyle blog; speech pages gone); no video fallback — needs re-sourcing
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