Maine’s college graduates were urged Saturday not to leave the state for employment opportunities because their leadership desperately is needed right at home.

Unlike commencement speeches elsewhere in the country, where observations on national and international issues such as the war on terrorism prevailed, Maine’s speakers focused on a crisis facing the state – how to build a strong, sustainable economy when the population is aging and young people are moving out.

“The simple truth is: We need people. We need diversity, energy and economic progress to retain our young,” said A. Mark Woodward, executive editor of the Bangor Daily News, speaking at Husson College. “We need to change our attitudes to make it happen.

“Maine is a state that says it wants progress but behaves as if it doesn’t want change,” he added. “What can we do? Wherever you are, accept the personal responsibility to be a leader in your community. Help people collaborate. Bring them together to confront those issues that are so difficult, so painful but so necessary for human progress and growth.”

Woodward urged graduates “to someday go back to those towns and cities where you learned the basic lessons of respect, cooperation and humility. It is people like you who someday will make those communities whole.”

At the University of Maine at Augusta, 2nd District U.S. Rep. John Baldacci recited a similar plea to 630 graduates.

“You are the foundation of Maine’s economic future,” said Baldacci, a Democratic candidate for governor. “I encourage you to look at opportunities here at home, because we need your help. You chose to go to the University of Maine. I hope you continue to choose Maine and continue to be the leaders I know you’re capable of being.”

In Portland, former state supreme court Chief Justice Daniel Wathen told University of Southern Maine’s more than 900 graduates that they will lead the state’s economy “out of simply struggling to keep up and to soar to excellence.”

“We are all struggling to move beyond the process of simply making do under difficult circumstances to achieving a vibrant and sustainable economy for the entire state of Maine,” Wathen said.

Citing studies linking educational attainment and training to positive economic growth, Wathen said, “It is you and your dreams that respond to the red flags waving over Maine’s economic horizon. Yours is the next bold step in our collective journey from merely getting by to a vibrant and sustainable economy for all of Maine.”

At other ceremonies throughout the state, graduates were encouraged by speakers to focus on developing their leadership skills and to set workable goals so they, as individuals, can achieve personal prosperity. Personal fulfillment will help build strong communities, they were told.

Maine Maritime Academy

CASTINE – On a morning as crisp as their military uniforms, 177 students from across the nation and around the world graduated Saturday from Maine Maritime Academy.

The graduates at Alexander Fieldhouse hailed from 22 states and five countries. Maine students from more than 70 communities numbered 108.

The seacoast college specializes in ocean and marine-oriented programs, as well as in preparing officers for the U.S. military.

“I stand ready to be amazed at what you will achieve in the future,” Robert D. Somerville, an MMA graduate from the Class of 1965, told students during his commencement address.

Somerville is president of The American Bureau of Shipping in Houston, a nonprofit firm that establishes and administers design, construction and maintenance standards for marine vessels and structures. He received an honorary doctor of science degree during MMA’s 59th commencement exercises.

Somerville congratulated members of the Class of 2002 for choosing the maritime industry for their profession, saying he has lived a “rich and varied life” working in countless countries where he forged lasting friendships.

Among the advice he offered:

. “Don’t wallow in the swamp of regret and bad decisions.” He said people should make new decisions as soon as possible “and move forward.”

. “Never be too proud to ask for and accept help” and to be humble enough to take advice and act on it.

. Learn to listen “and introduce a little more silence into your lives.” He said that learning to listen and not wanting to be the one talking “is one of the most difficult things to learn,” especially “with the noise of modern society.”

. “Be open to life’s offerings,” Somerville concluded. “If you are open to possibilities, they will take you places you never imagined.”

University of Maine at Fort Kent

FORT KENT – Maine’s governor made what could be one of his last swings through the St. John Valley while in office when he came to Fort Kent on Saturday to address the 120th graduating class at the University of Maine at Fort Kent during the annual commencement exercises.

King delivered a relaxed speech, often making jokes and drawing from personal anecdotes and experiences.

“This is not a normal graduation speech with a beginning, a middle and end, and a message,” King said. “Instead, I want to give you a list of things I wish someone had told me when I was 25.”

King encouraged the graduates to be risk takers, to follow their hearts and be honest to themselves above all.

“It’s OK to make mistakes,” King said. “The trick is to figure out what you really like to do and then get someone to pay you to do it.”

In addition to handing out 241 degrees, the university presented its distinguished service award to Dr. Marc Chasse, retired chiropractor and longtime St. John Valley and Acadian cultural advocate.

The award is given annually to an individual who has rendered service to the UMFK campus, community, county and state.

A posthumous honorary degree was awarded to Duane “Buzz” Fitzgerald, a native of the St. John Valley, former president of Bath Iron Works and former member of the University of Maine System board of trustees.

For only the second time in the campus’s 124-year history, a special family award was presented.

Michael and Dianne Bresett of Van Buren accepted the award in recognition of the 400 classes taken at UMFK by 10 members of the immediate family.

On Saturday, the last three Bresetts of the current generation received diplomas.

University of Maine at Machias

MACHIAS – U.S. Sen. Susan Collins told the 100 graduates at the University of Maine at Machias on Saturday that the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 and the harrowing days that followed taught the powerful lesson that ordinary people can perform extraordinary acts.

“Although we live in a society that often reveres movie stars, professional athletes and millionaires, the events of last fall allowed us to make room in the newspapers and on television to tell the stories of our true heroes, such as firefighters, police officers and emergency personnel, who put their lives on the line for us every day,” Collins told the graduates. “It reminds us that although few will ever be as rich as Bill Gates, as popular as Michael Jordan or as talented as Stephen King, we can still serve.”

Collins, the keynote speaker at UMM’s 91st commencement, said everyone can endeavor to be loving parents, good neighbors, valued employees or employers and compassionate volunteers who make a difference every day.

“People just like Carolyn and Bob Foster, and Brother Rick Curry, who we are honoring today,” Collins said.

UMM presented distinguished service awards to Robert H. Foster and Carolyn M. Foster of Marshfield for what UMM President John Joseph described as their generosity – as a couple and as individuals – in making Washington County a better place to live, work and study.

Robert Foster, a graduate of the University of Maine, founded R.H. Foster Inc., a petroleum distributorship serving Maine and New England, in 1959. He is a former trustee of the University of Maine System and current chairman of the UMM board of visitors.

Carolyn Foster, a longtime member of the board of trustees for Down East Community Hospital, is known for her promotion of quality rural health care and was cited by Modern Healthcare magazine as trustee of the year for 1996.

Also honored with a UMM distinguished achievement award was Curry, the founder and artistic director of the National Theatre Workshop for the Handicapped in Belfast and New York City.

University of Maine at Presque Isle

PRESQUE ISLE – Two hundred twenty-five students graduated from the University of Maine at Presque Isle on Saturday and got some advice to help guide them as they make the transition from college to the real world.

“Something inexplicable is going to happen to each of you as you receive your diploma,” Owen W. Wells, president and chief executive officer of the Libra Foundation, said in his address to the graduates. “For the past four or five years most of you have been living like fish in a fishbowl, but that’s about to change.”

Wells advised the graduates to take interest in the world outside their own community and take an active role in shaping their own destinies.

“The reality is that what happens outside those borders affects you directly,” he said. “It affects you socially, economically and politically.”

He told the students to try to imagine a world in which Oliver Brown had not enrolled his daughter in an all-white school; in which Elizabeth Cady Stanton had not organized a women’s rights movement in 1848; in which Nelson Mandela had given up the fight against apartheid.

“Ignorance is damning,” Wells said. “Don’t ever stop acting in earnest and exercising your mind.”

What a college education has given them, Wells told the graduates, is an opportunity to achieve greatness.

“Goal setting is vitally important,” he said. “Goals create paths to follow and things to work for and along the way inner truth is revealed.”

Barry McCrum, a University of Maine System trustee, brought greetings from the board, and Barbara Blackstone, president of the alumni board, welcomed the newest alumni into the association.

Debra Lee Perry of Easton gave the 2002 valedictorian address.

Unity College

UNITY – Retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife special agent Terry Grosz told graduates at Unity College to view their careers as their first love and to remain observant at all times because not everything can be viewed in terms of black and white.

“You must live your career, not just represent it,” he told the 114 graduates Saturday. “The laws and principles of wildlife management are in black and white. However, they are enforced and managed in shades of gray. Learn to deal with that.”

Grosz urged the graduates to remember to teach others as they progress through life.

“You will have plenty to do in your world; however, remember that the business of extinction is constant and final. Take the time to pass on to others your wisdom so that many of you will possess the needed trait, not just one of you. You are much more effective as a force of numbers than a force of one.”

During the ceremony, Unity College bestowed bachelor of science degrees in environmental sciences, outdoor recreation, environmental biology and social sciences as well as bachelor of arts and associate degrees.

Receiving citations were Annie Getchell of Camden, writer, mountaineer and co-host of the public television series “Anyplace Wild;” and Suzanne Kibler-Hacker of Manchester, N.H., former director of Unity’s cooperative education program and senior director for development at the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.

Grosz spent more than 30 years as a wildlife officer supervising programs for Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, North Dakota and South Dakota. Since his retirement in 1998, Grosz has written three books dealing with his love of the wilderness and true stories from the life of a game management officer. A fourth book, “Mother Nature’s Sword,” is due to be published this fall.

Husson College

BANGOR – More than 300 students received associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the schools of business, health, science and humanities and education at Husson College’s 103rd commencement Saturday at Newman Gymnasium.

Besides delivering the commencement address, Woodward was honored with the Chesley H. Husson Sr. Award. Husson President William H. Beardsley, in recognizing Woodward, said the executive editor is an example of someone who didn’t leave the state for job opportunities, but instead stayed at one company and moved up the ranks. Along the way, he valued “the insights from neighbors and communities.”

World-renowned pianist Anthony diBonaventura received an honorary doctorate in fine arts and Simone L. Levesque, an educator from the St. John Valley, received an honorary doctorate in public service.

Class president Sarah J. Cosme presented the class address.

Contributing to this report were NEWS reporters Deborah Turcotte Seavey, Liz Chapman, Walter Griffin, Mary Anne Clancy and Julia Bayly and The Associated Press.