CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Hunter Hollar missed out on his University of Virginia graduation ceremony in 1971 because the National Guard called him up for the Vietnam War.

Thirty-seven years later, Hollar -- an economics major who is now chairman and CEO of a Maryland bank -- finally made it to the university's commencement.

Clad in a black cap and gown, Hollar sat among a sea of about 6,000 graduating students on the Lawn in front of Old Cabell Hall yesterday.

In the seat next to him was his daughter, Maureen Hollar, who was receiving diplomas from U.Va. in psychology and economics.

"It's awesome," Maureen Hollar said. "I grew up idolizing him as a University of Virginia grad. Because of him, I'd wanted to go here since I was in eighth grade. It was pretty special to share this day with him."

Hunter Hollar noted that the ceremony in 1971 would not have included women like his daughter, as U.Va. did not admit women until the following year.

Former Cornell University President Hunter R. Rawlings III delivered the commencement address yesterday.

He told the crowd of 35,000 that Thomas Jefferson's vision for U.Va. -- to equip young people with the knowledge to understand and improve society -- is as relevant today as it was in the early days of the university.

"In today's multipurpose, decentralized university, it's easy to lose sight of Jefferson's ideals or to see them as dated or dead," Rawlings said. "Jefferson's ideals still have plenty of life left in them."

Jefferson wanted students to obtain a broad-based education that would allow them to navigate the issues of the day and serve the public, said Rawlings, a visiting professor at U.Va. who taught a course this spring about the influence of the classics on America's founders.

During the school's valedictory exercises Saturday, entrepreneur and philanthropist Sheila C. Johnson of Middleburg urged graduates to recognize the high stakes of global economic competition.

"No generation in my lifetime is more ready for the challenge of the global marketplace than yours is," Johnson said. "The things that terrified my generation -- the speed of change, the uncertainty of a volatile, shifting marketplace, the insidious nature of terrorism -- are all things you have grown up with. These are things you have not only survived but stared down without blinking."
Brian McNeill is a staff writer at The Daily Progress in Charlottesville.