Photos by Dan Moore, University Photographer
Northeast Wisconsin business and community leader Terry Fulwiler shared remarks with UW-Green Bay graduates during the University’s 2025 December afternoon ceremony on December 13. While his unique path in life allowed him to authentically connect with graduates in the areas of engineering, business and healthcare, it was the world of football that provided the most inspiration. Fulwiler’s advice: “As you go through your life, may you learn from and overcome the interceptions that will surely happen to you. Don’t let them knock you away from your goals. Get back up and throw more passes.”
That’s great advice for graduates and non-graduates alike. Mr. Fulwiler’s full remarks are shared below.
“First, let me congratulate all of the graduates here. You have cleared a large hurdle in your game of life. I will also congratulate the parents of the grads as they can also feel like a hurdle has been cleared in their lives.
As I look at the make-up of the grads here, I feel especially involved. We have grads from Engineering, from Business, and from Healthcare.
I am a graduate engineer. I received my degree from the University of Michigan in Aerospace Engineering, so I can relate to the engineers in the audience (Parenthetically, it also allows me to claim to be a Rocket Scientist) who spent my entire career as a CEO and Chairman of a vibrant company, (which makes me able to relate to the business majors), and as part of a desire to give back to the community, I spent over 30 years on the Board of Directors of Bellin Health, the last 20 years as the Chairman of the Board (which makes me familiar with Healthcare).
Some people might say that I had some good success in my life, which is probably a good reason that they asked me to give this speech. So as you move along in your life, let me share a couple of points that I picked up along the way, and that might be helpful in your journey.
I’m a big fan of analogies, so I use them a lot. It makes me see the point I’m trying to convey so here goes. Football analogies are good for this area as everybody knows something about it thanks to the Packers.
My first point is that the Packers have had three Hall of Fame Quarterbacks (Bart Starr, Brett Favre, and soon-to-be Aaron Rodgers) and all of them have thrown interceptions. I’m sure that none of the interceptions were on purpose. All of them were intended to be good plays but something went wrong. The important thing to note is that all those QBs didn’t give up or despair. Instead, they resolved to do better and went right back to throwing the ball.
After all, the only way to be sure of no interceptions is to throw no passes. And, if they had not thrown any passes, I can assure you they wouldn’t be Hall of Famers. My point is that you can all expect some things to happen in your life as you go forward. Your best laid plans might go the wrong way. One of the biggest interceptions in my life was that the year I graduated with my Engineering degree.
It was 1972 and the U.S. had just put the last astronaut on the moon and NASA was winding down. That and a weakening economy meant there were no Aero Engineering jobs available. But, just like those famous QBs, I got up and went right back to it. Despite your best intentions there will probably be some things that will go wrong. Don’t give up. Learn from your mistakes, and try again.
My father had started a printing company from scratch, and it had 5 or 6 employees at that time. He said I could work there for a short time until I found a real job. I went to work and using principles I had learned in my college education, I soon found out that I was a better businessman than I would probably have ever been an engineer. To make a long story short, I took over from my dad and worked there for 40 years. The company went from 6 employees in 1 location when I started to 2,400 employees in 21 locations when I retired.
That brings me to the second point. This analogy involves golf. There was a famous golfer, Lee Trevino. He was a contemporary of Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, if you don’t recognize his name. But he also won many tournaments and is a golf Hall of Famer. There was a story he told about a day when he was playing a round of golf with some of his buddies. He hit a great shot, and one of his friends told him he sure was lucky. He responded by saying that he noticed that the more he practiced and the harder he worked at the game, the more lucky shots he made.
A lot of my success at business came the same way. Despite many other “interceptions” I kept working and believe me, many good things happen to those who work hard and practice.
My third point is not about having success, but what you might do with it. There are some things that my parents taught me along the way. There are three things that you have in life. 1 is your talent, 2 is your time, and 3 is your treasure. It is a wonderful thing to give and share those things with others who might have need of them. One of my principles is to help those who are in need to become successful enough to give out aid rather than receive it. Imagine how much better the world might be, if everyone did that.
That is why giving scholarships is high on my list of charitable causes. All of you grads are now in position to go out and be successful in life, so please be sure to give what you can of your time and talent and treasure to help others make it as well.
So, I leave you with this wish from me. As you go through your life, may you learn from and overcome the interceptions that will surely happen to you. Don’t let them knock you away from your goals. Get back up and throw more passes. And as you go along, work harder and practice more, so you too may find that you get luckier and luckier in your results. Cutting corners isn’t the best way.
And lastly, when your labors make you successful, as all of you are capable of doing, please look to share your success and the fruits of your success with others so that they may do the same.
GOOD LUCK and CONGRATULATIONS on taking this big step in your life!”