Skip to main content

Brodhead Inauguration Brings Two Schools Together

Ceremony celebrates many ties between Duke and Yale

Richard H. Brodhead spent all of his adult life working at Yale University, and when he announced he was leaving New Haven to come to Duke, not everyone there took the news well.

"A student I knew put her dismay this way: 'See, it was like Dean Brodhead was married to Yale - and now we learn that he's leaving us for someone younger and more athletic,'" Brodhead said during his inaugural address Saturday.

The comment was said in jest. In fact, the inauguration highlighted how Brodhead's decision has helped strengthen ties between the two institutions.

One example was the presence of Yale President Richard Levin, who led a contingent of several dozen guests from Yale, including Calvin Hill, the former Yale football running back and father of Duke basketball star Grant Hill.

"This is a wonderful campus, and Dick will be a wonderful fit here," said Levin, who served as the official delegate from Yale during the ceremony's procession. "Dick was a spectacular dean of Yale, and I have every confidence that he will be a great president."

Another example of the ties came about serendipitously. It involved a gospel hymn, "In That Great Gettin' Up Morning," that was sung during the inaugural ceremony by Mitchener Beasley, a Durham native, Jordan High School graduate and alumnus of Yale University. When the song was completed, Brodhead told the behind-the-scenes story about how Beasley came to perform it during the inauguration.

When famed Yale historian of the American South C. Vann Woodward died in 1999, a CD of gospel music was found by his bed. At the memorial service that followed, Beasley, then a young Yale student, sang a song from the CD.

"I was so taken by that song and by that performance," Brodhead said. "It was clear why C. Vann Woodward was listening to it because to him it represented the finest of the American South."

Brodhead remembered the performance and mentioned it during the planning for his inauguration, but the suggestion wasn't followed up on until three weeks ago. Then, as Brodhead recalled, "I was walking through a Durham restaurant when suddenly I heard 'Dean Brodhead!' I turned around and there was Mitchener Beasley.  I had no idea that he was a Durham native, that he had gone to Jordan High School and that his mother still worked here."

Arrangements were quickly made for Beasley to perform at the inauguration. The song brought a loud ovation from the 1,500 people in attendance in Duke Chapel Saturday. And Duke and Yale universities shared in the moment.