Dr. Stephen Weber became the seventh president of San Diego State University in 1996. The following year, the university celebrated its centennial (the year I graduated). It’s perfectly fitting Dr. Weber joined when he did as he truly took San Diego State into its next 100 years. Talk about a person who changed a university!
I had the privilege of directly working for Dr. Weber twice — once as director of special events for the President’s Office, and as his speechwriter and communications officer for the last six months of his presidency. Dr. Weber was notorious for tinkering with his speeches until moments before he stood at the podium to deliver them. It was always an anxiety-inducing few moments for those of us behind the scenes. But, to his credit, all of those last-minute edits bettered his message. He was a philosopher at heart (earned his PhD in philosophy from University of Notre Dame) — always focused on the vision and forever asking questions. And he always knew exactly what pearls of wisdom to hone in on with his messages.
Writing speeches and words on behalf of another person is a different kind of writing. It can be intimidating to “speak” in someone else’s voice. I learned so much from writing for Dr. Weber and that experience molded how I write for others today.
At one point in my tenure at SDSU, I had two career opportunities in front of me — I was offered the job to stay in the President’s Office working as Dr. Weber’s chief of staff or assume the role of director of communications for Enrollment Services. This decision was gut-wrenching for me and I wrestled with it for weeks. I kept the message Dr. Weber sent me after I made that difficult choice. I’m sharing it today as an illustration of the type of person Dr. Weber was. He was the picture of leadership and everything he did, said and wrote was to make San Diego State University a better place.
Dr. Weber was an Aztec for life. May his memory be a blessing. ❤️🖤
