Final Exercises 2011 Photo by Jane Haley
“Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” the young girls chanted Sunday as their hero walked back up the Lawn toward a dozen or so family members, gathered just outside the shadow of the Rotunda.
Theodore Weston “Ted” Croy III smiled broadly. His graduation gown was accented with an orange-and-blue hood, signifying that he had just been conferred a doctoral degree during the University of Virginia’s just-concluded Final Exercises.
Underneath, Croy wore another uniform, signifying the rank of U.S. Army major. As a Ranger, he had done tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan – “He’s a real hero,” a family member, visting from Iowa for the occasion, declared proudly – and the Army paid for three years at U.Va. to allow him to earn a Ph.D. in kinesiology.
In a few weeks, Croy, his wife and three young daughters will be off to San Antonio, Texas to resume his Army career. An officer of the Medical Specialist Corps, he will be training Army physical therapists and continuing to research ankle injuries.
Croy received one of the 6,248 degrees conferred Sunday under skies that were alternately cloudy and clear, with temperatures pushing toward the 80s.
The ritual of Final Exercises remained largely unchanged, though the 182nd edition was the first under the direction of U.Va. President Teresa A. Sullivan, who took office in August. But for the members of the Class of 2011, it was all fresh and new.
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