In the days leading up to Commencement, Kenneth Schoon gets comfortable in a borrowed office on the Indiana University Northwest campus. A phone, a pen, and a few boxes of index cards are the only tools he needs for the job ahead.

In the midst of describing just what he is doing in his temporary headquarters, the IU Northwest professor emeritus of science education pauses to answer a call. It is a soon-to-be graduate on the line.

“You’re graduating this year and I’m the one who is going to call your name when you cross the stage. I want to make sure I pronounce it correctly,” Schoon explains, leafing through the box of cards.

“I don’t think I’ll have any trouble with Alexander Theodore,” he says once he locates the card, “but would you pronounce your last name for me? We may have to do this more than once.”

After a pause, Schoon asks the graduate to spell his name phonetically, and begins making notes on the card.

“Do you pronounce it like a ‘C, H’? So it’s CHICK-AH-PO-LUS? Did I say that correctly? OK. Alexander Theodore Tsiakopoulos. That is what I will say next month. Congratulations and thank you for calling me back.”

One down, hundreds more to go. Schoon estimates that over the course of four or five days, he’ll spend about a dozen hours calling a large sample of the 777 graduates in the Class of 2018, sometimes more than once in order to get them live on the phone.

The task of calling the upcoming graduating class to ensure a flawless procession is just one of the many post-career volunteer activities this retired educator from Munster enjoys.

“I’ve always been a pretty good student,” Schoon quips, “but I flunked retirement twice.”

An IU alumnus, the longtime middle school teacher and part-time college geology instructor eventually landed at IU Northwest permanently and spent the rest of his career preparing science teachers, all while voraciously writing books on topics that merge his loves of history, geology and teaching.

“Your mother won’t leave disappointed”

Schoon has been at the podium calling graduates’ names at IU Northwest’s Commencement for at least the past five years. To be honest, he’s lost count. But the years don’t matter. It’s a responsibility he takes very seriously. He personally ensures that no matter how difficult a graduate’s name is to pronounce, its sounds perfect as they cross the stage.

Schoon’s commitment to perfection, and the resulting elegance of this important ceremony, has drawn attention from other IU Commencement organizers who want to know his secret.

He certainly makes it appear easy. His voice, with its perfect volume, pitch and speed, effortlessly travels over the packed and echoey Genesis Center in Gary.

Credit where it’s due

Schoon may be getting the praise for the delightful delivery, but he would be remiss if he didn’t mention his trusted partner.

Each year when he arrives at the ceremony, he seeks out Despina Liaskos, the IU Northwest Alumni Association president who sings the Alma Mater song “Hail to Old I.U.” to open the ceremony.

Before the graduates had filed into the arena, they were given the card on which Schoon had made his phonetic notes. The graduates are instructed to hand the card to Liaskos as they approach the stage. This ensures that the correct name is read, the correct way, when each graduate is announced to collect their diplomas. As the procession begins, Liaskos collects the card, rights it, and hands it to Schoon, ensuring no hiccup in the procession.

Sometimes, he takes liberties, and controls the pace of the program, where appropriate. Schoon recalled one Commencement in which an 81-year-old graduate was getting her master’s degree. The petite woman had mounted the few stairs to the stage and handed her card to Liaskos, who handed it to Schoon.

“I called her name and then I noticed that the next person in line behind her was the IU Northwest Chancellor’s wife, Pamela. So I held up a hand and motioned for Mrs. Lowe to wait a moment. It was to give the stage to the older graduate who of course received much applause. Then  I read Pamela’s name and we went back to the normal speed. I was very glad that the person following her was someone I knew.”

For a man whose own name has been mispronounced throughout his life (say skun), it gives him great satisfaction to right this disservice to the world.

“Some of the grads as they stand at the podium, will grin at me because they felt kind of special that they received a phone call and the name is going to be right. Or, they will wait, especially if it is a difficult name, then they grin and head off with a smile.”

Expect no less at IU Northwest’s 52^nd Annual Commencement on May 10, where no graduate, significant other, relative, friend, and perhaps most importantly, no parent, will leave disappointed.