A Journey of Pain and Success Wrapped by Grace
November 2022
A Journey of Pain and Success Wrapped by Grace
By Guest Writer Santa Ono*
As I pack to leave Vancouver for Ann Arbor tomorrow, I was reminiscing this morning about my journey. My journey began as the second son of Takashi and Sachiko Ono. I was born in Vancouver where my father was a Professor of Mathematics at UBC, I was a toddler on campus, learning to ride a bike in the Acadia Park neighborhood. We lived at 5527 Presidents Row.
My parents struggled to take care of three boys with one salary and no savings account. They didn’t have much money because they had immigrated to North America with all their belongings in one suitcase.
I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for my parents, trying to make a living and raise a family in cities where people of Japanese ancestry had been sent to internment camps. And how challenging it must have been to raise their young children as under-represented minorities.
I remember how my mother would struggle to get the used Dodge Rambler started to get us to school on cold winter days after we moved to Philly. I remember the days where we almost ran out of money and when there was only one steak to feed the whole family.
I remember the hollow feeling of being molested as a boy. How my trust of others and innocence was lost when I was just beginning to believe in myself. I felt so unsafe and vulnerable and had no one I could speak with about what happened. I struggled for years trying to recover from the trauma. I almost didn’t make it. But with the goodness of God, I have survived.
I remember when I was struggling in physics and trigonometry in high school and when I was trying to simply stay afloat as a youth and young adult with mental health challenges. Along the way, there were just enough people who would pull me aside and say, “I believe in you.”
In high school, I had an outstanding biology teacher named Ed Gosnell who spent time with me after school guiding me in experiments and driving me to listen to lectures at Johns Hopkins University. There was no such thing as overtime for him, but he would stay for hours after school teaching and mentoring me. I will never forget what he said to me when I left high school. He said, “Don’t listen to the people who say that you won’t amount to anything. I know that you will go very far.”
I remember my shaky start to my undergraduate career and how Christian friends took me under their wing and protected me when I was lost. I know that it must’ve been difficult to befriend an adolescent struggling with mental health challenges, and I’m grateful that I’m still in touch with several of my college friends.
And of course, I’m most grateful for my wife Wendy and my kids who have stood by me for much of my adult life. It’s not easy being married to a young academic going through the tenure and promotion process. It’s certainly not easy being the child of a university president.
On this Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, I am most grateful for all of those people who believed in me, when I didn’t yet believe in myself. I remember a friend from my University of Chicago days who predicted that I would eventually become a professor and a university president. To him, I replied, “If you believe that, Dan, I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.” He reminded me of his prediction about five months ago, when I called to ask him about his law school alma mater, the University of Michigan.
I remember Provost Earl Lewis at Emory University who essentially chose me from the UK to serve as his Senior Vice Provost. He could’ve chosen scores of other people with more experience, but for some reason he chose me. After I was named President of the University of Michigan, he messaged me and said, “You have more than confirmed the promise that I saw in you back then.”
When I was Provost and then President of the University of Cincinnati, I remember talking to a partner in the search firm Isaacson Miller. He said to me, “I see you one day becoming the president of the University of Michigan or the University of California, Berkeley. You have that kind of potential.” I almost replied in the same way I did as an undergraduate: “If you believe that, David, I have a bridge…”
But, as I reflect on all the influences that I’m grateful for on this Thanksgiving weekend, I am most grateful for the grace of God, for His faithfulness to me over my entire journey. I know that I have disappointed Him in so many ways, and I’m humbled that He has looked after me despite these shortcomings.
And so, today, I remember a particularly meaningful bible verse.
“O Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.” Psalm. 95:1-3”
Blessings,
Tom
*Santa Ono was President of the University of British Columbia for six years. He recently left Vancouver to become the President of the University of Michigan.
He is a deeply committed Christian and addressed the BC Leaders Prayer Breakfast several years ago. I am grateful I was able to get to know him.