Dr. E. Gaylon McCollough, founding and leading surgeon at McCollough Plastic Surgery, encouraged Troy University graduates to be lifelong learners and challenged them to always approach life with a can-do attitude with the willingness to go above and beyond what is expected of them.

Speaking Friday to 360 graduates taking part in the summer commencement ceremony inside Trojan Arena, McCollough said that education is a never-ending process.

“We are expected by our Creator, in whose image we are made, to continue to learn about ourselves, as well as the world around us,” he said. “That begins with who we are – our mind, body and soul, our unique talents and limitations, the relationships we should embrace and perhaps those we should sever, and the leadership role we are expected to play in what I prefer to call the universal game of life. It is in all due respect to Genesis 1:26 that I use the word game. The experience we know as life is comprised of contestants, rules, boundaries, coaches, referees, observers, winners and yes, losers.”

McCollough reminded graduates that lessons to be learned are not limited to the classroom setting.

“In addition to the lessons that accompany a formal education, expect supplementary lessons to come from what is known as the school of hard knocks, an unconventional institution of learning from which my parents and many of their generation graduated,” he said. “In their case, the classrooms and laboratories were located not far from here on the farms and the construction sites of Coffee County and extended to the battlefields of World War II. I’m forever grateful that my parents insisted that I experience various elements of that same curriculum.”

For McCollough, some of life’s lessons came as a young man on the football field at the University of Alabama. McCollough, who played for legendary football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant, credited that experience for yielding many life lessons that he still values today.

One particular lesson came from the 1965 Orange Bowl when an apparent go-ahead touchdown by quarterback Joe Namath was overruled by a referee. When the team returned to the sideline, Bryant’s response to them was not about a bad call by the referee, but rather how the team could have performed better in that moment to “leave no doubt.”

“Perhaps the truth often shared with me and my teammates by the legendary University of Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant says it best: If you believe in yourself and display dedication and pride in everything you do and never quit, you’ll be a winner in the game of life. The price of victory is high but so are the rewards,” he said. “Whatever your goal, you must always go above and beyond what is expected and leave no room for doubt.”

McCollough challenged graduates to embrace and learn from life’s inevitable setbacks.

“Your life’s journey will be paved with all manner of disappointments and heartbreaks, some justified and some not. However, embrace them all. As I’ve attempted to do, use them as steppingstones and get a little better every day,” he said. “Utilize the degree you have earned, and the lessons learned here at TROY as a foundation upon which you will continue to build a life and legacy of service and leadership. For in doing so, you will enhance the entity known throughout the universe as humanity, one life at a time.”

A distinguished figure in the field of plastic surgery with a career spanning five decades, Dr. McCollough has not only achieved international recognition as a skilled surgeon and educator but has also authored three textbooks on facial and nasal plastic surgery and twenty-two non-medical books.

Dr. McCollough was recently included in the National Registry of Who’s Who. He is listed in Woodward and White’s “Best Doctors in America” and “America’s Top Plastic Surgeons.” Additionally, he was honored as the “Alabama Citizen of The Year” for 1994-95 by the March of Dimes and was the recipient of the United States Sports Academy’s “Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt Meritorious Achievement Award” and the All-American Football Foundation’s “Unsung Hero Award.”

View the entire ceremony at https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BuXs5zai8/.