Harvey Mackay returns to headline alumni celebration

Harvey Mackay

From M, spring 2003

"I was enrolled here, in my head, from the time I was in first grade," Harvey Mackay was planning to say at the University of Minnesota Alumni Association 1994 Annual Celebration. "It wouldn't have mattered if someone had offered me a four-year, water-skiing scholarship to the University of the Riviera."

Unfortunately, an attack of kidney stones prevented Mackay from being the headliner that night, but he'll get another chance on May 29, 2003, when the UMAA's Annual Celebration marks the opening of a year of centennial activities.

"I'm ecstatic to have been asked," he says. "When you talk about our great institutions in the state, the crown jewel is, of course, the University of Minnesota."

Mackay, a 1954 U graduate, is chairman of Mackay Envelope Company and a New York Times best-selling author. He's at work on his sixth book, due out in early 2004, which will tell the stories of successful Americans who overcame adversity. He is a former UMAA and M Club president and, with Bob McNamara, led the Save Gopher Sports effort that raised more than $2.7 million. Mackay lettered in golf at the U.

But Mackay is also one of the most sought-after speakers in the business-and-sales circuit and has been cited as one of the best in the world.

For his 2003 UMAA speech, one of his topics will be teamwork.

"There's no substitute for teamwork. In the Save Gopher Sports campaign we brought in more than 1,000 new donors from around the nation," he says. "We could not have done it without all of those people. Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto. No one can do it alone."

The annual celebration begins at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 29, with dinner in the renovated Coffman Memorial Union. Mackay's speech will follow.

For tickets to the 2003 UMAA Annual Celebration, call Northrop Ticket Office at 612-624-2345 or see www.alumni.umn.edu/annualcelebration.