ALYSA PERRERAS | staff writer

Business students get an education from a man of extraordinary accolades—including Knighthood.

When the students of one of this year’s senior seminars for the School of Business and Management enrolled for the class taught by a man whose last name is Gaelic for “the dark people,” anticipation was high as to what they would learn from a knight. Yes, a knight.

Although the senior seminar class only meets on Monday nights and has had only two sessions this semester, senior marketing major Michelle Park is already excited to have Sir Patrick Duffy teaching alongside the Dean of the School of Business and Management Ilene Smith-Bezjian.

“I love the amount of experience Sir Patrick has and I can already see myself developing a new way of thinking business wise,” Park said.

When Duffy was born on June 17, 1920, the son of a coal minor, his accomplishments and accolades could not have been predicted.

As a teenager, he flew with the Fleet Air Arm of Britain from 1940-1946 on the battle cruiser, Repulse, now lying at the bottom of the South China Sea. His leadership skills and ambition led him to the position of the commanding officer for the Naval School of Air Radar by 1946.

Duffy was then educated at the London School of Economics and went on to receive his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1951.

Of his many achievements, it was his work with the Western Alliance that earned him his knighthood from Queen Elizabeth in Buckingham Palace in July 1991 for, “being instrumental in bringing the Cold War to a happy conclusion,” Duffy said.

Despite his prestigious international accomplishments, Duffy saw a different sort of opportunity to spend one semester at APU as a guest scholar.

“I have always been very curious to know what is in the mind of a generation 2 or 3 years younger than my own; it is a great privilege to be here,” Duffy said.

Duffy was already familiar with this university, another reason he chose to come.

“I am curious to know in the light of America’s recent world affairs what is the current reaction of staff and students at Azusa Pacific University,” Duffy said.

Duffy has spoken at APU twice prior, through a prior connection with Smith-Bezjian. The two met and developed a friendship in 2000 while Smith-Bezjian was teaching at the International Business Institute in the Netherlands.

“To have [Sir Patrick] here is an amazing opportunity to have a living history book here in one of our classrooms,” Smith-Bezjian said.

However, it was senior international business major James Bezjian, son of Smith-Bezjian who studied abroad in Oxford and spent a week living with Duffy who ultimately influenced Sir Patrick to spend the semester teaching here.

“I think the students are really going to appreciate being able to draw from all of the life experiences he has,” Bezjian said.

The students of his class seem to have a high level of excitement for what the semester has to hold.

“I expect to walk out of his class a different person,” Bezjian said.

Duffy, a former Member of Parliament in 1963-1966 and again in 1970-1992, also served as President of the North Atlantic Assembly (the parliamentary arm of NATO).

When asked about heroes in his life Duffy named former president Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and the late Pope John Paul II, of whom Sir Patrick received a private audience from in October 1989.

Yet students have recognized that, despite all of his accolades and experience, Duffy is very approachable.

“Learning from him will be really, really relevant to my future as a business student, but it is also easy to see by the way he engages with students that he truly cares for us,” Park said.

When asked what he would like to leave with the students, Duffy spoke to the importance of communication.

“Not merely the ability to communicate but the style,” Duffy said.

Duffy places a strong emphasis on proper communication in this world. He even says he does not like to attend weddings because of lack of good communication.

“I try not to accept invitations to weddings because I have to endure speakers that are so ill-equipped,” Duffy said.

Although he has only spent two class sessions with the students, Duffy has set aside strong goals he wishes to accomplish.

“I want to help [students] where I can do so,” Duffy said. “Even on this magnificent campus, given its ideals, it is not sufficient for the students to simply become sold by the Truth. They need to be strengthened in those beliefs that underlie the Truth in a world of aggressive secularism and multimedia denigration of the Christian faith.”