“Eugene Lang, who died Saturday at 98, was already a very successful man on the day in June 1981 when he began to change history in a small but powerful way.

Invited to give a sixth-grade graduation speech at his childhood alma mater, PS 121 in East Harlem, he learned on his way to the podium that three-quarters of the children wouldn’t finish high school — and scrapped his prepared ‘banalities’ about hard work.”