In the middle of a speech during the Red Cross's national convention last weekend, word came that tornadoes had ripped through several towns in South Dakota.

Within moments, donation buckets were being passed through the banquet tables. When the buckets returned, the Red Cross had $9,000 for disaster relief.

While this anecdote speaks to the depth of Red Cross altruism, it may tell more about the woman who had the presence of mind to interrupt her speech for a bit of impromptu fundraising.

In the words of her husband, former U.S. Senator Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.), American Red Cross President Elizabeth H. Dole is "never unprepared."

Dole is today's Class Day speaker for the Kennedy School of Government (KSG), chosen because she leads one of the world's largest nonprofit organizations and thus serves as a model for a new wave of KSG graduates aiming for careers in community service.

She is also a former debutante, a member of three different presidential cabinets, one of American's most famous political wives and could be a presidential contender in her own right.

Those who know her and work with her say such accomplishments come from an impeccable presence of mind and uncanny poise in any situation.

And so today, as her speech puts the final touches on years of education for KSG students, Dole might be called the first serious female presidential candidate in American history, but she could sound more like a boy scout in revealing the secret of her success: be prepared.

From Debutante to Duke

Dole was born Elizabeth M. Hanford in Salisbury, N.C., in August 1936, daughter of one of the small town's most prominent families. During her childhood, she made the rounds of a well-born Southern woman: piano and riding lessons and debutante balls.

But those who knew Dole as she grew up twenty years before the heyday of feminism that molded First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton say there was something different about her. There was a grit beneath the glitter of her debutante life.

"She was very focused, from early life on. She would set her mind on something and accomplish it," says William E. King, who went to high school with Dole and now is custodian of her college memories as Duke University Archivist. "You expected her accomplishments and you weren't surprised by them."

Dole's grit won her acceptance to Duke's Women's College, and there, as in high school, she won fame that made her more than simply first among females.

As Women's Student Government President, Dole was the force behind the partial adoption of a campus honor code. King says she was probably the only female political science major in her class.

Her achievements at Duke culminated in 1958 with two senior awards which emphasized the two sides of Dole's unusual success. She was elected May Queen, a title awarded for beauty and popularity and signifying the traditional pinnacle of women's achievement at Duke.