Wilton First Selectman Toni Boucher was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Connecticut and delivered the undergraduate commencement address to the School of Business Class of 2026 on Saturday, May 9, at Gampel Pavilion.
A UConn alumna, Boucher was recognized for her decades of leadership in government and business, commitment to the university, and philanthropy, including an $8 million gift from her family that established the Boucher Management and Entrepreneurship Department at the School of Business in 2023.
The university also pointed to Boucher broader impact across Connecticut, including her public service in state government as both a state representative and later a state senator, as well as her leadership in Wilton.
In her address to graduates, Boucher reflected on her journey from a childhood marked by poverty and language barriers to a career spanning business leadership and public office.
“I came to America at the age of five with my seven-year-old brother and parents who could not read or write English,” she told the audience. “We had absolutely no money.”
Boucher, who earned her MBA from UConn in 2002 while raising three children and building a career, described her experience at the university as transformative, crediting faculty support and what she called the “Husky Effect” — the ability not just to learn business, but to build and sustain one.
A Message of Resilience
The core of Boucher’s speech focused on perseverance, urging graduates to embrace failure as part of success.
“Failure is not the end of your story — it’s part of the learning process,” she said.
She shared the story of her late husband, Bud Boucher, whose message she said she was delivering to the graduates, about the power of perseverance in the face of failure.
“Bud was a serial entrepreneur. He was brilliant, but he didn’t succeed at everything he touched. In fact, he failed. A lot. He watched others give up when things got hard, but he never did. Failure after failure, he never gave up on his dream. Even as everyone around him gave up on him.
“That was Bud. And when his last risky startup finally succeeded, it changed everything — not just for us, but for what we could give back to institutions like UConn. He died two weeks before he could turn his success into reality. At that very moment it fell to me to pick up the pieces. In the depths of the most profound grief I ever experienced I fought every obstacle to make his dream come true. In looking back by all accounts, this huge business risk turned into a true business miracle,” she said.
Boucher emphasized that resilience will be essential for graduates entering what she described as an “unpredictable” and “fragile” world, advising them to remain flexible.
“You might have a five-year plan. Throw it out,” she said. “You may need to pivot when you least expect it.”
A Call to Build and Lead
Boucher also challenged graduates to apply their business education to drive economic growth and innovation, particularly in Connecticut.
“Use these tools to transform ideas into companies that will grow jobs,” she said. “Make an impact that reverberates throughout our state and beyond our borders.”
She related her call for innovation to Wilton’s own history of innovation and success, harkening back to Perkin Elmer and the company’s current iteration, ASML, and said it was a foundation for the graduates’ generation to build upon.
“Connecticut has been known as the birthplace of American innovation and invention since colonial times. Right here in my own town of Wilton, the first optical lithography machine was invented at Perkin Elmer. Those early integrated circuits have evolved into ASML’s massive R & D and advanced manufacturing operation producing 90% of the world’s chip-making machines. That spirit of discovery — of turning ideas into thriving businesses — is your inheritance. And this university is equipping you to reclaim it,” she said.
The Importance of Relationships
In addition to ambition and resilience, Boucher underscored the importance of relationships in both professional and personal success.
“Relationships are the currency of a good life,” she said. “Your career will be defined by your grit. But your happiness will be defined by the people you lift up along the way.”
She encouraged graduates to remain grounded and give back, regardless of their backgrounds.
“Never forget where you came from,” she said. “You have a responsibility to pay it forward.”
‘Make Your Own Miracles Happen’
Closing her remarks, Boucher returned to the idea of possibility, describing her own life as a “Cinderella moment” and urging graduates to pursue their ambitions with confidence.
“Be ambitious about your dreams. Be resilient. Believe in yourself, and good things will happen — even miracles,” she said. “Go out there and make your own miracles happen.”