Mayor Nutter's last speech

Now-former Mayor Michael Nutter's last speech as mayor was delivered Monday morning in front of hundreds of high school boys at his alma mater.

Nutter encouraged the young men at St. Joseph's Preparatory School, a Jesuit-run school on Girard Avenue, to use their talents and to live a life of service.

"I wanted my last public speech as mayor of this great city to be with this Prep community," said Nutter, a 1975 Prep graduate. Some of his '75 classmates sat along the stage looking on as he spoke.

Nutter told the students that filled the school's chapel that when he came to the Prep in 1971 it was on a financial scholarship. A condition of his scholarship was that he had be active in community service activities, he said.

"I learned more and more about community service right here at St. Joe's Preparatory High School and it truly prepared me for life service, the thing I've been doing for the last 30 or so years," he said.

Nutter retold the story of his primary victory in 2007 when he was in last place and no one was looking at him, it was Prep alumni who supported him. The bonds formed at the Prep have lasted him decades, he said.

Another four years of the city being run by a Jesuit-trained man, Nutter said as a reference to Philadelphia's new mayor Jim Kenney, is "significant," Nutter said to a loud applause from the audience.

Nutter cited Saint Ignatius of Loyola, who founded the Jesuits, as famously asking  "What have I done for God? What am I doing for God and what more can I do for him?"

"I would expect that in soon-to-be Mayor Kenney's administration, he will continue to ask that question," Nutter said. "The question will always be 'What more can I do for the citizens of this city?"

Kenney is a 1976 graduate of the Prep. Nutter pledged during his speech to help Kenney have a successful administration and he encouraged the students, faculty and staff to do the same.

He paraphrased a passage from the bible's Matthew 25, which tells the story of men who receive a different number of talents. The one with only one talents felt insecure and buried his talent.

"Each and every one of you in this room has many talents. You have a duty and obligation… to use your talents to the best of your ability, to share them with others, across the city, this country and this world," Nutter said. "Do not bury your talents, share them with the world."

Nutter ended his speech with a quote from Aristotle, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit."

Nutter then encouraged the students to exercise excellence and told them to make use of the education they are receiving.

"Everything that I have ever done… all come back to this place. This really was the start of that journey," he said.

Nutter received a standing ovation as he walked out of the Prep and onto the black SUV that's transported him for the last eight years from event to event. He took his last ride as mayor down to the Academy of Music, where another Prep alum, Jim Kenney was be sworn-in as the city's 99th mayor.

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.