RIC to bestow 1,000 degrees
More than 1,000 Rhode Island College undergraduate and graduate students will receive their diplomas during the 2000 commencement exercises. Honorary doctorate of pedagogy recipient and national education policy leader Gordon M. Ambach, will deliver the undergraduate commencement address at the exercises, which are scheduled for Saturday, May 20, beginning at 9:30 a.m.
Millard D. Fuller, founder and president of Habitat for Humanity International, will deliver the graduate commencement address to about 300 graduate students and their guests on Thursday, May 18, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Fuller will receive an honorary doctorate of humanities.
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Other honorary degree recipients include:
Gordon M. Ambach will receive a Doctorate of Pedagogy. Ambach has served as executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers since July of 1987. In the leadership role, Ambach has led the organization’s efforts to promote federal policy on early childhood and family education, school restructuring, youth apprenticeships, learning technology, standards and assessments. He holds a bachelor’s degree in American studies from Yale University, a master’s degree in history from Harvard University, and a certificate of advanced study in education administration, also from Harvard.
Millard D. Fuller will receive a Doctorate of Humanities. He is the founder and president of Habitat for Humanity International, an ecumenical, grass roots interdenominational organization devoted to the elimination of substandard housing for those living in poverty. He has received the Medal of Freedom in 1996, was named Builder of the Year for 1995 by Professional Builder Magazine, and has received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award from both Georgia and the King Center. He and his wife were also the recipients of the 1994 Harry S Truman Public Service Award.
Luther H. Blount will receive a Doctorate of Commercial Science degree. An environmentalist, entrepreneur, shipbuilder, inventor, beekeeper, and oyster farmer, Blount has worked with the Department of Environmental Management and founded the Renew the Resources of the Bay Foundation to foster and support development of marine resources in Narragansett Bay. He is a member of the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame.
Barnaby Evans will receive a Doctorate of Fine Arts. Best known as the creator of WaterFire Providence, Evans is also a leading historical preservationist and photographer. He is one of the originators of the Providence Banner Trail and the driving force behind the restoration of the 96-year-old Regent Avenue Elementary School.
Retiring Community College of Rhode Island President Edward J. Liston will receive a Doctorate of Public Service. Since 1978 he has held the title of president at CCRI and has helped the college evolve from a small traditional junior college into the largest two-year institution of its kind in New England. Liston has also served as Chair of YMCA Tower, Junior Achievement of Rhode Island, the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, and is a founding member of the Central Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation.
Mike Leonard to deliver Providence College Commencement Address
Mike Leonard, the NBC news feature correspondent known for exploring the overlooked and the unusual in everyday life, will deliver the keynote address at Providence College’s 2000 Commencement exercises on Sunday, May 21, at the Providence Civic Center. The program will begin at 11:00 a.m.
Leonard is one of six distinguished individuals who will receive honorary degrees at the college’s 82nd annual commencement. The other honorees are: Walter Cryan, recently retired 35-year news anchor for WPRI-TV, Channel 12, in Providence; John V. Conte, Jr., M.D. director of the hear and heart/lung transplantation at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md.; Sister Maryadele Robinson, D.C., executive director of Catholic Charities’ Laboure Center in South Boston, Mass.; Edward J. Scanlon, executive vice president of NBC; and Dr. Christina Hoff Sommers, the W.H. Brady Fellow of American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.
Holbrooke to address Class of 2000 At Roger Williams University
Richard C. Holbrooke, U.S. Representative to the United Nations, will speak to graduates of Roger Williams University at graduation ceremonies at the Bristol campus on May 20.
Rya W. Zobel, U.S. District Court Judge for Massachusetts, will be the commencement speaker for the graduating class of the University’s Ralph R. Papitto School of Law.
The undergraduate commencement begins at 10 a.m. and the law school ceremonies begin at 3 p.m.
Ambassador Holbrooke, who will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree, was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize after leading the U.S. negotiation team in the 1994 peace talks in Dayton, Ohio, which achieved a truce in the Balkan war.
Others receiving honorary degrees are Kati Marton, an international affairs journalist and author, and wife of Ambassador Holbrooke; the Most. Rev. Robert E. Mulvee, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence; Ed Cohen, class of 1978, senior vice present of events bookings and operations, World Wrestling Federation; and Sal Alfiero, founder, chairman and CEO of Mark IV Industries.
The university will award 400 undergraduate degrees.
Judge Zobel will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree at the law school graduation, where juris doctorate degrees will be presented to 110 graduates.
