More »
University Communications

University of Richmond to Hold Commencement May 9

April 16, 2004

Nobel, Pulitzer and Emmy winners, along with a Harvard University Nieman fellow and a local philanthropist, will participate in the University of Richmond's 174th commencement May 9 at 2 p.m. in the Robins Center. Approximately 687 baccalaureate degrees and 70 graduate degrees will be awarded.

Commencement ceremonies for the School of Continuing Studies and Richmond School of Law will be held on May 8. Joel Holt, a 1977 graduate of the law school and lawyer from the Virgin Islands, will speak at the law commencement.

Joseph P. Williams, assistant managing editor of The Star Tribune of Minneapolis, will be the alumni speaker on May 9. Following tradition, a student speaker will be selected from among the graduating seniors.

Five-time Emmy Award-winning journalist Roger Mudd will be among five honorary degree recipients. Others will include: Nobel Prize-winning chemist Richard E. Smalley; Pulitzer Prize-winner James MacGregor Burns; local philanthropist Carole M. Weinstein, vice chairman of Weinstein Management Co.; and A. James Clark, chairman of Clark Construction Group Inc., builder of notable landmarks around the world.

In addition, Robert M. Rosenzweig, former Stanford University administrator and president of the Association of American Universities, will receive the President's Medal, given to individuals who have rendered exceptional and meritorious service to the university, nation or world.

The Rev. Dr. David Burhans, retiring after 30 years as university chaplain, will receive the Trustees Distinguished Service Award, presented in recognition of unselfish dedication and meritorious service to the university.

Williams, a 1984 Richmond graduate, has been assistant managing editor for local news at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Star Tribune since June 2003. He has been a reporter and editor for 20 years, beginning with an internship at The Tennessean in Nashville. He subsequently worked in various editorial positions for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Miami Herald and Boston Globe.

Williams reported for the Times-Dispatch from 1984-91. At the Globe, he directed or played key roles in coverage of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane crash and the suicide crash of an Egyptian airliner off Rhode Island. In 1995, he received a Nieman fellowship at Harvard, where he studied the relationship between race and the judicial system.

Mudd is documentary host on The History Channel. He has been a congressional and national affairs correspondent for CBS, chief Washington and political correspondent and co-anchor of "Nightly News" and "Meet the Press" for NBC, and essayist and correspondent on the "MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour." After receiving a B.A. degree from Washington and Lee University in 1950 and a master's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1951, he worked as a reporter for the Richmond News Leader and radio station WRNL in Richmond. In addition to his Emmys, Mudd has won the George Foster Peabody Award and the Joan Shorenstein Award for Distinguished Washington Reporting. He serves on the national advisory council of the university's Jepson School of Leadership Studies.

Smalley, university professor at Rice, was founding director of that university's Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology from 1996-2002 and now directs its new Carbon Nanotechnology Laboratory. He is best known for the discovery and characterization of C60, or "buckyball," which together with other fullerenes constitutes the third elemental form of carbon (after graphite and diamond). The discovery earned him a share of the 1996 Nobel Prize in chemistry. He now researches buckytubes, elongated fullerenes that conduct electricity.

Burns, senior fellow of the Jepson School, has authored more than a dozen books, including the first biography of John F. Kennedy. His biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox," was followed by "Roosevelt: Soldier of Freedom," which received the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award in 1971.

Burns also wrote "Leadership," which played an integral role in the development of leadership studies as an academic discipline and in 2003, he published "Transforming Leadership: The Pursuit of Happiness." He is former president of the International Society of Political Psychology and the American Political Science Association. He was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003. Omicron Delta Kappa national leadership honorary recently gave Burns its lifetime achievement award.

Weinstein received B.A. and M.A. degrees from Richmond and taught at St. Catherine's School as well as in the university's English department before joining her husband in the real estate business. A member of Richmond's Board of Trustees from 1988-92, she established a chair in international education, initiated the Brown-Alley Lecture Series and, along with her husband and other family and friends, funded the construction of Weinstein Hall which opened on campus last August.

Clark is chairman and CEO of Clark Enterprises, parent company of the Clark Construction Group Inc., builder of many government and private facilities in Washington, D.C., including those for the National Museum of Natural History, U.S. Department of Transportation, World Bank and the American Red Cross. The company also has completed numerous other high-profile projects, such as convention centers, city halls, resorts and sports complexes, including Oriole Park at Camden Yards, FedEx Field and the MCI Center. Clark holds a B.S. in engineering from the University of Maryland.

Rosenzweig served as associate provost and advisor to the president of Stanford and was president of the Association of American Universities from 1983-93. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan, which awarded him its distinguished alumni award in 1988. He received a Ph.D. from Yale University.

Burhans became the university's chaplain in 1974 and has overseen a variety of
co-curricular, character development and diversity programs, including Community Service Day, the Bonner Scholars program, Founders Week and student religious organizations. Burhans influenced many students to enter ministry and has overseen a dramatic increase in community service by students, including raising nearly $300,000 for Habitat for Humanity. As a legacy to his work, the university has launched the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement to address social questions in Richmond and the wider world. The center will administer the Burhans Endowment Fund, the proceeds of which will allow students named as Burhans Civic Fellows to work with nonprofit organizations.

For more information on commencement, visit the university's Web site at http://oncampus.richmond.edu/commencement/ or call (804) 287-6333.