Caps and Gowns

. . .and, of course, the weather

Two years ago, we needed an ark (captained by Noah) to get to Commencement. Last year, the graduating class and their proud parents almost froze during an unseasonably cold May, and the HUB did a land-office business in hot chocolate and blankets.

This year, cross your fingers for blue skies and sunshine. Not just for the prettiness of the day, but because 2004 has the largest graduating class in some time: 417 undergraduates and 16 graduate students. With those numbers, Johnston Hall would be a very tight squeeze.

At this Commencement, the College will award an honorary doctorate to Edwin A. Wallace, a Bethlehem physician who has devoted much of his career to health care in the developing world. Dr. Wallace has been the shepherd and mentor of many young doctors who have been inspired to go to Third World hospitals and field clinics to address the spread of AIDS, tuberculosis, malnutrition, and prenatal/congenital conditions.

Moravian Theological Seminary will give an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree to Reverend Frederica Goliath, the first ordained woman in the Moravian Church of South Africa. Yes, her name is pronounced as it is in the Bible.

Rev. Goliath was first a teacher of home economics and a youth volunteer with the Moravian Church. She was ordained a pastor in 1988. She has had many responsibilities in church administration since then: and she was the church’s representative at the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as president of South Africa in 1994.

Speakers at the ceremonies:

• Baccalaureate: the Honorable Marjorie O. Rendell, First Lady of Pennsylvania and a judge of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

• Undergraduate student, Commencement: Scott Williams ’04, Bangor, an Honors grad in political science with a minor in business (management). He has been on the track team for three years and also is a three-year member of United Student Government. This year, as USG vice president for operations, he helped arrange President Rokke’s informal meetings with students in campus housing.

Scott is a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, the leadership society Omicron Delta Kappa, and Phi Alpha Theta, the history honorary. His Honors project was on energy policy and national security, with a focus on the national electrical grid—and he was able to use the Northeast blackout of August 2003 as a case study. Last fall, he was selected a Cohen Scholar on the basis of his excellent grades and manifold campus activities.

• Graduate student, Commencement: Susan Herbold Benson, a candidate for the M.Ed. A resident of Sparta, New Jersey, where she teaches kindergarten at the Helen Morgan School, Susan received her B.S. summa cum laude in education from Wagner College. She’s a former director of the gifted education program in Palmyra, New Jersey, and received its Golden Apple Teaching Award.

• Faculty, Commencement. Bob Brill, associate professor of psychology. He’s spoken once before, in 1994. • Student, Seminary Commencement: Cheryl Stoneback, Quakertown, candidate for the M.Div.

• Faculty, Seminary Commencement: Charles Hargis, professor on the J. Taylor Hamilton Chair of Doctrinal Theology. He has taught at the Seminary since 1977 and will retire at the end of the academic year.

Two chilly people:
Marjorie Rendell, left, accompanied by a politician who apparently intends to interview Punxsutawney Phil
on a cold day in February.
Why else the microphone?

Baccalaureate 5:30 p.m. Friday, May 14, Central Moravian Church, Bethlehem.

Commencement 10:00 a.m. Saturday, May 15, on the Quad. Unless it rains. Which it won’t.

Seminary Commencement 4:00 p.m. Saturday, May 15, Central Moravian Church, Bethlehem.