Hamilton, NY — Colgate University will award five honorary degrees at its 182nd commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 18, when approximately 700 graduating seniors will receive their bachelor of arts degrees. Those to be honored include Kwame A. Appiah, Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University; the Very Reverend Nathan D. Baxter, Dean of the Washington National Cathedral; Jane Forbes Clark, Chair of the Clark Foundation, the New York State Historical Association and the National Baseball Hall of Fame; Gerald D. Fischbach, M.D., executive vice president and dean of health sciences at Columbia University; and Anna Quindlen, novelist and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. Quindlen will be the commencement speaker, and Baxter will deliver the sermon at the baccalaureate service prior to commencement.
Kwame A. Appiah specializes in moral and political philosophy, African and African American studies, literary theory and criticism, and issues of personal and political identity, multiculturalism and nationalism at Princeton. He joined the Princeton University faculty in 2002 after serving on the Harvard faculty since 1991. He has also held positions at Duke, Cornell and Yale universities.
This year’s baccalaureate speaker, the Very Reverend Nathan D. Baxter, was elected sixth dean of Washington National Cathedral in November 1991. Dean Baxter had served as the administrative dean and associate professor of Pastoral Theology at Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Mass. Previously he was the dean and associate professor of church and ministry at Lancaster Theological Seminary in Lancaster, Pa., and chaplain and professor of Religious Studies at St. Paul’s College, Lawrenceville, Va.
Jane Forbes Clark holds leadership positions in many charitable, cultural, governmental, and sports organizations including chairman of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, chairman of The New York State Historical Association, chairman of The Farmers’ Museum in Cooperstown, vice chairman of The Jackie Robinson Empire State Freedom Medal Commission, president and director of The Clark Foundation, The Fernleigh Foundation, The Scriven Foundation, and The Clara Welch Thanksgiving Home, Inc. She has received honors from many organizations including the Pillar of New York Award from the Preservation League of New York and the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the New York City Fire Department in 2001.
Gerald D. Fischbach, M.D., a 1960 graduate of Colgate, became vice president and dean of the health and biomedical sciences at Columbia University after directing the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Fischbach also holds the title of Harold and Margaret Hatch Professor of the University in the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine at Columbia. Before assuming his position at NIH, he served as chairman of neurobiology at both Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine, and he is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a non-resident Fellow of the Salk Institute.
Anna Quindlen, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling novelist, has been a Newsweek contributing editor since 1999. She began her journalism career as a reporter with The New York Post in 1974. She joined The New York Times in 1977 and in her 18 years at the paper held several posts including ‘About New York’ columnist, deputy metropolitan editor, and the creator of a weekly column, ‘Life in the 30’s.’ Quindlen also wrote a regular column for the opinion page, the nationally syndicated ‘Public and Private.’ During her tenure at The Times, she won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary. She is also the author of fiction, non-fiction, and children’s books and the text to two books of photographs. Among her best-selling books are ‘Thinking Out Loud,’ ‘One True Thing,’ and ‘Black and Blue.’
Founded in 1819, Colgate University is a nationally ranked, highly selective, residential, liberal arts college. Situated on a rolling 515-acre campus in central New York State, Colgate University attracts motivated students with diverse backgrounds, interests and talents.
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