Board of Visitors Chancellor President
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COMMENCEMENT 2019 EXERCISES ON THE OCCASION OF THE CONFERRING OF DEGREES THE COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY IN VIRGINIA WALTER J. ZABLE STADIUM, WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA SATURDAY, MAY 11, 2019 Chancellor President KATHERINE A. ROWE ROBERT M. GATES ’65, L.H.D. ’98 Board of Visitors JOHN E. LITTEL, P ’22, RECTOR WILLIAM H. PAYNE, II ‘01, VICE RECTOR SUE H. GERDELMAN ’76, P ’07, ’13, SECRETARY Virginia Beach, Virginia Richmond, Virginia Williamsburg, Virginia MIRZA BAIG JAMES A. HIXON, J.D. ’79, M.L.T. ’80, P ’08, ’11 KAREN KENNEDY SCHULTZ ’75, P ’06, ’09 Great Falls, Virginia Virginia Beach, Virginia Winchester, Virginia VICTOR K. BRANCH ’84 BARBARA L. JOHNSON, J.D. ’84 TODD A. STOTTLEMYER ’85, P ’16, ’21 South Chesterfield, Virginia Alexandria, Virginia Oakton, Virginia WARREN W. BUCK III, M.S. ’70, PH.D. ’76, D.SC. ’13 ANNE LEIGH KERR ’91, J.D. ’98 H. THOMAS WATKINS, III ’74, P ’05, ’11 Williamsburg, Virginia Richmond, Virginia Naples, Florida S. DOUGLAS BUNCH ’02, J.D. ’06 LISA E. RODAY, P ’13, ’14 BRIAN P. WOOLFOLK, J.D. ’96 Washington, DC Henrico, Virginia Fort Washington, Maryland THOMAS R. FRANTZ ’70, J.D. ’73, M.L.T. ’81, P ’08, ’14 J.E. LINCOLN SAUNDERS ’06 Virginia Beach, Virginia Richmond, Virginia 2018–2019 Staff Liaison 2018–2019 Faculty Representatives 2018-2019 Student Representatives JENNIFER C. FOX ’10 CATHERINE A. FORESTELL BRENDAN J. BOYLAN ’19 William & Mary William & Mary William & Mary MATTHEW J. SMITH KAYLA M. HAND ’19 Richard Bland College Richard Bland College P’ = Parent of W&M Student Table of Contents Order of Exercises 4 Recipients of Honorary Degrees 6 About Commencement 10 The Years in Review: 2015–2019 16 William & Mary Traditions 23 Degree Recipients August 2018 32 January 2019 36 May – August 2019 40 School and Departmental Diploma Ceremonies and Receptions 62 ORDER OF EXERCISES Opening President of W&M Presiding Prelude Bel Canto Brass Quintet Processional* The William & Mary Choir The William & Mary Hymn The National Anthem* The Welcome The President Katherine A. Rowe The Chancellor Robert M. Gates ’65, L.H.D. ’98 Conferring of Honorary Degrees Rector John E. Littel P ’22, and The Chancellor Jane P. Batten HON ’17 Doctor of Humane Letters Denyce A. Graves Doctor of Arts Sybil S. Shainwald ’48 Doctor of Laws Conferring of Honorary Fellowship The Rector, The Chancellor, and The President Commencement Address Glenn Close ’74, D.A. ’89 Interlude I Want to Be Ready Hannah Durfee '20, mezzo-soprano African American Spiritual, arr. Roy L. Belfield, Jr. (b. 1968) 4 • Order of Exercises Award Recognition & Student Remarks The President The Lord Botetourt Medal The James Frederic Carr Memorial Cup The Thatcher Prize for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Study The Algernon Sydney Sullivan Awards The Thomas Ashley Graves, Jr. Award for Sustained Excellence in Teaching The Charles Joseph Duke, Jr. and Virginia Welton Duke Award Student Remarks Rhea R. Sharma '19 Student Commencement Speaker Conferring of Earned Degrees The President Closing Alumni Induction Marilyn W. Midyette '75 Executive Director of the Alumni Association Closing Remarks The President Alma Mater#/Passing of the Emblems of Office* The Choir and the Audience Recessional§ The Choir * Please stand. # Text on page 15. § Please remain in place until the Recessional ends. For your safety and the safety of our guests, please keep all aisles and stairways clear. Order of Exercises • 5 Jane P. Batten, HON ’17 Doctor of Humane Letters Jane P. Batten, you have played a monumental role in redefining Virginia’s cultural and educational landscape. Never one to shy away from taking on a big project, you have helped to take many of the Commonwealth’s organizations, foundations and institutions to the next level. An honorary alumna and longtime friend of William & Mary, you have generously supported the university in many areas, including scholarships, the Fund for William & Mary and the Mason School of Business. Last year, you made possible the Mason School’s new Center for Online Learning, ensuring that RECIPIENTS OF William & Mary business degrees are within reach for many more professionals, no matter where in the world they live or work. HONORARY DEGREES Those who know you personally describe you as a determined and spirited woman with distinctive style. Those who know you as a philanthropist describe you as a woman whose vision and leadership have “literally transformed many noteworthy charitable organizations – touching K-12 and higher education, as well as the environment and society at large.” It has been said that with an investment from Jane, comes Jane. You are always deeply involved in the projects you support, not only putting forth your resources but also your energy, talent and time. In addition to your work at William & Mary, you are active with many other local foundations, including as a member of the boards for Elevate Early Education, the Slover Library Foundation, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Hampton Roads Community Foundation and the George Washington Foundation. You are also a benefactor for Sail Nauticus, Hollins University and the University of Virginia. Along with your late husband, Frank, who served for several years as a member of the William & Mary Board of Visitors, you helped to create the Batten Education Achievement Fund at the Hampton Roads Community Foundation with a goal of helping pre-K-12 students in southeastern Virginia have excellent educational opportunities. The fund led to the formation of the New E3 School in Norfolk, an early education center that offers state-of-the-art education to children ages 1-5 from all socio-economic levels. A member of the board of the Alison J. and Ella W. Parsons Foundation, you have facilitated grants that have gone to area colleges and universities as well as art groups and organizations of all sizes that work with the homeless and hungry and other people in need. You are also vice chair of the board of Smart Beginnings South Hampton Roads, a nonprofit organization that addresses the issue of school readiness in the region. Jane P. Batten, you have invested yourself in transforming access to educational opportunities for citizens of the Commonwealth and beyond. William & Mary is exceedingly thankful for the decades of care and support you have shown the university and its students. By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Board of Visitors and the Ancient Royal Charter of The College of William & Mary in Virginia, I hereby confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa. 6 • Honorary Degrees Denyce A. Graves Sybil S. Shainwald ’48 Doctor of Arts Doctor of Laws Denyce A. Graves, your career has taken you to the world’s most famous Sybil S. Shainwald, your pioneering advocacy on behalf of women’s health opera houses and concert halls. You combine an exceptional gift for and social justice has made you one of the most sought-after attorneys in communication with your expressive vocalism and dynamic stage presence, the world. Throughout your career, you have tackled cases others viewed as and are internationally recognized as one of the most exciting vocal stars of impossible, always seeing the law as a tool to right wrongs and combat injustice. the 21st century. Born and raised in New York City, you graduated from high school early Raised by a single mother in southwest Washington, D.C., you were taught and came to William & Mary at the young age of 16. Fascinated by the past, from an early age to dream big and think beyond the streets where you lived. you majored in American history and were a Bryan Scholar. In an effort to get Though crime and poverty were abundant in your hometown, your mother ran the most out of your liberal arts education, you also took physics, calculus a tight ship complete with chores, homework, sewing, report writing, church and even home economics, a course that ultimately landed you your only B. attendance and gospel singing. After several failed attempts at sewing the sleeves onto pajamas, you quickly A self-professed “odd-ball,” you never felt pressured to become one with learned that was not your life’s calling. the ways of your neighborhood. You excelled in school and ultimately applied After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from William & Mary, you did graduate and got accepted to the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, where you felt work in history at Columbia University, all while juggling your role as wife and instantly at home. mother. As your children grew, you decided to become an attorney, eventually While a student at Ellington, you were exposed to your first opera and were applying to Columbia Law School, from which you were rejected based on captivated. You finished high school in just two years and attended Oberlin your age and gender. Ten years later, you reapplied, this time to New York Law College Conservatory before transferring to the New England Conservatory School, where you attended classes by night and served as the director of the in Boston. Juggling up to three jobs at a time to support yourself, you earned Center for the Study of the Consumer Movement at Consumers Union by day. your Bachelor of Arts degree in music. Shortly after receiving your law degree, you found the cause of a lifetime: Building on your education and the job opportunities you took after women’s health reform. Since your very first case, your legal career has graduating, you have proven yourself a major talent, performing in leading focused almost exclusively on women’s health issues. You have challenged roles in all of the most respected opera houses in the world.