ByGeorge!

May 12, 2004

Nobel Laureate, Former Chair of Joint Chiefs of Staff Among Four Honored at GW’s 2004 Commencement

Luther W. Brady, Leon Lederman, Gail Paster and Gen. John Shalikashvili to Address Graduates May 16


While other universities will hear addresses from a single commencement speaker, The George Washington University has selected four leaders in their respective fields — Luther W. Brady, Leon Lederman, Gail Paster and retired Army Gen. John Shalikashvili — to receive honorary degrees and address the more than 5,500 students from the graduating class of 2004 and their roughly 14,000 guests at GW’s Commencement ceremony on the Ellipse, May 16.

“Our honorary degree recipients have each made a difference in our world — in their own ways and in four different fields,” said President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg. “They have made our lives safer, richer, longer and unquestionably better. They are perfect role models for our graduates.”

Brady (BA ’46, MD ’48), one of the world’s foremost oncologists, will receive an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree. Brady has been professor of medicine at Philadelphia’s Hahnemann School of Medicine since 1963. In addition, Brady has maintained an intense involvement with the arts. He served as chair of the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s executive committee and currently serves as its trustee. GW’s Luther W. Brady Art Gallery in the University’s Media and Public Affairs Building is named for Brady.

Lederman, winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize in physics, will receive an honorary Doctor of Public Service degree. Lederman is director emeritus of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, IL, and Pritzker Professor of Science at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Committed to improving public education, he is a founder and the inaugural resident scholar of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, a residential public high school for the gifted, and founder and chair emeritus of the Teachers Academy for Mathematics and Science in Chicago. In addition to the Nobel Prize, he has received numerous other awards, including the National Medal of Science (1965), the Elliot Cresson Medal of the Franklin Institute (1976), the Wolf Prize in Physics (1982) and the Enrico Fermi Prize (1993).

Paster, a noted Shakespearean scholar and former GW professor of English, will receive an honorary Doctor of Letters degree. Paster has served as director of the Folger Shakespeare Library since 2002. She continues as editor of Shakespeare Quarterly, the leading scholarly journal in the field published by the Folger Library in association with GW. In addition, Paster has received many national fellowships and awards, including fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the Mellon Foundation.

Shalikashvili, the 13th chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, serving from 1993–97, will add to the MS degree in international affairs he earned at GW in 1970 with an honorary Doctor of Public Service degree. In his capacity as head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Shalikashvili was the senior officer in the US military, serving as the principal military adviser to the president, the US Secretary of Defense and the National Security Council. Among Shalikashvili’s numerous decorations are the Presidential Medal of Freedom and honors from 18 foreign nations.

The GW Commencement on the Ellipse is one of several events for graduates the weekend of May 14–16. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D–CT) will lead GW’s interfaith baccalaureate service May 14 at 3 pm at Western Presbyterian Church, 2401 Virginia Ave. The Elliott School of International Affairs (ESIA) and the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) will hold their school ceremonies May 14. Andrew Thompson (BA ’85), former mayor of Tiburon, CA, and director of GVA Whitney Cressman, will address ESIA graduates at 2 pm in the Charles E. Smith Center. FAA Director Marion C. Blakey will speak at the SEAS ceremony at 7:30 pm in the Smith Center.

The School of Business, the Graduate School of Education and Human Development (GSEHD), the School of Public Health and Health Sciences (SPPHS) and Columbian College of Arts and Sciences (CCAS) will host graduation events May 15. Edward M. Straw (MBA ’72), president of global operations at The Estee Lauder Companies, Inc., will address business school graduates at 8:30 am in the Smith Center. Camille Stillwell, president of the GSEHD Alumni Association, will address GSEHD graduates at 8:30 am in Lisner Auditorium. H. Jack Geiger, MD, Arthur C. Logan Professor Emeritus of Community Medicine, City University of New York Medical School, will lead SPHHS ceremonies at noon in Lisner Auditorium. Steve Roberts, J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Media and Public Affairs, and David McAleavy, professor of English, and director of the creative writing program, will address graduates at CCAS ceremonies, one at 12:30 pm and the other 3:30 pm in the Smith Center.

Antonia C. Novello, MD, the former US Surgeon General (1990–93) will speak at the School of Medicine ceremony May 16 at 2 pm in the Smith Center.

Judge Thomas Buergenthal of the International Court of Justice will address the GW Law School’s ceremony May 23 in the Smith Center.


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