For Immediate ReleaseDate: 4/12/02Contact: Mary Dolheimer, 717-337-6801, [email protected]
Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell to speak at Gettysburg College commencement
GETTYSBURG, Pa. --Former U.S. Sen. George J. Mitchell, who led the international fact-finding committee on violence in the Middle East that produced The Mitchell Report, will speak at Gettysburg College's 167th commencement exercises, which will begin at 11 a.m., May 19, on the north side of Pennsylvania Hall.
At the request of the British and Irish governments, Mitchell served as chairman of the peace negotiations in Northern Ireland. For this work, he received numerous awards and honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- the highest civilian honor the U.S. government can give.
He also served -- at the request of former Pres. Bill Clinton, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat -- as chairman of an international fact-finding committee that examined the crisis between Israelis and Palestinians. The committee's recommendation, widely known as The Mitchell Report, was adopted by the Bush Administration as its plicy in the region and has been endorsed by the European Union and many other governments.
Mitchell also recently served as the independent overseer of the Liberty Disaster Fund, the separate, segregated account established by the American Red Cross to fund relief efforts in response to the Sept.11 terrorist attacks.
Appointed to the U.S. Senate in 1980 to complete the unexpired term of Sen. Edmund S. Muskie of Maine, Mitchell was elected to a full term in 1982 and went on to a distinguished 14-year career in the Senate. He will be one of four to receive honorary degrees from Gettysburg at the ceremony. Other recipients are Pulitzer Prize winning author and journalist Garry Wills, Harrisburg physician and 1944 Gettysburg College graduate Donald B. Freedman and Boston landscape architect Carol R. Johnson.
With a student body of approximately 2,400, Gettysburg College is a highly selective four-year residential college of liberal arts and sciences located on a 200-acre campus adjacent to the Gettysburg National Military Park. The college was founded in 1832.
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