MEDIA RELEASE
For Release: Immediate May 5, 2000
Contact: Michael Hemmesch [email protected] (320) 363-2595
CSB/SJU Communication Office
Georgetown Professor to Give Commencement Address at Saint John's University
Collegeville, Minn. - The Rev. William J. Byron SJ, Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Ethics at Georgetown University and rector of the Georgetown Jesuit Community, will deliver the commencement address at Saint John's University at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 21, in the Saint John's Abbey Church.
From 1982 to 1992, Byron served as president of The Catholic University of America. Prior assignments include service as president of the University Scranton from 1975 to 1982, dean of arts and sciences at Loyola University of New Orleans from 1973 to 1975, and various teaching positions in the fields of economics and social ethics.
Byron is the author of six books, including Quadrangle Considerations in 1989, which won the Catholic Press Association's 1990 Best Book Award in Education. He was a founding director and past chairman of Bread for the World, a public member of the board of commissioners of the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Healthcare
Organizations and an original member of the board of directors of the Federal Commission on National and Community Service - now the Corporation for National Service.
Byron holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Maryland, two theology degrees from Woodstock College, and a bachelor's degree in philosophy and master's in economics from St. Louis University. He was the recipient of the 1999 Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities' Theodore M. Hesburgh Award for his contributions over the years to the advancement of Catholic higher education. In that same year he received the Council of Independent Colleges' Academic Leadership Award.
The commencement address will be part of ceremonies that will feature the awarding of the Pax Christi Award to Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia, retired bishop of the Diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, and the presentation of two honorary degrees. The Rev. William J. Byron SJ, will receive a Doctor of Humane Letters degree, while Diana Murphy, U.S. circuit judge, will receive a Doctor of Laws degree. Kevin Clancy, a communication major from Burnsville, will be the student commencement speaker, as selected by this year's SJU senior class. The 2000 SJU graduating class includes 400 men and 31 School of Theology
--Seminary graduates.
Murphy was appointed the position of Regent Emerita by the SJU Board of Regents in 1998 in recognition of her term as chair of the Board of Regents from 1995 to 1998 and 19 years of service to the Board. Murphy is currently serving on the Saint John's School of Theology
--Seminary Board and chair of the SJU Board of Regents' Task Force on Improving Governance.
Besides being an U.S. Circuit Judge, Murphy is chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Murphy has been on the federal bench since 1980. She has served as national president of the Federal Judges Association, chair of the board of the American Judicature Society and as a member of the board of the Federal Judicial Center. Murphy received her bachelor's and law degrees from the University of Minnesota.
Saint John's University for men and the College of Saint Benedict for women are partners in liberal arts education, providing students the opportunity to benefit from the distinctions of not one, but two nationally recognized Catholic, undergraduate colleges. Together the colleges challenge students to live balanced lives of learning, work, leadership and service in a changing world.
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