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John F. Smith Jr., chairman of the board and chief executive
officer of General Motors Corporation will address members
of the Class of 1999 and receive an honorary degree at Commencement
exercises on Friday, May 28. Approximately 655 members
of the class are expected to graduate.
Born in Worcester, Smith has been chief executive officer of GM since 1992 and
chairman since 1996. He joined the company in 1961 at the Fisher Body facility
in Framingham,
Mass. He earned his bachelor of business administration degree from the
University of Massachusetts and his M.B.A. from Boston University. He is
a trustee at Boston University.
The following individuals will join Smith on the Commencement platform to receive
honorary degrees:
Professor Peter L. Berger, director of the Institute for the Study of Economic
Culture at Boston University. A well-known sociologist, Berger is the author
of numerous books including Redeeming Laughter (1997), and A Far Glory:
The Quest for Faith
in an Age of Credulity (1992).
Charles E.F. Millard '54, the former chairman and chief executive officer of
the Coca-Cola Bottling Co.
of New York. Millard has a long and distinguished record of service to
Holy Cross. He is a trustee of the College and has served as national chairman
of the Holy Cross Fund, chairman of President's Council, and chairman of the
Campaign for Holy Cross. Millard and his wife, Marylou, are the parents
of eight children, all of whom are graduates of Holy Cross.
Rev. John W. O'Malley, S.J., professor of church history at the Weston Jesuit
School of Theology. Fr. O'Malley has written extensively and is the editor
of The Jesuits:
Cultures, Sciences, and the Arts, 1540-1773 (in press, 1999). In addition,
he authored The First Jesuits (1993) which earned awards from the American Philosophical
Society and the American Society of Church History.
Sister Helen Prejean, C.S.J., a well-known member of the death penalty abolition
movement and the critically
acclaimed author of Dead Man Walking, the inspiration for
the 1994 movie starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. A member of the Sisters of St. Joseph
of Medaille since 1957, she has served as a teacher, religious educator, and
formation director for her community. Currently, she continues her ministry
to death row inmates and murder victims' families and is working on a book about
women's struggles for equality in the Roman
Catholic Church.
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