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Holy Cross graduates
664 at the College’s 155th Commencement.
William J. McDonough ’56, president of the Federal Reserve
Bank of New York, delivered the principal address and received
an honorary degree on Friday, May 25, as Holy Cross graduated
664 men and women and conferred two additional honorary degrees
at the
College’s 155th Commencement.
McDonough has served as chief executive of the Second District Federal Reserve
Bank at New York since 1993. In that capacity, he is vice chairman and permanent
member of the Federal Open Market Committee. After graduating from Holy Cross
with a bachelor’s degree in economics, McDonough served in the U.S. Navy for
four years, then went on to earn a master’s degree in economics from Georgetown
University. He worked at the U.S. State Department from
1961 to 1967.
McDonough enjoyed a 22-year career with First Chicago Corporation and its bank,
First National Bank of Chicago. When he retired in 1989, he was vice chairman
of the board and a director of the bank holding company. After leaving First
Chicago, McDonough served in a variety of executive roles, including adviser
to the World Bank and International Finance Corporation on the selection of outside
auditors, special adviser to the president of the Inter-American Development
Bank, and chairman of the Illinois Commission
on the Future of Public Service.
In 1992, McDonough joined the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Before his present
appointment, he was executive vice president and head of the financial markets
group of the bank, which includes domestic open market and foreign exchange operations
and U.S. government securities market surveillance.
In his address to the graduates, McDonough explained the role of the Federal
Reserve System and expressed his confidence in the nation’s economy. “I am confident
we will pull out of this slowdown,” he said, “and return to
more robust development.”
He also articulated his concern over the widening gap between rich and poor in
the world. “The top 20 percent of the world’s people … make 86 percent of the
world’s income. The least fortunate, the bottom 20 percent, receive
1 percent.”
Other
individuals receiving honorary degrees were Rev. Joseph J. LaBran, S.J. ’38,
retired chaplain at Holy Cross, and JoAnn McGrath, philanthropist and promoter
of Catholic education.
Fr. LaBran, known for leading the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius in over
100 retreats, served in the Office of the College Chaplains for almost 50 years.
With his his gleeful cry of “Yahweh!” and his trademark cowboy hat and walking
stick, Fr. LaBran has become an icon to generations of Holy Cross students. He
entered the Society of Jesus in 1947 and served as a physics instructor at Baghdad
College in Iraq from 1949-58. In 1954, he was the official Iraqi delegate to
the International Congress of the
Lay Apostolate in Rome. He received the Pro Deo et Juventute Award
from Bishop Flanagan in 1961 for service to the young people of
the Diocese of Worcester.
JoAnn McGrath is a well-known community volunteer. A leader of the Catholic School
Foundation in the Archdiocese of Boston, she is devoted to the support of inner-city
Catholic Schools. McGrath has also given her time and talents
to the Children’s Hospital League, the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer
Center, Hospice of Boston and the Eisenhower Medical Center in California. A
patron of the arts, she is a graduate of Alverno College in Milwaukee,
Wis.
Ryan Collar, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, served as valedictorian for the Class
of 2001. A psychology major, with a concentration in biological psychology, Collar
had been a member of the premedical program. Co-chair of the Holy Cross chapter
of the Psi Chi honor society, the national psychology honor society, he was recently
named a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the prestigious national honor society of liberal
arts and sciences. A Division 1 football player, Collar played quarterback for
the Crusaders’ varsity football team for his entire four years at the College.
After a year in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, he plans to attend medical school
and become a doctor.
In his valedictory address, Collar said that his wish for the future of his classmates
and himself is “that we each find a life principle … a standard that might give
a spiritual purpose to all of our distinct ambitions.”
“Lawyers
of tomorrow,” Collar said, “you might work for justice. Find motivations so striking
that you arise joyous each morning, excited to protect the impartiality that
gives life to American society. Business women and men of tomorrow, find enthusiasm
in your provision. Peacefully fall asleep each night knowing that your effort
to provide a product or service gives ease or happiness to all those around you.
Doctors of tomorrow, may yours be a calling of service. Your freedom is in knowing
that your work is true compassion when offered inclusively. Teachers of tomorrow,
you might dedicate yourselves to nurture and cultivate our youth. For you will
be free when
your work becomes an outflow of love and devotion toward children.”
“I
hope,” he concluded, “that we each find motivation that frees us from the allure
of fame and fortune. In doing so, we might open ourselves to the call that God
has for each of us.”
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