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Holy Cross graduates 643 at the College’s 161st Commencement
John G. Roberts, Jr., chief justice of the United States, delivered the principal address and received an honorary degree on May 25, as Holy Cross graduated 643 men and women during its 161st commencement ceremony.
Nominated by President George W. Bush, Chief Justice Roberts took his seat on the Supreme Court on Sept. 29, 2005. Prior to joining the Supreme Court as the 17th chief justice, he was a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Chief Justice Roberts received his bachelor of arts degree from Harvard College in 1976 and his juris doctor from Harvard Law School in 1979. He served as a law clerk for Judge Henry J. Friendly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1979 to 1980 and as a law clerk for then-Associate Justice William H. Rehnquist of the Supreme Court of the United States during the 1980 term. He was special assistant to the attorney general, U.S. Department of Justice, from 1981 to 1982; associate counsel to President Ronald Reagan, White House Counsel’s Office, from 1982 to 1986; and principal deputy solicitor general, U.S. Department of Justice, from 1989 to 1993. From 1986 to 1989 and 1993 to 2003, he practiced law in Washington, D.C.
Chief Justice Roberts is married to Jane Sullivan Roberts, a 1976 graduate of Holy Cross and current member of the College’s Board of Trustees. The Roberts have two children, Josephine and John, who also attended Commencement.
In his address, Chief Justice Roberts invoked an image from 700 years ago, of Francesco Petrarch, “the original Renaissance man.” The chief justice related a story about a springtime climb that Petrarch made up Mount Ventoux, a 6,200-foot peak near his home in France. Later, while reflecting on the difficult ascent, Petrarch wrote: “To ascend, you have to climb, and you might as well face it directly.” Chief Justice Roberts exhorted the new graduates to be brave and to do the necessary climbing to ascend the hills in their lives. The full text of Chief Justice Roberts’ remarks can be found online: www.holycross.edu/events/commencement/roberts_address.html.
Other individuals receiving honorary degrees at Commencement were: Brendan J. Cassin ’55; Sister Miriam Duggan; and Annette Rafferty.
Cassin, chairman and president of the Cassin Educational Initiative Foundation—which he founded in 2000—is also chairman of the board of both the Cristo Rey Network and the Nativity Miguel Network. Through these organizations, Cassin helps establish private, Catholic, college-preparatory middle schools and high schools in urban, economically challenged areas across the United States. In 2002, Cassin made a $1 million grant to Holy Cross to help the College recruit students of color—an effort which has been successful and has increased diversity on campus. He also helped found the Nativity School of Worcester, which last year graduated its first eighth-grade class, and where many Holy Cross students volunteer and teach.
Following graduation from Holy Cross, Cassin spent five years in the Marine Corps, subsequently working in sales, sales management and marketing. In 1969 Cassin co-founded Xidex Corporation, which achieved Fortune 500 status in 1987, with sales of $752 million and 7,000 employees worldwide. He left active management of Xidex in 1979 and became a venture capital investor. Cassin is a founding investor in a number of technology companies and, also, a financial founder of many public companies.
Sister Miriam Duggan has spent 30 years as a missionary; she is currently congregational leader of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Africa, based in Dublin. Superintendent in 1987 of the Kampala hospital in Uganda when the first cases of AIDS were diagnosed, Sister Duggan took an activist role in the fight against the disease. A gynecologist, she developed an educational program aimed at changing behaviors—work that has been credited in the decline in the rate of AIDS deaths—and that has been introduced in 11 other African countries. Sister Duggan has recently begun a new program called “Youth Alive” Clubs—positive peer groups offering sports, musical festivals and drama—as well as ongoing support and education—to help young people make positive life choices.
In 1976, Annette Rafferty founded the Abby Kelley Foster House, better known as Abby’s House, an emergency shelter for battered women and their children in Worcester. Today it is one of the most respected multi-service agencies in the city and the state of Massachusetts. In addition to the emergency shelter, Abby’s House currently provides 78 units of service-enriched low-income housing at three locations. It also operates a thrift shop and a women’s day center, and offers counseling and referrals. Holy Cross has had a long relationship with Rafferty and Abby’s House: Holy Cross students have staffed the shelter since the night it opened, and College employees have supported this effort through financial contributions and hours of volunteer service.
This year’s valedictory address was delivered by Patrick Gavin ’07 of Norwood, Mass., a theatre and history double major with a minor in economics. Gavin is a member of Omicron Delta Epsilon, the economics honors society, as well as Phi Alpha Theta, the history honors society, of which he served as president for the past year. As a student at Holy Cross, Gavin also worked with the Fenwick Theatre, Alternative College Theatre and Redfeather Theatre Company, pursuing both acting and production.
In his remarks, Gavin spoke about his gratefulness for being given countless opportunities to learn and grow during his years at Holy Cross.
“Through our experience at this liberal arts college,” he said, “we have gained a more comprehensive view of what it means to be a human being, an awareness of others brought about not just by studying the intricacies of our chosen major, but by unconsciously studying the very art of what it means to live a meaningful life.”
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