Commencement Addresses

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2019 Commencement Address: Jane Dammen McAuliffe

Jane Dammen McAuliffe

Prominent American educator Jane McAuliffe, a world-renowned scholar of Islam and one of the senior leaders at the Library of Congress, will address this year’s graduates during the College of the Holy Cross Commencement ceremonies on Friday, May 24, at 10:30 a.m. at the DCU Center in Worcester.

Jane McAuliffe is senior advisor to the librarian of Congress and formerly the inaugural director of national and international outreach. Her work at the Library has involved a broad range of its programs, including the National Book Festival, the Kluge research center for scholars, the Library’s exhibits, publishing office, visitors’ services, and business enterprises.

She is a world-renowned scholar of Islam and has devoted sustained attention to Muslim-Christian dialogue and to the advancement of women around the world. As a specialist in the Qur’an and its interpretation, McAuliffe is general editor of the six-volume “Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an,” the first major reference work for the Qur’an in Western languages.

McAuliffe has served on the Vatican’s Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims and participated frequently in Building Bridges, a meeting of Muslim and Christian scholars established by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Prior to her role at the Library of Congress, McAuliffe was president of Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania from 2008 to 2013. During her tenure at Bryn Mawr, McAuliffe was recognized in 2009 by Forbes Magazine as one of the top “barrier breakers” among women presidents in the country.

Previously, McAuliffe served as dean of arts and sciences at Georgetown University, from 1999 to 2008; as professor and department chair at the University of Toronto, from 1992 to 1999; and as professor and associate dean at Emory University, from 1986 to 1992.

McAuliffe is an elected member of the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Council on Foreign Relations. She has served on the World Economic Forum’s GAC on Women’s Empowerment; has been president of the American Academy of Religion and has been a leader of Muslim-Christian dialogue initiatives for decades. She is a distinguished fellow of Georgetown’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs.

McAuliffe holds a bachelor’s degree in classics and philosophy from Trinity Washington University (formerly known as Trinity College) in Washington, D.C. She also received a master’s degree in religious studies and a Ph.D. in Islamic studies from the University of Toronto.
2018 Commencement Address: Michele Norris

Michele Norris

Emmy and Peabody Award-winning journalist Michele Norris, longtime NPR host, founder of The Race Card Project and executive director of The Bridge, will address this year’s graduates during the College of the Holy Cross Commencement ceremonies on Friday, May 25, at 10:30 a.m. at the DCU Center in Worcester. Norris is one of the nation's most recognized voices in radio, having served as NPR’s first African-American female host of its flagship program “All Things Considered.” From 2002 to 2015, she interviewed world leaders, American presidents, Nobel laureates, leading thinkers, groundbreaking artists, even astronauts traveling in outer space. While working at NPR, Norris created The Race Card Project, an initiative to foster a wider conversation about race in America, by inviting people to submit comments on their experience of race in six words. The project was spurred by the publication of Norris' family memoir, "The Grace of Silence," where she examines how America talks about race in the wake of the Obama presidential election, and explores her own family's racial legacy. In 2017, The Race Card Project became the cornerstone of The Bridge, a new initiative of the Aspen Institute, a program on race, identity and inclusion. Prior to her tenure at NPR, Norris served as an ABC News Correspondent based in Washington D.C. where she covered the White House. She also spent time as a print reporter, serving as a staff writer for The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. She has also written for Time and National Geographic magazines. Norris attended the University of Wisconsin and graduated from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. She currently resides in Washington, D.C., with her husband, Holy Cross alumnus Broderick Johnson ’78.
2017 Commencement Address: Dr. James J. O'Connell

James J. O'Connell M.D.

Dr. James J. O’Connell, president and founding physician of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP) and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, will receive an honorary degree from the College of the Holy Cross and address this year’s graduates during the College’s Commencement ceremonies on Friday, May 26, at 10:30 a.m. at the DCU Center in Worcester. Dr. O’Connell has dedicated his medical career to caring for Boston’s homeless. His leadership has contributed to the growth of the BHCHP since its founding in 1985 to become the country’s largest and most comprehensive program of its kind, serving more than 12,000 homeless people a year in two hospital-based clinics and more than 60 shelters and outreach sites. Throughout his 30 years at the helm, Dr. O’Connell has continued to serve on the team of doctors that meets patients on the streets, offering food and warm socks, medical treatment and the support of trusted friends. Dr. O’Connell served as the National Program Director of the Homeless Families Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development from 1989–1996. In addition to publishing articles in the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, Circulation, American Journal of Public Health and Journal of Clinical Ethics, he is the editor of “The Health Care of Homeless Persons: A Manual of Communicable Diseases and Common Problems in Shelters and on the Streets” (BHCHP Press, 2004). He published his first book, “Stories from the Shadows: Reflections of a Street Doctor” (BHCHP Press), in 2015. The recipient of numerous awards, including the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Award in 2012 and the Trustees’ Medal at the bicentennial celebration of Massachusetts General Hospital in 2011, Dr. O’Connell is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Cambridge University and Harvard Medical School.
2016 Commencement Address: The Honorable Harry K. Thomas, Jr. '78

Harry K. Thomas Jr.

The Honorable Harry K. Thomas, Jr. ’78, the United States Ambassador to the Republic of Zimbabwe and recipient of many honors from the State Department during his 32-year diplomatic career, will receive an honorary degree from the College of the Holy Cross and address this year’s graduates during the College’s Commencement ceremonies on Friday, May 27 at 10:30 a.m. at the DCU Center in downtown Worcester. A witness to and participant in some of the most important global events of the past three decades, Thomas served as U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines (2010-2013) and to Bangladesh (2003-05) before his appointment to serve in Zimbabwe in 2015. His earlier posting included service in the U.S. embassies in New Delhi, India; Harare, Zimbabwe; Kaduna, Nigeria; and Lima, Peru. He also served as Executive Secretary of the United States Department of State, Director General of the U.S. Foreign Service, Director of the State Department Operations Center, Director for South Asia on the National Security Council Staff and Special Assistant to the then-U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. In 2013, "in recognition of his invaluable contribution to deepening the relations between the Philippines and the United States," Thomas received the Order of Sikatuna with the rank of Grand Cross, Silver Distinction from the president of the Philippines Benigno Aquino III. The State Department has presented him with multiple awards including for his political reporting in Nigeria; for working to bring the Peace Corps to Zimbabwe; and for his role in the aftermath of the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. He also received the State Department’s Distinguished Service Award, along with other awards for his leadership, management and mentoring. Thomas majored in political science at Holy Cross, and received an M.S. degree in Urban Planning from Columbia University. Immediately before his Zimbabwe post, he was diplomat in residence at Arizona State University.
2015 Commencement Address: Bryan A. Stevenson

Bryan A. Stevenson

Bryan A. Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama, will receive an honorary degree from the College of the Holy Cross and address this year’s graduates during the College’s Commencement ceremonies on Friday, May 22 at 10:30 a.m. ET on the campus. Stevenson is the widely acclaimed public interest lawyer who has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated, and the condemned. Under his leadership, EJI has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent death row prisoners, confronting abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill, and aiding children prosecuted as adults. Stevenson has successfully argued several cases in the Supreme Court of the United States, and recently won an historic ruling banning mandatory life-without-parole sentences for all children 17 or younger as unconstitutional. For his work fighting poverty and challenging racial discrimination in the criminal justice system, Stevenson has received numerous awards including the American Bar Association's Wisdom Award for Public Service, the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship Award Prize, the ACLU National Medal of Liberty, the National Public Interest Lawyer of the Year Award, the Gruber Prize for International Justice, and the Ford Foundation Visionaries Award. Author of the acclaimed and bestselling book, "Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption" (Spiegel and Grau/Random House, 2014), Stevenson is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. "Just Mercy" was named by Time Magazine one of the 10 best books of nonfiction for 2014, and has been awarded several honors including the 2015 NAACP Image Award for outstanding nonfiction literary work. Stevenson’s 2012 TED talk, “We need to talk about an injustice,” has received more than two million views.
2014 Commencement Address: Jon Favreau '03

Jonathan Edward Favreau

Jon Favreau '03, former director of speechwriting for President Barack Obama and co-founder of Fenway Strategies, will receive an honorary degree from the College of the Holy Cross and address this year's graduates during the College's Commencement ceremonies on Friday, May 23 at 10:30 a.m. on the campus. Favreau will return to the Holy Cross Commencement stage, where he delivered the Valedictory Address for his class in 2003. The North Reading, Mass., native was director of speechwriting for President Obama from the beginning of his term as a United States Senator through early 2013. Prior to that, Favreau served as deputy director of speechwriting for John Kerry during his 2004 presidential campaign. A political science major at Holy Cross, Favreau was a member of the College Honors Program and a Dana Scholar; he participated as a junior in the College's Washington Semester Program, working in the office of then U.S. Senator Kerry. His thesis, titled "The Politics of Abandonment: White Working Class Defection from the Democratic Party," which was based in part on his work in Washington, was awarded the Maurizio Vannicelli Prize. While at Holy Cross, Favreau was director of the Welfare Solidarity Project of Worcester and a participant in the student-staffed Oncology Volunteer Effort at UMASS Memorial Hospital (M.O.V.E.) He also served as editor of the opinion section of "The Crusader" student newspaper. After leaving the White House, he co-founded Fenway Strategies, a communications and speechwriting firm. In the spring of 2013, Favreau served as a fellow at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, teaching a weekly seminar, titled "Storytelling in the Age of Sound Bites." Featured in TIME magazine as one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World" and in GQ's "50 Most Powerful People in D.C.," he is also a columnist for The Daily Beast.
2011 Commencement Address: Marilynne Robinson

Marilynne Robinson

Novelist and essayist Marilynne Robinson will receive an honorary degree from the College of the Holy Cross and address this year’s graduates during the College’s Commencement ceremonies on Friday, May 27 at 10:30 a.m. on the campus.

The author of three highly acclaimed novels, Robinson has distinguished herself as one of the nation’s most important and influential writers. Interested in the search for meaning and value in life, her work explores themes of faith, forgiveness, hope, and relationships.

Since the publication of her first novel, Housekeeping, in 1980, which earned her the PEN/Ernest Hemingway Award for First Fiction, the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award from the Academy of American Arts and Letters, and a Pulitzer Prize nomination, Robinson has been honored with many of the publishing industry’s most prestigious awards. Her novel Gilead, the story of an Iowa preacher, won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the 2004 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. Her most recent novel, Home, a companion to Gilead, won the 2008 L.A. Times Book Prize for fiction and the 2009 Orange Prize for fiction.

In 1990, Robinson received a Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Writer’s Award, and in 1998, she earned the Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts.

Robinson is also the author of three books of nonfiction, The Death of Adam, Absence of Mind, and Mother Country, an exposé of the environmental damage caused by a nuclear reprocessing plant that was a finalist for the 1989 National Book Award.

A faculty member at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Robinson has also taught at the University of Kent in England, the University of Massachusetts and at Amherst College.
2010 Commencement Address: Mark Shriver '86

Mark Shriver

Mark Shriver ’86, vice president and managing director of Save the Children, will receive an honorary degree from the College of the Holy Cross and address this year’s graduates during the College’s Commencement ceremonies on Friday, May 28 at 10:30 a.m. on the campus.

Shriver manages U.S. programs for the international organization Save the Children. In the U.S., Save the Children works in rural communities in Appalachia, the Southeast, the Mississippi River Delta, the Gulf Coast, the Southwest and California’s Central Valley, providing early childhood development, literacy, physical activity, and nutrition programming as well as emergency relief.

A history major at Holy Cross, Shriver has devoted his career to social and public service. Soon after graduation, he became a member of the Maryland Juvenile Justice Advisory Council, and also served on the Board of Directors of the Public Justice Center, the Maryland Governor’s Task Force on Alternative Sanctions to Incarceration, and the Maryland Governor’s Commission on Service. In 1994, he was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates, the lower house of the Maryland state legislature, representing Montgomery County, Maryland, District 15, and was reelected in 1998. In addition to serving as a delegate, he worked on the Task Force on the Maryland Prepaid-Tuition Savings Program in 1996, and on the Task Force to Study the Governance, Coordination, and Funding of the University System of Maryland. He was a founder and executive Director of The Choice Program, an at-risk youth intervention project of the Shriver Center at University of Maryland. He then served on the Advisory Board on After-School Opportunity Programs from 1999 to 2003.

Shriver is married to Jeanne Ripp Shriver ’87. He is the son of the late Eunice Kennedy Shriver, former Holy Cross trustee and honorary degree recipient in 1979 and of R. Sargent Shriver, who received an honorary degree in 1986. His sister Maria Shriver received an honorary degree in 1998.
2009 Commencement Address: Sen. Robert P. Casey, Jr. '82 (D-Pennsylvania)

Robert P. Casey Jr.

Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. ’82 (D-Pennsylvania) will receive an honorary degree from the College of the Holy Cross and address this year’s graduates during the College’s Commencement ceremonies on Friday, May 22 at 10:30 a.m. on the campus.

Elected in 2006, Sen. Casey is the son of the late governor of Pennsylvania Robert Casey ’53, who received his honorary degree from Holy Cross in 1988. After graduating from Holy Cross, Sen. Casey taught fifth grade and coached eighth grade basketball in inner city Philadelphia for the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. He received his law degree from Catholic University in 1988 and entered the practice of law in Scranton. Before his election to the Senate, he served for eight years as Pennsylvania Auditor General and two years as State Treasurer.

As senator, his priorities include working to foster financial security for American families, protect children and invest in their futures and ensure safety at home and respect abroad. He was a strong advocate for legislation that has expanded the State Children’s Health Insurance program, authored the Prepare All Kids Act to expand access to early childhood education and he also played a key role in passing provisions vital for Pennsylvania agriculture, conservation and nutrition programs.

Casey serves on numerous Senate committees including Foreign Relations; Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry; Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; the Special Committee on Aging; and the Joint Economic Committee. Additionally, he serves as the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs.

Casey and his wife, Terese ’82, live in Scranton with their four daughters Elyse, Caroline, Julia and Marena.
2008 Commencement Address: Kevin M. Cahill, M.D.

Kevin M. Cahill M.D.

Kevin M. Cahill, M.D., a driving force in humanitarian assistance and relief efforts across the globe for more than 45 years and a leading specialist in tropical medicine, will receive an honorary degree from the College of the Holy Cross and address this year’s graduates during the College’s Commencement ceremonies on Friday, May 23 at 10:30 a.m. on the campus.

Physician, teacher, activist, diplomat, and advocate, Cahill is the director of the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs, president of the Center for International Health and Cooperation and a University Professor at Fordham University. He serves as the director of the Tropical Disease Center at Lenox Hill Hospital, and has done extensive research and aid work in Africa, Latin America, and the Near and Far East. He is professor of International Humanitarian Affairs at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, senior consultant to the United Nations Health Service, and president-general of the American-Irish Historical Society.

Cahill received degrees from Fordham University, Cornell University School of Medicine, The Royal College of Surgeons in England and The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Upon completing his medical degree in 1961, Cahill was awarded a grant to work in Calcutta where he worked with Mother Teresa. He served as director of Clinical Tropical Medicine in Egypt and Sudan while in the U.S. Navy, and continued active medical research for the next forty years in Africa, Latin America, the Near and Far East, with long-term programs in Somalia, Sudan, India and Nicaragua.

He has written or edited 29 books and more than 200 articles on subjects including tropical disease, the global land mine crisis, and health and foreign policy.
2007 Commencement Address: John G. Roberts, Jr., Chief Justice of the United States

John G. Roberts Jr.

John G. Roberts, Jr., Chief Justice of the United States, will receive an honorary degree from the College of the Holy Cross and address this year’s graduates during the Commencement ceremony on Friday, May 25 at 10:30 a.m. on the campus.

Nominated by President George W. Bush, Chief Justice Roberts took his seat on the Supreme Court on September 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.

Born in Buffalo, N.Y., he received an A.B. from Harvard College in 1976 and a J.D. 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. They have two children, Josephine and John.
2006 Commencement Address: Bob Wright '65

Bob Wright

Bob Wright ’65, chairman and chief executive officer of NBC Universal and vice chairman and executive officer of the General Electric Company, delivered the principal address and received an honorary degree on May 26, during the 160th commencement ceremony of the College of the Holy Cross.

Wright has had one of the longest and most successful tenures of any media company chief executive. Under his leadership, NBC was transformed from a broadcast network into a global media powerhouse, with leadership in broadcast network television, cable programming, station ownership and television production. With the formation of NBC Universal, Wright heads one of the most rapidly growing and profitable media and entertainment companies in the world.

A former Trustee of the College, Wright has been inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame; he serves on the boards of the American Film Institute, the Museum of Television and Radio and the Motion Picture and Television Fund Corporation. Wright has worked closely with the Archdiocese of New York on raising support for inner-city Catholic schools and other projects. He is also co-founder (with his wife, Suzanne) of Autism Speaks, an organization dedicated to raising awareness and funding to find answers to the causes of autism.

In his address, Wright congratulated the graduating students on earning “the gift” of a Holy Cross education.
2005 Commencement Address: Tim Russert

TImothy John Russert

Tim Russert, managing editor and moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press and political analyst for the network’s Nightly News and Today programs, will deliver the College’s Commencement address to the graduating class of 2005 on Friday morning, May 27.

A graduate of a Jesuit high school and college, Russert will receive an honorary degree from the College at the 159th graduation exercises.

Russert joined NBC News in 1984, and, the following year, supervised the live broadcasts of the Today program from Rome , negotiating and arranging an appearance by Pope John Paul II - a first for American television. In 1991, he took over the helm of Meet the Press, which has since become the most-watched Sunday morning interview program in America . He also anchors The Tim Russert Show, a weekly interview program on CNBC and serves as a contributing anchor for MSNBC. In addition, Russert is the senior vice president and Washington bureau chief of NBC News.

During his career, he has interviewed nearly every major figure on the American political scene and has moderated numerous gubernatorial, U.S. Senate and presidential primary candidate debates.

In his bestselling memoir, Big Russ and Me, Russert writes with fondness and appreciation of his Jesuit education. He is a graduate of Canisius High School in Buffalo , John Carroll University in Cleveland and the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.
2000 Commencement Address: G. Timothy Johnson, M.D.

G. Timothy Johnson M.D.

Timothy Johnson, M.D., medical editor for ABC News will deliver the principal address and receive an honorary degree at the 154th commencement exercises at the College of the Holy Cross on Friday, May 26, beginning at 10:30 a.m. at Fitton Field.

Johnson, one of the nation’s leading medical communicators of health care information, has provided commentary on medical problems and answers for viewers since 1975. In addition to commentary on Good Morning America, Johnson provides on-air analysis of medical news for World News Tonight, Nightline and 20/20. He consults with ABC News regarding
coverage of medical news. He is also medical editor for WCVB-TV, Channel 5 in Boston.

Johnson holds joint positions in medicine at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He is the founding editor of the Harvard Medical School Health Letter and co-editor of the Harvard Medical School Health Letter Book. He is also coeditor of the book, “Your Good Health,” published by Harvard Press, as well as co-author with former US Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop of the book, “Let’s Talk,” published by Zondervan in 1992.

He originally intended to join the ministry and graduated from the North Park Seminary in 1963. Two years later he decided to enter medicine. Johnson, who is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Augustana College, graduated summa cum laude from Albany Medical College and holds a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University. Johnson served as an assisting minister at the Community Covenant Church in West Peabody, Mass.
1989 Commencement Address: Bryant Gumbel

Bryant Gumbel

Bryant Gumbel, host of NBC's Today Show, will receive an honorary degree, Doctor of Public Service, from the College of the Holy Cross and address this year’s graduates during the College’s Commencement ceremonies on Friday, May 26, at 10:30 a.m. on the campus.

Gumbel, the Today program host since January 1982, has anchored NBC news, sports and entertainment broadcasts from around the globe and across the country, including NBC's coverage of the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea.

Gumbel has received numerous awards for broadcasting and journalism, including the Edward R. Murrow Award for Outstanding Foreign Affairs Work, the Edward Weintal Prize for diplomatic reporting, 1986 Broadcaster of the Year, the Graham McNamee Award, and the 1988 NAACP Image Award.

Following graduation from Bates College, Gumbel was a sportswriter for Black Sports magazine. He entered broadcasting as a sportscaster for KNBC-TV in Los Angeles in 1972, where he remained until 1980. During that period, Gumbel also worked for NBC sports, co-hosting the National Footbal League pre-game show, major league baseball, NCAA basketball and NFL games.
1987 Commencement Address: Sen. Bill Bradley (D-New Jersey)

William Warren Bradley

Sen. Bill Bradley, U.S. senator from New Jersey, a former star basketball player for the New York Knickerbockers and a Rhodes Scholar, will receive an honorary degree, Doctor of Laws, from the College of the Holy Cross and address this year’s graduates during the College’s Commencement ceremonies on Friday, May 29 at 10:30 a.m. on the campus.

Bradley earned his indergraduate degree in 1965 at Princeton University, where he was an All American basketball player. He was also a standout on the victorious U.S. Olympic basketball team in 1964.

Bradley turned down offers from professional teams to accept a Rhodes Scholarship and studied for two years at Oxford University in England, where he earned a Master's degree.

He was signed by the Knicks to a four-year contract begining in the 1967-68 season and retired from professional basketball in 1977.

Bradley was elected as a U.S. senator (D) from New Jersey and was re-elected in 1984. He is the author of a book, Life on the Run.
1984 Commencement Address: Mario Cuomo, Governor of New York

Mario Matthew Cuomo

Governor Mario Cuomo of New York, will receive an honorary degree, Doctor of Laws, from the College of the Holy Cross and address this year’s graduates during the College’s Commencement ceremonies on Friday, May 25 at 10:30 a.m. on the campus.

Gov. Cuomo was elected 52nd governor of New York in 1982, and has quickly earned a national reputation for his gifts of oratory, his long work hours and his keen sense of what the public wants.

He was born in 1932, the son of Italian immigrants, and was graduated, summa cum laude, from St. John's College in 1953. After receiving his law degree from St. John's in 1956, be worked for mny years with the law firm of Corner, Weisbod, Froeb and Charles in Brooklyn, NY.

Gov. Cuomo became secretary of state in New York in 1975 and lieutenant governor on 1979. He is the author of Forest Hills Diary: The Crisis of Low-Income Housing, published in 1979.
1977 Commencement Address: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts)

Edward M. Kennedy

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) received an honorary degree, Doctor of Laws, from the College of the Holy Cross and delivered the principal address during the College’s Commencement ceremonies on Friday, May 27, 1977 at 10:30 a.m. on the campus. During his speech, he encouraged the graduates to become involved in the issues of the day and to strive to make a difference: “Often all it takes to turn the tide is one individual, acting alone and against the odds. A single voice of courage and understanding can change the flow of events and improve the community in which we live. Sometimes it can alter the course of history.”

A Democrat, Sen. Kennedy served 46 years in Congress; at the time of his death, he was chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee which, last July, passed the Affordable Health Choices Act, setting off debate on Capitol Hill about the proposed reform of the country’s health care system. During his long tenure in Congress, Sen. Kennedy had promoted legislation supporting numerous issues, including civil rights, education, voting rights, labor and immigration reform. In favor of the abolition of the draft and the deregulation of the airline and trucking industries, he helped to establish the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and backed federal support for health initiatives, including the Meals on Wheels program, increased cancer research financing and the creation of community health care centers.

A 1956 graduate of Harvard University and a 1959 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, Sen. Kennedy first became involved in politics managing the senate re-election campaign of his brother John F. Kennedy and, later, assisting him in his bid for the presidency in 1960. Working as an assistant district attorney following the presidential campaign, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1962, filling the unexpired term of his brother John and launching his own congressional career. Sen. Kennedy made one unsuccessful try for the presidency in 1979.

In addition to his work in the Senate, he played an active role in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.