Hamilton College has announced the names of four individuals who will be awarded honorary degrees at the college's 195th commencement on Sunday, May 20. Included among the recipients are two prominent individuals from the Mohawk Valley, F. Eugene Romano, a 1949 graduate of Hamilton College and local businessman, and Sherwood Boehlert, former U.S. Congressman, 24th District.
Hamilton's commencement ceremony will begin at 10:30 a.m. in the Margaret Bundy Scott Field House.
In addition to Romano and Boehlert, honorary degrees will be awarded to Dr. Johnnetta Cole, president of Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, N.C. and the first African-American woman to serve as president of Spelman College; and Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Haass will deliver the Commencement address and Cole will offer the Baccalaureate sermon, which will be given on Saturday, May 19, at 3 p.m. in the Scott Field House.
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Sherwood Boehlert |
Utica native Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-New Hartford), retired from the U.S. House of Representatives, 24th District, New York in 2006, after serving for 24 years. He was chairman of the House Science Committee and served 11 consecutive terms representing Central New York.
During his tenure he served on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the House Science Committee, which he chaired from 2001 until 2006.
Since leaving Congress Boehlert has joined the Accord Group Inc., a Washington, D. C. based government affairs firm. Through June 2007, he is also serving as a public policy scholar within the Environmental Change and Security Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
He was recently elected to serve on the board of trustees of the Heinz Center, established in 1995 in memory of Senator John Heinz. It is a nonprofit, nonpartisan institution dedicated to improving the scientific and economic basis for environmental policy and to developing innovative solutions to environmental problems.
Before serving as Oneida County Executive (1979-83), he was manager of public relations at Wyandotte Chemical (1961-64) and served two years in the U.S. Army (1956-58). Boehlert served as chief of staff for two area Congressmen, Alexander Pirnie (1964-72) and Donald Mitchell (1973-79). He is a graduate of Utica College.
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Dr. Johnnetta Cole |
Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole was appointed the 14th president of Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 2002. Cole made history in 1987 by becoming the first African American woman to serve as president of Spelman College, where she is now president emerita.
From 2004 to 2006, she was the first African American to serve as chair of the board of United Way of America.
Cole is professor emerita of Emory University from where she retired as Presidential Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Women's Studies and African American Studies. She completed her undergraduate degree at Oberlin College and earned a master's degree and a Ph.D. in anthropology from Northwestern University.
Cole is the author of numerous publications for scholarly and general audiences. Her most recent publication is a book co-authored with Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall: Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women's Equality in African American Communities. She serves on the board of Africa University in Mutare, Zimbabwe, the United Way of America, and the National Visionary Leadership Project.
In addition to 51 honorary degrees, Cole has received numerous awards including the 2001 Alexis deTocqueville Award for Community Service from United Way of America, The Joseph Prize for Human Rights presented by the Anti-Defamation League, and The Uncommon Height Award from the National Council of Negro Women.
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Richard Haass |
Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, is already familiar with Hamilton, having taught as the Sol M. Linowitz Visiting Professor of International Studies in the fall of 1995.
Haass was appointed president of the Council on Foreign Relations in July 2003. The Council is an independent, national membership organization and a nonpartisan center for scholars dedicated to discussing pressing foreign policy issues in an effort to promote understanding of foreign policy and America's role in the world since 1921.
Until June 2003, Haass was director of policy planning for the U.S. Department of State, where he was a principal adviser to Secretary of State Colin Powell on a broad range of foreign policy concerns. Confirmed by the U.S. Senate to hold the rank of ambassador, Haass served as U.S. coordinator for policy toward the future of Afghanistan and was the lead U.S. government official in support of the Northern Ireland peace process. For his efforts, he received the State Department's Distinguished Honor Award.
From 1989-93, Haass was special assistant to President George Bush and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs on the staff of the National Security Council.
Haass is the author or editor of 10 books on American foreign policy. His most recent book, The Opportunity (June 2005), was published by PublicAffairs Books.
A Rhodes Scholar, Haass holds a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and both a master's degree and doctor of philosophy degree from Oxford University.
Eugene Romano, a 1949 graduate of Hamilton College, is involved in active ownership and operation of distribution, manufacturing, hotel, timbering and pipeline. He is the current president at Pacemaker-Millar Steel & Industrial Supply Co. Inc. and president of Tricor Management Corp., a real estate agency. In 1953, just four years after receiving his bachelor's degree, he co-founded the first and largest steel mill in the western world to produce high tech jet engine alloy steel.
Romano has been particularly generous to local projects, including major commitments to Utica College's science building project, the Stanley Theatre renovation project, the Utica Boys and Girls Club, St. Elizabeth's Emergency Room expansion and renovation, and the Utica Symphony.
He established the Romano Entrepreneurs Fund in 1999, a scholarship at Hamilton for students from the Mohawk Valley who have shown an entrepreneurial spirit and indicate a willingness to return to the area after their educations are complete. It is a part of a long-standing commitment to the Mohawk Valley. He believes that an investment in the college will ultimately benefit the entire Utica area.
