U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and conservationist Henry M. Paulson Jr. will deliver the Commencement address at Hamilton College on Sunday, May 25, at 10:30 a.m. in the Margaret Bundy Scott Field House.
Paulson and his wife Wendy, an educator, will be awarded a joint honorary degree at the College's 196th Commencement ceremony, along with 1972 Hamilton graduate and glass artist Josh Simpson and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Taylor Branch.
Branch will offer the Baccalaureate sermon titled "Equal Souls, Equal Votes, on Saturday, May 24, at 3 p.m. in the Scott Field House.
Henry M. Paulson Jr. and Wendy J. Paulson
Henry (Hank) and Wendy Paulson have been committed to conservation and improving the environment for more than three decades. In addition to personal involvement in many conservation groups, they established the Bobolink Foundation, which Wendy runs, to support conservation and education projects and programs.
Hank Paulson served as chairman of the Board of Governors of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) from 2004 until his appointment as Treasury secretary in July 2006. He also served as a founding co-chairman of TNC's Asia Pacific Council, working on a variety of projects in Asia and the Pacific, including a major ongoing effort to establish a national park in northwest Yunnan province in China. Paulson's long-time interest in birds of prey led him to work with The Peregrine Fund where he served as chairman of the board.
Paulson spent the majority of his career at Goldman Sachs, a global investment banking, securities and investment management firm. He joined Goldman Sachs in 1974 in the Chicago office, became a partner in 1982, managing partner of the Chicago office in 1988, president and chief operating officer in 1994, and co-chairman and co-CEO in 1998. In 1999, as chairman and CEO, he presided over the firm's transition from a private partnership to a public company and held the post until his appointment as Treasury secretary.
Before joining Goldman Sachs, Paulson worked in Washington, serving as staff assistant to the president as a member of the Domestic Council from 1972 to 1973, and as staff assistant to the assistant secretary of Defense at the Pentagon two years earlier.
He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1968, with a major in English, from Dartmouth College, where he was named to All Ivy and All East teams in football. Paulson received an M.B.A. from Harvard in 1970.
Wendy Paulson has been active with TNC for nearly 30 years, as vice chairman of the international Board of Governors and chairman of the Illinois and New York chapters. She currently serves as chairman of Rare, an international conservation organization that trains local leaders to inspire conservation in communities around the world. She also serves as education associate and trustee of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, and member of the National Council of the Student Conservation Association, the National Forum on Children and Nature, and the American Bird Conservancy advisory council. In Illinois, she edited a conservation newsletter for 10 years, wrote a nature activity series for children, and was a longtime participant in grassland restoration. She has led bird walks for more than 30 years in Illinois, New York City and now in Washington, D.C.
Wendy Paulson's career has been in teaching, beginning in the Boston public schools, and later at the Potomac School in McLean, Va., the Barrington, Ill., public schools as "The Nature Lady," and as director of education for a community conservation group. She taught year-long bird classes in two New York City public schools before moving to Washington. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wellesley College, with a major in English, in 1969.
The Paulsons are active hikers, cyclists, and kayakers. They have two grown children, Merritt (Hamilton '95) and Amanda (Dartmouth '97).
Josh Simpson '72
Honorary degree recipient Josh Simpson, a 1972 Hamilton graduate, is a glass artist in Shelburne Falls, Mass., using ancient techniques to create contemporary visions in glass. Among the best-known works are his Inhabited Planets, orbs of clear glass ranging from a few inches to more than a foot in diameter, which have interiors filled with colorful, separate elements that resemble mountains, glaciers and the sea. Through Simpson's Infinity Project begun in 2000, more than 1,700 participants have hidden his planets in locations around the globe.
His famed New Mexico series presents Simpson's impression of a midnight sky in the high desert. Intricate constellations and swirling, galactic patterns adorn a gleaming sky of rich blues highlighted with black and gold.
Simpson's glass work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution, the Corning Museum of Glass and is part of the permanent collection at the White House. Among his awards are the Lifetime Membership Award, Glass Art Society; People's Choice Award, Crafts at the Castle; and Juror's Award: "Artists Look at Earth," National Air & Space Museum.
Simpson has been president and treasurer of the Glass Art Society, and a member since 1972. His work has been featured in LIFE, Smithsonian Magazine and The New York Times, and was the subject of a 2001 PBS Documentary "Where the Earth Meets the Sky," a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a Megaplanet.
After earning a bachelor's degree in psychology from Hamilton, Simpson established his glass studio in rural New England in 1972. Simpson's teaching experience includes stints at Wanganui Polytechnic University in New Zealand; the Corning Museum, Corning, N.Y.; the Tokyo Glass Art Institute; the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine; and the Penland School of Crafts, Penland, N.C.
Taylor Branch
Taylor Branch, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, is the author of a comprehensive three-volume work that is both a biography of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a history of the Civil Rights Movement under his leadership. The product of nearly 25 years of intensive archival research and the collection of oral history, the trilogy has been hailed as one of the greatest achievements in the field of American biography.
Branch recently published the third and final volume, At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68 (2006), which chronicles the last three years of King's life, from the march on Montgomery to his assassination in Memphis.
Branch received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Christopher Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award for the first volume in the trilogy Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-1963 (1988). The book was also named a "Best Book of the Year" by The New York Times and Boston Globe.
Earlier in his career, Branch worked as a staff writer for Washington Monthly, Harper's and Esquire. His previous nonfiction books include Blowing the Whistle: Dissent in the Public Interest (1972, edited with Charles Peters), and Labyrinth: The Pursuit of the Letelier Assassins (1982, with Eugene Propper). Branch also co-wrote the autobiography of NBA Hall of Famer Bill Russell, titled Second Wind: The Memoirs of an Opinionated Man (1979), and the novel The Empire Blues (1981).
In 1991, Branch was awarded a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship for his contributions to American history.
Approximately 443 Hamilton students will receive bachelor's degrees during the commencement ceremony that marks the end of the college's 196th academic year. Previous Hamilton Commencement speakers have included president of the Council on Foreign Relations Richard Haass (2007); columnist Anna Quindlen (2006); former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke (2005); Delaware Congressman Mike Castle, a 1961 Hamilton graduate (2004); and PBS news anchor Jim Lehrer (2003).
Paulson and his wife Wendy, an educator, will be awarded a joint honorary degree at the College's 196th Commencement ceremony, along with 1972 Hamilton graduate and glass artist Josh Simpson and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Taylor Branch.
Branch will offer the Baccalaureate sermon titled "Equal Souls, Equal Votes, on Saturday, May 24, at 3 p.m. in the Scott Field House.
Henry M. Paulson Jr. and Wendy J. Paulson
Henry (Hank) and Wendy Paulson have been committed to conservation and improving the environment for more than three decades. In addition to personal involvement in many conservation groups, they established the Bobolink Foundation, which Wendy runs, to support conservation and education projects and programs.
Hank Paulson served as chairman of the Board of Governors of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) from 2004 until his appointment as Treasury secretary in July 2006. He also served as a founding co-chairman of TNC's Asia Pacific Council, working on a variety of projects in Asia and the Pacific, including a major ongoing effort to establish a national park in northwest Yunnan province in China. Paulson's long-time interest in birds of prey led him to work with The Peregrine Fund where he served as chairman of the board.
Paulson spent the majority of his career at Goldman Sachs, a global investment banking, securities and investment management firm. He joined Goldman Sachs in 1974 in the Chicago office, became a partner in 1982, managing partner of the Chicago office in 1988, president and chief operating officer in 1994, and co-chairman and co-CEO in 1998. In 1999, as chairman and CEO, he presided over the firm's transition from a private partnership to a public company and held the post until his appointment as Treasury secretary.
Before joining Goldman Sachs, Paulson worked in Washington, serving as staff assistant to the president as a member of the Domestic Council from 1972 to 1973, and as staff assistant to the assistant secretary of Defense at the Pentagon two years earlier.
He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1968, with a major in English, from Dartmouth College, where he was named to All Ivy and All East teams in football. Paulson received an M.B.A. from Harvard in 1970.
Wendy Paulson has been active with TNC for nearly 30 years, as vice chairman of the international Board of Governors and chairman of the Illinois and New York chapters. She currently serves as chairman of Rare, an international conservation organization that trains local leaders to inspire conservation in communities around the world. She also serves as education associate and trustee of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, and member of the National Council of the Student Conservation Association, the National Forum on Children and Nature, and the American Bird Conservancy advisory council. In Illinois, she edited a conservation newsletter for 10 years, wrote a nature activity series for children, and was a longtime participant in grassland restoration. She has led bird walks for more than 30 years in Illinois, New York City and now in Washington, D.C.
Wendy Paulson's career has been in teaching, beginning in the Boston public schools, and later at the Potomac School in McLean, Va., the Barrington, Ill., public schools as "The Nature Lady," and as director of education for a community conservation group. She taught year-long bird classes in two New York City public schools before moving to Washington. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wellesley College, with a major in English, in 1969.
The Paulsons are active hikers, cyclists, and kayakers. They have two grown children, Merritt (Hamilton '95) and Amanda (Dartmouth '97).
Josh Simpson '72
Honorary degree recipient Josh Simpson, a 1972 Hamilton graduate, is a glass artist in Shelburne Falls, Mass., using ancient techniques to create contemporary visions in glass. Among the best-known works are his Inhabited Planets, orbs of clear glass ranging from a few inches to more than a foot in diameter, which have interiors filled with colorful, separate elements that resemble mountains, glaciers and the sea. Through Simpson's Infinity Project begun in 2000, more than 1,700 participants have hidden his planets in locations around the globe.
His famed New Mexico series presents Simpson's impression of a midnight sky in the high desert. Intricate constellations and swirling, galactic patterns adorn a gleaming sky of rich blues highlighted with black and gold.
Simpson's glass work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution, the Corning Museum of Glass and is part of the permanent collection at the White House. Among his awards are the Lifetime Membership Award, Glass Art Society; People's Choice Award, Crafts at the Castle; and Juror's Award: "Artists Look at Earth," National Air & Space Museum.
Simpson has been president and treasurer of the Glass Art Society, and a member since 1972. His work has been featured in LIFE, Smithsonian Magazine and The New York Times, and was the subject of a 2001 PBS Documentary "Where the Earth Meets the Sky," a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a Megaplanet.
After earning a bachelor's degree in psychology from Hamilton, Simpson established his glass studio in rural New England in 1972. Simpson's teaching experience includes stints at Wanganui Polytechnic University in New Zealand; the Corning Museum, Corning, N.Y.; the Tokyo Glass Art Institute; the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine; and the Penland School of Crafts, Penland, N.C.
Taylor Branch
Taylor Branch, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, is the author of a comprehensive three-volume work that is both a biography of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a history of the Civil Rights Movement under his leadership. The product of nearly 25 years of intensive archival research and the collection of oral history, the trilogy has been hailed as one of the greatest achievements in the field of American biography.
Branch recently published the third and final volume, At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68 (2006), which chronicles the last three years of King's life, from the march on Montgomery to his assassination in Memphis.
Branch received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Christopher Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award for the first volume in the trilogy Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-1963 (1988). The book was also named a "Best Book of the Year" by The New York Times and Boston Globe.
Earlier in his career, Branch worked as a staff writer for Washington Monthly, Harper's and Esquire. His previous nonfiction books include Blowing the Whistle: Dissent in the Public Interest (1972, edited with Charles Peters), and Labyrinth: The Pursuit of the Letelier Assassins (1982, with Eugene Propper). Branch also co-wrote the autobiography of NBA Hall of Famer Bill Russell, titled Second Wind: The Memoirs of an Opinionated Man (1979), and the novel The Empire Blues (1981).
In 1991, Branch was awarded a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship for his contributions to American history.
Approximately 443 Hamilton students will receive bachelor's degrees during the commencement ceremony that marks the end of the college's 196th academic year. Previous Hamilton Commencement speakers have included president of the Council on Foreign Relations Richard Haass (2007); columnist Anna Quindlen (2006); former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke (2005); Delaware Congressman Mike Castle, a 1961 Hamilton graduate (2004); and PBS news anchor Jim Lehrer (2003).
