The University of Portland has announced the honorees to be recognized during the 2016 Commencement ceremonies, which will be held on campus in the Chiles Center on Sunday, May 1. To accommodate the increasing number of graduates and family members, there will be two ceremonies this year: Commencement I, which begins at 10 a.m., is for graduates of the College of Arts and Sciences and School of Education; Commencement II, which starts at 2 p.m., is for graduates of the Pamplin School of Business, Shiley School of Engineering, and School of Nursing.
Regent D. Allen Lund and his wife, Kathleen Lund (pictured), will receive the University’s highest honor, the Christus Magister Medal.The Lunds are longtime supporters of the University of Portland and Catholic education. Allen is the president and CEO of the Allen Lund Company, a transportation and logistics provider he established in 1976, and he is also chairman of the University’s Board of Regents.
University of Portland alumnus Fedele Bauccio ’64, ’66 MBA, ’04 Hon., co-founder and CEO of Bon Appétit Management Company, will deliver the address for the University’s morning Commencement ceremonies. Bauccio co-founded Bon Appétit in 1987 after working for more than two decades in the food service industry. Bon Appétit now operates more than 650 highly customized onsite restaurants at corporations, private universities, museums, and sports venues in 31 states.
Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle will receive an honorary doctorate and deliver the address at the University’s afternoon commencement ceremony. He started his career at Columbia in 1971 when his father died, joining his mother, Gert Boyle, in expanding the small, Portland-based sportswear company into a globally recognized brand with net sales of more than $2.3 billion in 2015.
Steve Shepard graduated from the University with a degree in business in 1958, and has been a member of the Board of Regents since 1989. He and his wife Donna are namesakes and benefactors of the University’s Shepard Academic Resource Center, which has transitioned from its original mission as a center for helping first-year students transition to college to its current focus of serving the academic needs of all students.
Educator and electrical engineer Eleanor Baum holds the distinction of being the first female dean of an engineering school in the United States, serving in that capacity at Pratt Institute starting in 1984. She is also the first woman to be president of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE).
Rev. Robert S. Pelton, C.S.C., is concurrent professor emeritus, theology director emeritus, Institute for Pastoral and Social Ministry Director emeritus, and director and founder of Latin American/North American Church Concerns at the University of Notre Dame.
Women’s sports pioneer Cathy Rush was head basketball coach at Immaculata College from 1972 to 1977. Her “Mighty Macs” won the 1972, ’73, and ’74 Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) championships. After retiring from coaching, Rush became the first female commentator for women’s basketball on national television in 1978.
Ron Thomas became the thirteenth president of the University of Puget Sound in 2003, a position he will hold until the end of June 2016. Under his leadership, Puget Sound was named the nation’s number one producer of Peace Corps volunteers in 2007 for universities its size and, in 2006, a top-ten producer of Fulbright Scholars for baccalaureate colleges.
More information about the University’s commencement ceremonies can be found at http://www.up.edu/commencement.