Interjecting humor, anecdotal snippets from his undergraduate years, and sage advice, actor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist John O’Hurley ’76 advised members of the Class of 2006 to “live an extraordinary life” in his commencement address during the College’s Eighty-Eighth Commencement Exercises on Sunday, May 21.

“An extraordinary life is a life of achievement, a life of meaning, and a life of reflection,” O’Hurley told the graduates in the crowd of approximately 12,000 at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence. He added, “Dream large, dream small, but trust what you imagine, because what you dream about is what you are supposed to be doing.”

O’Hurley, who received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree, is best known as the melodious-voiced catalog king “J. Peterman” on the legendary Seinfeld sitcom series. The television, stage, and screen actor, who has numerous ongoing and upcoming projects, made his Broadway debut this spring in the hit musical Chicago. For the text of his commencement address, click here.

O’Hurley’s address capped a ceremony during which degrees were awarded to 1,129 individuals, including 839 undergraduate day school students, 76 School of Continuing Education (SCE) students, and 209 Graduate Studies Program students. The recipients included O’Hurley and four other distinguished persons who were awarded honorary degrees.

The Commencement Exercises were the first under the administration of Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P. ’80, who became the College’s 12th president on July 1, 2005. The first of five speakers to bring greetings to the graduates, Father Shanley centered his remarks on a line from the popular music song “Closing Time” (by the group Semisonic in the late 1990s) which said, in part, “. . . every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”

“It is time now for you students to make a new beginning in accord with God’s loving plan for your happiness,” Father Shanley told the graduates.

In addition to O’Hurley, the College awarded honorary degrees to Edwin N. Forman, M.D., a pediatric hematologist/oncologist at Providence’s Hasbro Children’s Hospital; Rev. Robert J. Randall, former PC associate professor of English who taught for nearly 30 years at the College; the Honorable Donald F. Shea ’50, retired associate justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island; and Dr. Carolyn Yauyan Woo, who is dean of the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame and who holds a chair in entrepreneurial studies there.

For more, click on the commencement press kit.