Providence College will the following five distinguished individuals with honorary degrees at the College’s Eighty-Ninth Commencement Exercises on Sunday, May 20, 2007. Dave Gavitt, whose longstanding association with Providence College began wtih his tenure as a legendary men's basketball coach and athletic director, will deliver the College's Commencement address.
The honorary degree recipients are:
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ArnChorn-Pond '92
Founder and Director, Cambodian Master Performers Program
Founder and International Spokesman, Cambodian Living Arts
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Dave Gavitt '89Hon. (Commencement Speaker)
Chairman Emeritus, Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
NCAA Men's Basketball Analyst, Westwood One Radio
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Gordon S. Wood, Ph.D.
Alva O. Way University Professor & Professor of History, Brown University, Providence, RI
Arn Chorn-Pond '92
Arn Chorn-Pond '92, a survivor of the Cambodian genocide of the 1970s, is an internationally recognized human rights leader who has dedicated his life to fostering hope and healing among his countrymen and preserving his homeland's unique musical heritage.
The significance of his efforts has been recognized on an international basis several times. Among other honors, Chorn-Pond has received the Amnesty International Human Rights Award, the Reebok Human Rights Award, the Anna Frank Memorial Award, and the Kohl Foundation International Peace Prize.
After losing his family to the horrors of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, Chorn-Pond spent four years living in a child labor camp and in Cambodia's "killing fields." He played propaganda songs on his flute for his captors and was forced to take part in executions to survive. In 1979, he escaped to a refugee camp in Thailand.
Two years later, he was taken in by an American refugee worker and humanitarian, the late Rev. Peter L. Pond, a Congregational minister. Rev. Pond, who received an honorary degree from PC in 1992, and his wife, Shirley, adopted 18 refugee children.
An accomplished musician, Chorn-Pond has used his traumatic experiences to improve the lives of Southeast Asians in Cambodia and America. While a student at PC, where he earned a bachelor's degree in political science, he organized a teen peer leadership group and started a big brother/sister program. Since then, he has founded or co-founded six organizations, including the Cambodian Volunteers for Community Development, Children of War, and Peace Makers--a U.S.--based gang intervention program for Southeast Asian youths.
Currently, Chorn-Pond continues to immerse himself in two other programs he founded: the Cambodian Master Performers Program and Cambodian Living Arts. These initiatives are dedicated to preserving and revitalizing traditional arts--especially music--in Cambodia and the United States.
In Cambodia, where he now lives, he oversees 20 master teachers in 10 provincial centers who teach traditional arts to approximately 500 students. His work and life were the subject of a PBS documentary, The Flute Player. This spring, his story became the impetus of a new opera, "Where Elephants Weep." The work was commissioned by Cambodian Living Arts in Lowell, Mass., where Chorn-Pond has worked and lived much of his life.
Sister Dolores Crowley, RSM
For nearly 50 years as a Sister of Mercy, Sister Dolores Crowley, RSM has lived out the challenge of Catherine McAuley to "meet the needs of the times!" Most often, for her that has meant serving the poor and homeless, particularly women and children.
Sister Dolores served as the executive director of The McAuley Corporation for 18 years before retiring last spring. The corporation oversees numerous outreach facilities and programs for the needy, including McAuley House, a house of hospitality where a noon meal is served six days a week; McAuley Village, a 23-unit housing development for low-income residents; a food pantry; a thrift shop; a six-unit shelter for single residents; and such services as child care, medical assistance, and housing and job placement.
Sister Dolores developed the concept of transitional housing for the needy in Rhode Island in the mid-1980s. Through the persistence of McAuley officials, McAuley Village opened in 1990. The complex provides housing for women in transition and their children for up to two years, allowing many mothers to continue their education and/or receive job training.
Prior to becoming executive director of The McAuley Corporation in 1988, Sister Dolores served as administrator of McAuley House for two years. The house offers families and individuals the basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter, and provides a low-income residence for single men and women. From 1983-86, she was the administrator of St. Elizabeth House in Hartford, Conn., a housing facility and soup kitchen for the poor.
Her work on behalf of the needy has been acknowledged numerous times. Among other honors, Sister Dolores received the National Excellence Award for Housing from the United Nations and the Rhode Island-based Jefferson Award for Service.
Sister Dolores' ministry began in education. She was a teacher and principal from 1960-78. She then served on the administrative team at Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Hartford from 1978-83. She holds a bachelor's degree in education from St. Joseph College in West Hartford and master's degrees in mathematics education from St. Joseph and Trinity College and in pastoral counseling from St. Joseph. She lives at St. Rose of Lima Convent in Warwick, R.I.
Dave Gavitt
For four decades, Dave Gavitt has embodied the ideals of the Veritas Medal in his dedication to the principles and goals of Providence College. His longstanding association with the College rivals his tenure as a legendary men's basketball coach and athletic director.
Gavitt began his career at PC as an assistant coach under the late Joe Mullaney from 1962-66 before serving as head coach from 1969-79. During that time, he compiled a 209-84 record for the best winning percentage (.713) in program history and led the Friars to eight consecutive 20-win seasons and five NCAA Tournaments-including the school's first NCAA Final Four appearance in 1973.
While serving as the College's athletic director from 1972-82, he expanded the varsity athletics program from seven to 24 sports. He also spearheaded the construction of two campus facilities--Schneider Arena, where the men's and women's ice hockey teams play, and the Peterson Recreation Center.
Gavitt is a member of PC's Athletic Hall of Fame and received an honorary degree from the College in 1989. In January of this year, the basketball court at the Dunkin' Donuts Center--where PC plays its home games-was dedicated in his honor.
His contributions to collegiate athletics and the sport of basketball are legendary. He was a founder and served as the first commissioner of the BIG EAST Conference from 1979-90. He also was the coach of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Men's Basketball Team, served as chair of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee from 1982-84, was president of the NCAA Foundation from 1995-97, and served as CEO of the Boston Celtics from 1990-94.
Gavitt has maintained staunch loyalty to PC throughout his years of service to basketball, including looking out for the College's best interests in the early years of the BIG EAST Conference and enabling it to serve as host for multiple NCAA Tournaments.
A graduate of Dartmouth College, he continues to contribute his time and knowledge on numerous boards in and out of basketball, including the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Gavitt and his wife, Julie, live in Rumford, R.I., and have two sons and four grandchildren.
Brother Lawrence Goyette, FSC '72
Brother Lawrence Goyette, FSC '72, a De La Salle Christian Brother, has served poor and disadvantaged youths through Lasallian educational initiatives for three decades. Since graduating from Providence College with a bachelor's degree in history, he has been a teacher, assistant principal, principal, and executive director at Catholic schools in Rhode Island, New York City, and Long Island.
In establishing the San Miguel School in Providence in 1993, Brother Lawrence started an inner-city educational model that has led to a national network of more than a dozen San Miguel schools.
Directed by the De La Salle Christian Brothers, the San Miguel School is a private, non-sectarian, alternative middle school for boys in grades 5 through 8, most of whom live in economically deprived and high-crime neighborhoods. The school provides a comprehensive, values-centered education in a safe learning environment for youths otherwise at risk.
A Rhode Island native, Brother Lawrence served as president of San Miguel School from 1993 to 2003. After teaching at The De La Salle School in Freeport, N.Y., he returned to San Miguel in 2005 as executive director. He began his teaching career in 1972 at the Cranston-Johnston Catholic Regional School in Cranston, R.I. He also has served as a teacher or assistant principal at two other Catholic schools and was the founding principal of The Genesis Program in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Brother Lawrence has earned numerous accolades for his ministry in education. In 2004, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in educational leadership from St. Mary's University in Minnesota. He also received the first De La Salle Award for School Leadership during The Miguel Schools National Convention in 2002, was one of six educators nationwide to receive the Lasallian Educator Award in 1997, and was honored with the National Catholic Education Association's Distinguished Teacher Award for the New England Region in 1992.
Brother Lawrence, who holds a master's degree from Fordham University, is a member of the Advisory Board of the Lasallian Volunteers. The author of numerous articles in Lasallian publications, he resides in Providence.
Gordon S. Wood, Ph.D.
Dr. Gordon S. Wood, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, is a nationally renowned scholar on the American Revolution and the Constitution. A history faculty member at Brown University since 1969, he has taught in higher-education settings for more than 45 years.
A prolific writer, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for History for his 1992 book The Radicalism of the American Revolution. His 1969 book, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787, won the Bancroft Prize and the John H. Dunning Prize. Wood also is the author of Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different, which was published last May. In all, he has written or edited more than a dozen books.
His knowledge of American history has made Wood a highly respected scholar-speaker as well. He has presented more than two dozen distinguished lectures nationally and internationally during the last three decades. He has presented the Mellon Lecture at Oxford University and spoke at the White House as part of the Presidential Lecture Series on the Presidency.
This past February, he presented the inaugural Rodney Delasanta Honors Lecture at PC, the annual lecture of the Liberal Arts Honors Program.
A summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Tufts University, Wood earned his master's and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University. He also holds an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from LaTrobe University of Australia. Before joining the Brown faculty, he taught at the College of William and Mary, Harvard, and the University of Michigan.
Wood is a member of nearly a dozen professional societies, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. Furthermore, he has participated in dozens of other professional and community activities during his teaching career. He continues to serve as chairman of the Scholarly Advisory Committee of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pa., and on several advisory committees for the papers of early American presidents.
Also a trustee emeritus of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in Virginia, Wood and his wife, Louise, live in Providence and have three children.
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