Providence, RI  – Dave Gavitt '89Hon., whose longstanding association with Providence College began with his tenure as a legendary men's basketball coach and athletic director, will deliver the Commencement Address at the College's Eighty-ninth Commencement Exercises on May 20, 2007, at the Dunkin' Donuts Center. Gavitt will be awarded the Veritas Medal, the highest honor the College can bestow in recognition of an individual’s “outstanding devotion to Providence College. ” This is the fifteenth time the medal has been awarded since its inception in 1960. The College previously honored Gavitt with an honorary degree in 1989.

Joining Gavitt as recipients of honorary degrees are:

• Sister Dolores Crowley, RSM – executive director of McAuley House for two decades before retiring last May and champion of multiple new initiatives which serve Rhode Island's poor and homeless, particularly women and children. Founded by the Sisters of Mercy, McAuley House is an outreach center and meal site that provides the homeless with food, clothing, and shelter, along with advocacy and referrals for housing, job placement, and medical assistance. As executive director, Sister Crowley, a pioneer of the concept of transitional housing units, also helped oversee the establishment of a food pantry and a wardrobe store in Central Falls;
• Arn Chorn-Pond ’92 – an internationally recognized human rights leader, trainer, and speaker, is a survivor of the Cambodian genocide who is creating innovative ways of fostering hope and healing among the people of his homeland. Chorn-Pond spent four years in the "killing fields" of Cambodia after losing his family to the Khmer Rouge in 1975. A recipient of the Amnesty International Human Rights Award, he has founded or co-founded the Cambodian Master Performers Program (through which he is working to preserve Cambodia's unique musical heritage), Cambodian Volunteers for Community Development, Children of War, Educational Television for Cambodia, and Peace Makers-a U.S.-based gang intervention program for Southeast Asian youth;
• Brother Lawrence Goyette, FSC ’72 – the founder and executive director of the San Miguel School in Providence, R.I. The private, non-sectarian, alternative middle school for at-risk boys is run by the DeLaSalle Christian Brothers. It serves inner city boys in grades five through eight, most of whom live in economically deprived and high-crime neighborhoods. His establishment of the San Miguel School has led to the establishment of more than a dozen other San Miguel Schools nationwide. Brother Goyette was awarded the N.C.E.A.'s Distinguished Teacher Award for the New England Region in 1992 and was one of six educators nationwide to receive the Distinguished Lasallian Education Award in 1997; and
• Gordon Wood, Ph.D. – the Alva O. Way University Professor and professor of history at Brown University and author of numerous books about the Revolutionary War which have earned him widespread acclaim. His most recent book, Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different, was published in May 2006. Wood won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature for his book, The Radicalism of the American Revolution. He has also served as a consultant to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pa., and is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, which operates the world's largest history museum in Williamsburg, Va.

Gavitt coached PC from 1969-79, compiling a 209-84 record for the best winning percentage (.713) in program history. He directed the Friars to eight consecutive 20-win season and five NCAA Tournaments, including the school’s first NCAA Final Four appearance in 1973. He was named New England Coach of the Year five times.

A member of PC’s Athletic Hall of Fame, Gavitt also served as the College’s athletic director from 1971-82, expanding the varsity athletics program from seven to 24 sports.

Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame last year, Gavitt 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.

This January, the basketball court at the Dunkin' Donuts Center--where PC plays its home games--was dedicated as "Dave Gavitt Court" in his honor.

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