• Dave Gavitt to deliver Commencement address, receive Veritas Medal
• Four others to be honored for exemplary careers
• More than 1,280 students to receive undergraduate and graduate degrees

Providence, RI – Dave Gavitt, 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 beginning at 11 a.m. on May 20, 2007, at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. Approximately 1,288 degrees will be awarded during the ceremonies to graduates of the College’s undergraduate day school, the School of Continuing Education, and the Graduate Studies Program.

Gavitt, who received an honorary degree from PC in 1989, will be awarded the Veritas Medal, the highest honor the College can bestow, in recognition of his “outstanding devotion to Providence College. ” This is the fifteenth time the medal has been awarded since its inception in 1960. Four honorary degrees also will be awarded to:

• Sister Dolores Crowley, RSM – a Sister of Mercy who retired last year as executive director of The McAuley Corporation, which oversees outreach facilities and programs for the needy in Providence;
• Arn Chorn-Pond – an internationally recognized human rights leader who survived the “killing fields” of Cambodia and whose life and work were the subject of the PBS documentary, The Flute Player;
• Brother Lawrence Goyette, FSC – the founder and executive director of the San Miguel School in Providence, R.I., for at-risk, inner-city boys that has become a national model; 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.

Dave Gavitt – Commencement Speaker

Dave Gavitt, the commencement speaker and recipient of the Veritas Medal, is chairman emeritus of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the NCAA Men’s Basketball analyst for Westwood One Radio. Recognized nationally for his contributions to collegiate athletics and the sport of basketball, Gavitt was a founder and served as the first commissioner of the BIG EAST Conference from 1979-90.

A member of Providence College ’s Athletic Hall of Fame, Gavitt coached at 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 seasons 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.

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. 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.           

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

Sister Dolores Crowley, RSM – Honorary Degree Recipient

Sister Dolores Crowley, R.S.M.—who has served the poor and homeless, particularly women and children, for nearly 50 years as a Sister of Mercy—will receive the honorary Doctor of Public Service degree. She retired last spring as executive director of The McAuley Corporation in Providence, R.I., which she had served for 18 years.

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.

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.

Sister Dolores developed the concept of transitional housing for the needy in Rhode Island. McAuley Village, which opened in 1990, 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.

Her work on behalf of the needy has been acknowledged numerous times. Among other honors, Sister Dolores received the National Excellence Award for Housing/Habitat II from the United Nations and the Rhode Island-based Jefferson Award for Service.

Arn Chorn-Pond– Honorary Degree Recipient

Arn Chorn-Pond—a 1992 graduate of Providence College who will receive the honorary Doctor of Humanitarian Service degree—survived the Cambodian genocide of the 1970s to become 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 Anne 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 adopted by an American refugee worker and humanitarian, the late Rev. Peter L. Pond and his wife, Shirley. An accomplished musician, Chorn-Pond has used his traumatic experiences to improve the lives of Southeast Asians in Cambodia and the U.S.

While a political science major at PC, 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 immerses 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. In addition to being the subject of a PBS documentary, The Flute Player, Chorn-Pond’s story became the impetus of a new opera, Where Elephants Weep, commissioned by Cambodian Living Arts. The opera premiered this spring in Lowell , Mass. , where Chorn-Pond has worked and lived much of his life.

Brother Lawrence Goyette, FSC – Honorary Degree Recipient

Brother Lawrence Goyette, F.S.C.—a 1972 Providence College graduate and De La Salle Christian Brother—will receive an honorary Doctor of Education degree. He is the founder and executive director of the San Miguel School in  Providence, R.I.,  a private, non-sectarian, alternative middle school for boys in grades 5 through 8, most of whom live in economically deprived neighborhoods.

The school, administered by the De La Salle Christian Brothers, provides a comprehensive, values-centered education in a safe learning environment for youths otherwise at risk. In establishing the San Miguel School in Providence in 1993, Brother Lawrence developed an inner-city educational model that has led to a national network of more than a dozen San Miguel schools.

A Rhode Island native, Brother Lawrence 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.

Brother Lawrence served as president of San Miguel School from 1993 to 2003, returning to the school as executive director in 2005 after teaching at The De La Salle School in Freeport, N.Y. 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.

Gordon Wood, Ph.D.– Honorary Degree Recipient

Dr. Gordon S. Wood—who will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree—is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and 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.

Wood, who has written or edited more than a dozen books, 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.

Wood’s knowledge of American history has made him a highly respected speaker as well. He has presented more than two dozen distinguished lectures nationally and internationally during the last three decades, including the Mellon Lecture at Oxford University.

He also has spoken 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 Providence College , the annual lecture of its 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.

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