Providence, RI--Rhode Island Army National Guard (RIARNG) Major Michael P. Manning ’97, a Bronze Star Medal veteran of the Iraq War and currently deployed as the operations officer with Special Operations Detachment-Global (SOD-G), RIARNG, will deliver the Commencement Address at the College’s Ninetieth Commencement Exercises on Sunday, May 18, 2008, at 11:00 a.m. at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in downtown Providence.
Manning graduated from PC with a bachelor’s degree in history and was commissioned through the College’s ROTC program. He began his service with the U.S. Army in Germany in 1998 and was stationed in Europe until 2000. During this period, Manning was deployed for five months in war-torn Kosovo, where he was part of a mission to repress ethnic strife and repatriate Kosovar Albanians.
In 2000, Manning transferred to traditional, full-time status with the RIARNG while pursuing civilian career interests. He returned to active duty with the RIARNG in 2003 and was subsequently assigned to PC as an instructor of military science for seven months.
In 2004, Manning and his unit, the 173rd Infantry Company (Long Range Surveillance), were mobilized in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. As commander of the unit, he served in Iraq from January through November 2005. For his service in Iraq, Manning was awarded the Bronze Star Medal.
He is also the recipient of the Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, and the Army Achievement Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster, among many other commendations.
Upon return from Iraq, Manning was assigned as the first coordinator of the State Partnership Program (SPP), where he led the R.I. National Guard initiative that seeks to foster cultural understanding, military partnership, and educational opportunities between citizens in Rhode Island and The Bahamas. For his work with the SPP and his military service, Manning, a North Kingstown, R.I. resident, was profiled as one of the Providence Business News’ “40 under forty” in 2007.
“I have heard him speak publicly and was very impressed by the depth of his faith as a young man who has seen and experienced a great deal since his graduation,” noted College President, Rev Brian J. Shanley, O.P. “I believe Major Manning has an important message to convey about leadership and character formation and how Providence College helped shape his personal and spiritual development.”
Manning will be one of six distinguished individuals—including five with direct ties to PC—to receive honorary degrees during the exercises. The others are The Honorable Frank Caprio ’58, Dr. Zygmunt J. Friedemann, Rev. Gregory Ramkissoon, Fay Frank Rozovsky ’73, and Dr. Austin D. Sarat ’69.
The Honorable Frank Caprio, J.D. ’58 is chief judge of the Providence Municipal Court and senior partner at Caprio and Caprio Law Office in Providence. He serves as chairperson of the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education, is a member of the College’s Providence President’s Council, and is a former national chairperson of PC’s Annual Fund. A Municipal Court judge since 1985, Caprio has established need-based scholarship funds at PC and Suffolk University Law School. He is celebrating his 50th-year reunion as a PC alumnus.
Zygmunt J. Friedemann, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of political science at PC, teaching here from 1956-90. He was presented the Distinguished Faculty Award by the PC Alumni Association in 1973. Born in Poland in 1922, Friedemann survived imprisonment in two Nazi concentration camps. He worked for the U.S. Army as an interpreter and liaison—helping to relocate some 80,000 freed refugees—before emigrating in 1948. He served eight terms as a state representative in the R.I. General Assembly, where he played a major role in the creation of the emergency 9-1-1 system.
Rev. Gregory Ramkissoon is the founder and chairperson of Mustard Seed Communities, a service outreach and community development organization based in Jamaica. Father Ramkissoon founded Mustard Seed Communities in 1978 in an economically depressed community on the outskirts of Kingston, Jamaica. Today, the organization cares for more than 400 children with disabilities or HIV/AIDS and has expanded into Nicaragua, Zimbabwe, and the Dominican Republic.
Fay Frank Rozovsky, J.D., M.P.H. ’73 is president of The Rozovsky Group, Inc. and an authority in patient safety, consent, and healthcare risk management. An attorney, she has written more than 600 articles and has written, co-written, or edited more than 20 books. In 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court cited her book, Consent to Treatment: A Practical Guide, as legal authority in a critical patients’ rights case. A faculty member at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Rozovsky is one of the first women to attend PC and graduated summa cum laude.
Austin D. Sarat, Ph.D., J.D. ’69 is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Five College Fortieth Anniversary Professor, and senior advisor to the dean of the faculty at Amherst College in Massachusetts. An internationally renowned scholar of capital punishment, Sarat is also recognized as a pioneer in the development of legal study in the liberal arts and in the humanistic and cultural study of law. He has authored or edited more than 60 books, many relating to capital punishment. A graduate of PC’s Liberal Arts Honors Program, he founded Amherst's Department of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought.
President thanks committee
Father Shanley acknowledged the work of and extended his personal thanks to the Honorary Degree Committee, which cultivated honorary degree prospects and recommended the finalists for this year’s commencement. The committee was chaired by Patricia S. Vieira, APR ’75, associate vice president for college relations and planning.
The other committee members were Dr. Mario R. DiNunzio ’57, professor of history; Ryan Donnelly ’08, president of the Class of 2008; David A. Duffy ’61, chair of the Rhode Island Convention Center Authority; Andrew Fechtel ’08, president of the Student Congress; Robert Ferreira ’83, assistant vice president for alumni relations; Dr. Michele M. Holt, assistant professor of music; Rev. Thomas D. McGonigle, O.P., associate professor of history, special lecturer in theology, and director of the Center for Catholic and Dominican Studies; Ann Manchester-Molak, APR ’75, assistant vice president for college relations and planning; Nicholas J. Reggio, associate athletic director for internal operations in the Department of Athletics; and Frank Sullivan ’65, director of development and public relations in the Rhode Island office of the Salvation Army.
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