Providence, RI--Award-winning documentary filmmaker Martin J. Doblmeier '73, whose acclaimed productions include Bonhoeffer and The Power of Forgiveness, will present the Commencement Address at Providence College's Ninety-First Commencement Exercises on Sunday, May 17, 2009, at 11:00 a.m. at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in downtown Providence.  

The president and founder of Journey Films, Inc. of Alexandria, Va., Doblmeier is one of five distinguished individuals--four of whom have direct ties to PC--who have been chosen to receive honorary degrees from the College. The others are Sister Deborah A. Blow, O.P. '78, Robert P. George, The Honorable Maureen McKenna Goldberg '73, and Michael A. Tranghese.

Doblmeier graduated from PC with a bachelor's degree in theology. After earning a master's degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University in 1977, he served as field producer and international segment director for the television newsmagazine, Evening/PM Magazine, for two years. From 1979-1982, he was creator and senior producer of Real To Reel, a weekly, nationally syndicated television newsmagazine on religion.

Doblmeier founded Journey Films in 1984. The television and film documentary company produces programs that explore religion, spirituality, history, and social issues.

His documentaries have received more than two-dozen national and international awards and have aired on PBS, ABC, NBC, the BBC, The History Channel, and other networks in the United States and abroad. He has filmed in more than 45 countries and profiled Nobel laureates, leading religious leaders, and heads of state.

Exquisite body of work
Journey's first theatrical release, Bonhoeffer, opened in cities nationally and internationally in 2003. The film on the German theologian and Nazi resister, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, won five major awards, including a prestigious Gabriel Award, which recognizes uplifting and inspiring stories of film, radio, television.

Journey's 2007 documentary, The Power of Forgiveness, which explores how the various faith traditions and health sciences address the concept of forgiveness, captured five major honors.

Released to national public television in 2008, Forgiveness won the U.S. International Film Festival Award, the Sun Valley Film Festival Award, the Silver Screen Award from the International Film and Video Festival, The Telly Award, and the top award from the Religion Communicators Council.

Another Doblmeier production, Albert Schweitzer: Called to Africa, released in 2006, won a Gabriel Award and The Telly Award. The docu-drama on the Nobel laureate continues to air on public television, most recently on the Hallmark Channel.

Doblmeier's latest film, Washington National Cathedral: A New Century, A New Calling, was shown on various public television stations on Easter Sunday 2009. The film highlights the century of building America's "national house of prayer."

Other acclaimed productions include Taize: That Little Springtime (1986), Creativity: Touching the Divine (1994), and Final Blessing (1997).

In the past few years, Doblmeier has been a featured speaker, film presenter, and discussion leader in more than 100 churches, synagogues, and theaters across America, as well as at the United Nations. He has appeared as a guest on numerous national and international programs.

Doblmeier lives in Alexandria with his wife, Jelena, and their son, Nik.

Additional honorees
Highlights of the other honorary degree candidates follow:

• Sister Deborah A. Blow, O.P. '78 is co-founder and executive director of North Country Mission of Hope in Plattsburgh, N.Y., and a founding member of the Dominican Sisters of Hope of Plattsburgh. Sister Debbie co-founded Mission of Hope in 1998 in response to Hurricane Mitch, which killed more than 22,000 people in Central America. The mission provides educational, health care, nutritional, and community development services to the Western Hemisphere's second-poorest nation.

Sister Debbie graduated summa cum laude from PC with a bachelor's degree in religious and scriptural studies. She received a certificate in advanced scripture/theological studies from PC in 1979. She earned a master's degree in theology from Saint Michael's College in Colchester, Vt., in 1984. Sister Debbie served as a teacher, assistant principal, and principal at St. Peter's Elementary School in Plattsburgh from 1979-1995. 

• Robert P. George, J.D., D.Phil. is the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. An award-winning scholar and author, he is a member of the President's Council on Bioethics and the Council on Foreign Relations. He previously served as a presidential appointee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights and as a Judicial Fellow of the U.S. Supreme Court.

George, whose areas of expertise include bioethics, constitutional law, philosophy of law, and political philosophy, holds degrees from Swarthmore College, Harvard Law School, and Oxford University.  He is the author of Making Men Moral: Civil Liberties and Public Morality (Oxford University Press, 1993) and In Defense of Natural Law (Oxford University Press, 1999). Among his honors, he has received the Presidential Citizens Medal in 2008 and a 2005 Bradley Prize for Intellectual and Civic Achievement.

• The Honorable Maureen McKenna Goldberg, J.D. '73 is acting chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court. Justice Goldberg was one of the first women to graduate from PC. She graduated with honors from the Suffolk University Law School in 1978. She began her legal career as a prosecutor in the Rhode Island Department of the Attorney General in 1978. She became the first woman to rise to assistant attorney general before becoming administrator of the department's criminal division. She also served as solicitor for the towns of South Kingstown (R.I.) and Westerly (R.I.).

In 1990, Justice Goldberg was named a R.I. Superior Court justice. In 1997, she became the third woman to serve on the R.I. Supreme Court. Last year, she became Rhode Island's first female acting chief justice of the Supreme Court and is the court's most senior judge. Among her judicial accomplishments, she served on the Superior Court committee to develop the first judicial evaluation program in the Rhode Island judiciary and chaired the overhaul of the Superior Court's rules of practice.

• Michael A. Tranghese is the longtime commissioner of the 16-school BIG EAST Conference-the nation's largest Division I-A athletic conference. Tranghese joined the conference as its first full-time employee in 1979 after seven years as sports information director in the PC Department of Athletics. He was named commissioner in 1990, replacing legendary PC men's basketball coach Dave Gavitt '89Hon. Under his influence and leadership, the conference's championship slate has expanded from seven men's championships in 1979 to 24 men's and women's championships today.

Tranghese directed and oversaw the creation of BIG EAST football, which began in 1991, and later served as Bowl Championship Series coordinator. He also has served as chairman of the NCAA Men's Basketball Committee and as chair of the Division I-A Commissioners and the Collegiate Commissioners Association. He holds degrees from Saint Michael's College and American International College. Tranghese will retire as BIG EAST commissioner on June 30, 2009.

Honorary Degree Committee praised
College President Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P. '80 offered his personal thanks to the Honorary Degree Committee for its assistance in this year's selection process. The committee cultivated candidate prospects and recommended the finalists. 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; Jesse DePatsy '09, president of the Class of 2009; Robert Ferreira '83, assistant vice president for alumni relations; John P. Garrity '73, associate professor of theatre arts; Ann Manchester-Molak, APR '75, assistant vice president for college relations and planning; Rev. Thomas D. McGonigle, O.P., associate professor of history, special lecturer in theology, and director of the Center for Catholic and Dominican Studies; Nicholas J. Reggio, associate athletic director for internal operations in the Department of Athletics; David Wegrzyn, vice president for institutional advancement; Michael Woody '77, president of International Marketing Advantages and a member of PC's Providence President's Council; and Elizabeth Wolf '09, president of the Student Congress.

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