Alma mater takes center stage at Commencement

Commencement speaker and Professor of Business Administration and Accounting and David M. Miller Endowed Chair of Accounting Gary Witosky ’79, student speaker Hunter Gray ’23 and honorary degree recipient John Hudson H’23 all made the alma mater an important theme during the College’s 149th Commencement Exercises on May 7. The Exercises saw more than 140 undergraduates cross the stage in the William A. Passavant Memorial Center to receive their degrees. Gray, a math major with a secondary education certificate from Pittsburgh, Pa., delivered the senior address. Graduate students from the Master of Business Administration program participated in the ceremony and will complete their degrees later in the spring. Several students from the speech-language pathology program also participated. That program will have a formal ceremony later this summer, as will the first cohort of physician assistant studies students, following the completion of their coursework.

“Graduates, you have belonged at Thiel College and will continue as members of this strong community throughout your lives,” President Susan Traverso, Ph.D. said.

After announcing his retirement this spring semester, Witosky and Professor of Religion Dan Eppley, Ph.D. were also awarded faculty emeritus status. Hudson, a former Chair of the College’s Board of Trustees, received an honorary doctorate during the ceremony.

Families celebrate their Thiel College connections