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Scenes from Commencement
Passion: “Whatever it may be, I urge you to find and feed a passion.”
Obituary: “Dean of Boston Historians”
Thomas H. O’Connor, University Historian and popular professor emeritus of history at Boston College who was widely considered “the dean of Boston’s historians” for his authorship of such critically acclaimed books as Boston Catholics, Civil War Boston and The Boston Irish, died on May 20. He was 89.
Dr. O’Connor’s distinguished teaching and writing career spanned more than half a century. He joined the Boston College faculty in 1950, after earning a BC undergraduate degree in 1949 and completing his master’s degree in history the following year. From 1962 to 1970, he served as chairman of the History Department, where he attained the rank of full professor. His fields of interest included mid-19th-century American history, the era of Andrew Jackson, and the Civil War.
“Tom O’Connor was a great scholar, a great teacher, and a great mentor, but he was most of all a great and good man,” said Clough Professor of History James O’Toole, who knew Dr. O’Connor both as a student and history department colleague. “Students remember him as a lively lecturer, but he was always demanding. He would push a student who gave a quick, easy answer to a question with the persistent demand: ‘But why? Why?’
“He was generous with colleagues,” O’Toole added, “endlessly reading and commenting on drafts of new work in addition to his own scholarship. It will be difficult to think of Boston College without him.” Read the obituary from BC News (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)
Commencement Day
The 2012 Commencement Exercises at Boston College are underway. Check out some photos counting down to Commencement by Sean Smith. Graduates will hear from award-winning network journalist Bob Woodruff, whose recovery from a traumatic brain injury—sustained while he was reporting on US and Iraqi security forces—is a compelling survival story. Woodruff will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. Others receiving honorary degrees today are: Joseph A. Appleyard, SJ, a 1953 BC alumnus and former vice president for University Mission and Ministry at BC, now socious (executive assistant) for the New England Province of the Society of Jesus; William V. “Bill” Campbell, chairman of Intuit Inc.; Navyn A. Salem, a 1994 BC alumna and founder of a nonprofit that manufactures food for treating and preventing malnutrition; and Liz Walker, an award-winning TV news anchor and ordained minister now working in international education and women’s issues.
At today’s ceremonies, graduating senior Dan Kennedy (pictured) will be presented with the Rev. Edward H. Finnegan, S.J. Award — the University’s most prestigious graduation honor, given to the student who best exemplifies the spirit of BC’s motto, “Ever to Excel.” His plan to join the Jesuit order after graduation was highlighted by the Boston Globe.
Congratulations, graduates!
Posted in Honors/Awards, Students, University event
Tagged Commencement, Finnegan Award
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Cadigan Alumni Center
Boston College alumnus Patrick F. Cadigan, a California real estate investor and former high tech CEO who cites his Jesuit education as a crucial influence in his personal formation and professional success, has made a $15 million pledge to name the new alumni center at BC. On June 29, the University will dedicate the Cadigan Alumni Center, a facility that houses the Boston College’s fundraising, alumni relations and parent relations offices. The Cadigan Alumni Center will serve as a home-away-from-home for Boston College’s 162,000 alumni—the largest Catholic alumni association in the world–and will play host to volunteer meetings, seminars, alumni events and parent receptions.
“My education at Boston College was a great experience that taught me the importance of hard work, and instilled in me values and discipline that stayed with me throughout my years. The foundation I received left an indelible impression on me, and prepared me for success in business and in life,” said Cadigan, the retired CEO and president of Electronic Engineering Company of California (EECO).
Read more in the Boston Globe | Take a virtual tour the new alumni center
Grad students excel
Hidetaka Hirota, a doctoral student in the History Department, has been selected by the Organization of American Historians to receive the 2012 Louis Pelzer Memorial Award, given annually for the best essay in American history by a graduate student. Hirota, who holds a master’s degree in history from BC and a bachelor’s degree in foreign studies from Sophia University in Tokyo, studies the history of American immigration, with particular emphasis on the nineteenth-century United States, immigration policy, poverty and welfare, and transatlantic migration. His winning paper, “The Moment of Transition: State Officials, the Federal Government, and the Formation of American Immigration Policy,” which is scheduled to appear in the March 2013 Journal of American History, examines the role of states in the development of federal immigration policy. Read more.
Connell School of Nursing graduate student Jennifer Patey (far left) and Graduate School of Social Work student Caitlin Partyka have been selected as 2012-13 Albert Schweitzer Fellows. They will spend the next school year partnering with community-based organizations to identify unmet health needs and design and implement yearlong, mentored service projects that improve health and well-being in underserved communities. Patey’s project will help students to develop daily routines that prevent chronic health conditions. Partyka’s project will address childhood obesity. Read more.
The arts take center stage
Come celebrate the arts at the annual Boston College Arts Festival, taking place Apr. 26-28, which will showcase the performing, visual and literary arts through more than 80 public events. Among the highlights of the 2012 festival will be a production of Shakespeare’s classic comedy “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which will be presented “Bollywood Style”; performances by BC student a cappella groups; dance showcases, and events for children. About 1,000 BC students, faculty and staff will take part in the Arts Festival, which will welcome back to campus alumnus Tony Taccone, artistic director of Berkeley (CA) Repertory Theatre. Taccone, who will be honored with the Boston College Arts Council Alumni Award for Distinguished Achievement, will participate in an “Inside the BC Studio” interview and a panel discussion with other alumni who are directing American regional theater companies. Music Professor Michael Noone, an expert on Early Modern sacred music, will be presented with this year’s Faculty Award. Seven BC seniors will also be honored for their artistic creativity and accomplishments.
Posted in Alumni, Honors/Awards, University event
Tagged Arts Council, Arts Festival, dance, music, theater
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Bob Woodruff is the 2012 Commencement speaker
Robert Woodruff, an award-winning journalist whose recovery from a traumatic brain injury became a compelling survival story, will address the Class of 2012 at the 136th annual Boston College Commencement Exercises on May 21. Woodruff with be awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree at the ceremony, which will begin at 10 a.m. in Alumni Stadium. In addition, Boston College will present honorary degrees to: Joseph A. Appleyard, SJ ’53, former vice president for University Mission and Ministry at BC and now socious (executive assistant) for the New England Province of the Society of Jesus; William V. “Bill” Campbell, chairman of Intuit Inc. and a former BC football assistant coach; Navyn A. Salem ’94; founder of a nonprofit that treats and prevents malnutrition; and Liz Walker, an award-winning TV news anchor now working in international education and women’s issues. Read the full story in the Boston College Chronicle. For more information on Commencement Exercises, see www.bc.edu/commencement.
Posted in Alumni, Campus Update, Honors/Awards, Students, University event
Tagged Commencement, honorary degrees, Jesuit
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