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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 29, 1998
NASA ASTRONAUT AND ALUMNA DELIVERS KEYNOTE
ADDRESS AT WELLESLEY COLLEGE 1998 COMMENCEMENT
Wellesley, MA -- Presiding over Wellesley College's 120th
Commencement exercises, President Diana Chapman Walsh today
presented Bachelor of Arts degrees to 548 women, including
39 Davis Scholars, non-traditional aged students.
Lieutenant Colonel, USAF, and NASA Astronaut Pamela A.
Melroy returned to her alma mater to address the graduating
class. The second woman in the history of NASA to qualify as
a shuttle pilot, Ms. Melroy, a member of the Class of 1983,
is assigned as pilot on the third and last Space Shuttle
mission to assemble the International Space Station before a
crew occupies the structure. Launch is now scheduled for
spring 1999.
Having decided at age 11 that she wanted to be an
astronaut, Ms. Melroy double-majored in Physics and
Astronomy at Wellesley and went on to earn her masters
degree in Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences from
MIT. She entered active duty in the Air Force in 1983 and
completed Undergraduate Pilot Training in 1985. She is a
veteran of operations Just Cause and Desert Shield/Desert
Storm with more than 200 combat and combat support hours.
She has set nine world records as a test pilot for the C-17,
the newest US military aircraft, and has logged more than
4,000 hours flight time in more than 45 different aircraft.
Ms. Melroy was selected for NASA's astronaut program from
more than 4,000 applicants to fill one of approximately 20
openings in the entering class in 1994. She now is working
on Advanced Projects, including Shuttle cockpit upgrades,
for the Astronaut Office in Houston while she awaits her
Shuttle flight.
Sarah Reynolds Smith, a graduate from Oak Park, Illinois,
delivered the Student Commencement Speech on behalf of the
graduating class, a tradition begun at Wellesley in 1969 by
another graduating senior, Hillary Rodham Clinton. A
Religion major, Ms. Smith was an editor for The Wellesley
News, the campus student newspaper, for four years and
served as Editor In Chief during the past year. After
graduation, she plans to pursue a career in magazine
editing. She will spend the summer in New York City in an
internship at Harper's magazine
President Walsh announced the establishment of a new
professorial chair: the Luella LaMer Slaner Professorship in
Latin American History. This professorship "will strengthen
Wellesley's program in Latin American Studies and will
extend our global reach," noted Walsh. The professorship is
the third at Wellesley established by Luella LaMer Slaner, a
member of the Class of 1941. A search for a new faculty
member to fill the chair will begin soon.
Three winners of the 1998 Pinanski Prize for Excellence
in Teaching, Wellesley's highest teaching honor, were
announced. They are Nora Hussey of Theatre Studies, Marianne
Moore of Biological Sciences, and Robert Paarlberg of
Political Science.
President Walsh recognized and commended five members of
the College faculty and one senior administrator who are
retiring this year:
- Katherine Allston Geffcken, professor of Greek and
Latin, who has taught at the College for 35 years.
- Marshall Goldman, The Kathryn Wasserman Davis
Professor of Economics, who has taught at the College for
40 years.
- Roger Johnson, Elisabeth Luce Moore Professor of
Christian Studies, who joined the faculty in 1959.
- Ruth Anna Putnam, professor of Philosophy, who has
taught at Wellesley for 35 years.
- Elaine Lackman Smith, a member of the laboratory
teaching staff in the Department of Chemistry for nearly
30 years, who most recently has been the chair of the
Health Professions Advisory Committee.
- Molly Campbell, Dean of Students for the past 14
years and a member of the Class of 1960, who has been on
the staff of the College for 20 years.
President Walsh also saluted six Wellesley College
trustees who completed their distinguished tenure on the
Board of Trustees this spring:
- Johnnetta Cole, a trustee since 1992, retired a year
ago as president of Spelman College, a liberal arts
college for women, with which Wellesley has had an
exchange program since 1974. She is now a professor at
Emory University.
- Prudence Slitor Crozier, an economist and member of
the Wellesley Class of 1962, has served for 18 years on
the Board, the full term permitted for tenure on the
Board. In gratitude for her tremendous service, her
fellow trustees have elected Prudy Crozier a Trustee
Emerita.
- Henry DePhillips, Jr., the Vernon K. Krieble
Professor of Chemistry at Trinity College (CT), has
served as a trustee representative of the faculty since
1986.
- Nancy Lee Smith Kemper, a member of the Class of
1973, has served on the Board since 1993.
- Colleen Richards Power, a member of the Class of 1995
and legislative aide in the US Senate, has served since
her graduation as Wellesley's Young Alumnae Trustee.
- Charles Vest, a member of the Board since 1992, is
president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
with which Wellesley has had an exchange program since
1968.
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