All you need is love, said the Beatles. But, as the Bee Gees noted, no one gets too much love anymore. Which brings us to the college’s annual Baccalaureate service, held the day before Commencement, this year on May 27.

Both a service of gratitude — for relationships, for learning, and for transformation — and a service of reflection, Baccalaureate is, at its heart, also an expression of love and community among students and families.

Here are 13 quotes about love and community, explicit and implicit, from the service.

1. ‘That we may carry with us forevermore’

“We collectively ask that these brilliant students, deeply rooted in �ֲ���ý mission and experiences, be blessed with irrational joy, lasting friendships, purposeful work, and continual curiosity as they blossom and flourish in the years to come. May we all find in this celebration of art and word and reflection a moment of transcendent connection that we may carry with us forevermore. Shalom. Salaam. Amen. May it Be So.” — The Rev. Brittany Longsdorf, Multifaith Chaplain, Invocation

Seniors cheer at Baccalaureate on May 27. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

2. ‘Enduring truths we must keep close’

“As �ֲ���ý students, we need not look any further than our college’s mission statement for those enduring truths we must keep close. We can be, and indeed must be, transformed by our differences, civically engaged, lifelong learners, and stewards of the wider world away from this place, not just while we are here.” — Jamo Karsten ’17, Affirmation of �ֲ���ý College Values

3. ‘My love for the sofas at �ֲ���ý’

“It’s not surprising that when I mention my love for the sofas at �ֲ���ý that I get the weirdest looks. I mean, it’s a weird thing to talk about. No one ever says, ‘Gosh! College was the best four years of my life. The sofas were the hallmark.’

“On the surface, these simple pieces of furniture seem to be commonplace, but to me they represent the wonderful memories that I have come to hold so dear to my heart. They represent the insanely supportive and loving community that I have worked to build for myself. Knowing that it won’t be as readily available as sitting down and waiting for people to join me on a sofa makes it hard to say goodbye.” — Brennen Malone ’17, Moments from Our Years at �ֲ���ý

4. ‘Taking a minute to move polepole’

“Ten minutes after I arrived in the Kilimanjaro airport, I learned my first Kiswahili phrase: polepole, meaning ‘slowly, slowly.’…There is a picnic table at �ֲ���ý I sit on sometimes, watching classmates and friends rushing to their next class, hurrying to finish their last paper or beginning their second workout of the day. Much of the time, I have been doing these things as well; however, I have been thankful when I get a chance to sit on the picnic table, connecting with old friends and taking a minute to move polepole.” — Amy Katz ’17, Moments from Our Years at �ֲ���ý

The seniors process and recess through an arch adorned with prayers, poems, and blessings offered by family members. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

5. ‘It’s gametime’

8 p.m., Garcelon Field, opening day for the �ֲ���ý men’s soccer team.
The first day of classes is tomorrow.
Yet, none of this is distracting my team and me with the task at hand.
I can feel the butterflies kicking in.
The excitement is almost uncontainable.
The ref blows the whistle, the first ball is kicked.
Finally the time has come.
It’s gametime.

— Luke McNabb ’17, Moments from Our Years at �ֲ���ý

6. ‘Friends who are eager to cheer you on’

“I can’t think of many other communities where I could approach people I barely know, ask them to run a lot while not sleeping, and get, not hasty rejections, but genuine and enthusiastic yeses….

“It’s now 2 a.m., we’re 19 hours and 140 miles into the relay, and we’re dancing in the middle of a highway in New Hampshire. Nate Dana is running his longest stretch of the race, and we’re waiting for him to run past us so we can cheer him on. It’s a clear night and the stars are shining. Nate’s headlamp can just be seen down the road. To me, this has been my �ֲ���ý experience: meeting and making new friends who are eager and ready to cheer you on.” — Celine Pichette ’17, Moments from Our Years at �ֲ���ý, describing organizing a team to run a 24-hour Ragnar Relay from Bretton Woods to Hampton Beach, N.H.

7. ‘Have loved and held each one of us’

“For years, [our parents and guardians] have loved and held each one of us. They have aided us in our journey of finding our sense of person and in navigating the world in all its complexity and contradiction. When we leave the shelter of �ֲ���ý, the presences of all who have loved and taught us will prevail to guide us.” — Denali Nalamalapu ’17, Introduction to Parent and Guardian Reflection

8. ‘Inspired for a lifetime’

“Most importantly, I could sense that �ֲ���ý had further imprinted on them the skills to learn, love, and be inspired for a lifetime. The �ֲ���ý narrative is inextricably part of their narratives.  The skills cultivated here are the skills for a lifetime.” — Deborah Weatherbee ’76, P’17, Parent and Guardian Reflection, on behalf of fellow parents and guardians

9. ‘Growth, change, and movement’

“The breadth of human experience, the freedom to learn, and the depth of discourse available at �ֲ���ý have helped my daughter to mature as a quiet scholar.” — Usha Reddi P’17, Parent and Guardian Reflection

Seniors reach out to one another during Baccalaureate on May 27. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

10. ‘We love you always!’

“I look at you and your fellow graduates with hope for our future. Hope that you will go forth and effect change. Hope that you do good and leave this world better than the world you inherit. Hope that you lead by examples of kindness and empathy, courage and conviction. Support each other. Make your marks. Be strong. Be committed. We love you always!”  — Adrienne Reedy P’17, Parent and Guardian Reflection, on behalf of fellow parents and guardians

11. ‘We must be genuine’

“To summon further understanding, we must be genuine and hope that others know we are — and hope that they are, too. And abide by what we all have come to know in life: You can’t judge a book by its cover, or a student by where they are from, or a person by their appearance. We know this, especially at �ֲ���ý.” — James Reese, Associate Dean for International Student Programs  Baccalaureate Address

12. ‘Let us teach by being ourselves teachable’

“Take heed, dear Friends, to the promptings of love and truth in your hearts. Seek to live in affection as true Friends in your communities, in your families, in all your dealings with others, and in your relationship with outward society. The power of God is not used to compel us to Truth; therefore, let us renounce for ourselves the power of any person over any other and, compelling no one, seek to lead others to Truth through love. Let us teach by being ourselves teachable.” — Alex Ulin ’17, Interfaith Blessing (Quaker), joined by Christian, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, and in tribute to Buddhism

13. ‘As fast as I can’

My love is alive
Way down in my heart
Although we are miles apart
If you ever need a helping hand,
I’ll be there on the double
As fast as I can.

— The Senior Band, performing “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” by Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson

Connections among generations of �ֲ���ý people have strong presence here. And that’s what we will talk about today — about the “Rivers and Roads” connecting us, as the senior a cappella voices have just sung.

For four years, you have lived in a place of much history and meaning. Much of that comes from the place where you are, quite literally. Scan the Quad from the Gomes Chapel to Parker, Hathorn, Coram, and Carnegie. Where you sit right now — and where you will graduate tomorrow — carries great meaning.

Here on this step, I talked to a grad who was passing by. She recalled how her father wanted her to go to a great school to match her talents. So while she was at the Admission Office for her interview, her father found his way to the �ֲ���ý steam plant — his profession at another college — and talked to the employees there. He did this at every school she visited.

When she nervously encountered him after her interview, she was relieved and thrilled to hear him say, “You can go here.” He had learned, he told her, that the students “say hello to everyone and treat the staff with respect. It’s OK for you to apply here.” That’s the story she tells about �ֲ���ý. Her mother, also excited to have returned to campus, was standing with us as she told me. It was a powerful moment, and it happened right here.

Associate Dean James Reese delivers the Baccalaureate address on May 27. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

You sit facing Coram, where plays were conducted on this platform in the 1920s and 1930s framed by the building’s features designed with performances in mind. One graduate in the Class of 1936, Owen Dodson, was known as a great student director, as several of you are.

He went on to become the celebrated chair of the Howard University drama department, and he was anthologized in many works for his plays and poetry. We now know that renowned author Toni Morrison considered him a primary mentor. He walked this Quad and directed on this stage, and we wonder if inspirations from this place went on to become conversations that he and Morrison shared.

The entry for Owen Dodson ’36 in the 1936 Mirror.

Benjamin Mays, Class of 1920, and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had such a close connection that they agreed that whoever passed away first, the other would deliver the eulogy. Sadly, it came to be that Dr. Mays

had to do that for his close mentee. It has been said that King’s work — and history itself — may have been a bit different without Mays presence in King’s life. Benjamin Mays and he encouraged King to make that same connection in his young life for purposes that would benefit us all.

I love the story of the 1963 �ֲ���ý graduate from New Hampshire who asked permission of his Army sergeant to leave his post to go downtown in Washington, D.C., in August 1963 to listen to this young black minister who was going to speak at the Lincoln Memorial. That was the “I Have a Dream” speech. He said that conversations at �ֲ���ý prompted him to make that decision to ask to go. And he said it changed his life.

All these people are connected here. It is a spirit, and a set of sentiments, and a set of expectations of engagement that pervade the place.

Justice, participation, equality, honor, and connection indeed fill �ֲ���ý. When we struggle with circumstances, as we have recently, we are stretched and sometimes we are not sure what to do or think. Stand by the thoughts you are continuing to discern, and be genuine in what you say. And be an interested and careful listener.

To summon further understanding, we must be genuine and hope that others know we are — and hope that they are, too. And abide by what we all have come to know in life: You can’t judge a book by its cover, or a student by where they are from, or a person by their appearance. We know this, especially at �ֲ���ý.

�ֲ���ý was one of the schools to accept students. “Because of that, I have never forgotten �ֲ���ý,” she said.

In the early 1990s, famed author James Michener came to �ֲ���ý for a tour of the Olin Arts Center and the campus. With him was his third wife, Mari Yoriko Sabusawa, who happened to be of Japanese ancestry. On the tour, it was reported that she asked many questions about �ֲ���ý, and at the end of the tour she was asked about her interest in the college.

She explained that her parents were Japanese immigrants, and that when the U.S. entered World War II, her family was moved to an internment camp in California. There, the elders of the camps asked the U.S. government if college-aged individuals in the camps could be allowed to leave and enter college, if accepted.

Much to my surprise, I learned that the government said yes, thanks to strong urging from some college presidents in the West and from Quakers, among other groups. Then she said that �ֲ���ý was one of the schools to accept students (�ֲ���ý enrolled five). “Because of that, I have never forgotten �ֲ���ý,” she said.

I was almost transfixed: They were speaking as if they could have been right here on the �ֲ���ý campus.

We have high expectations at �ֲ���ý. They were put in place, along with other defining principles, by our founder. I visited with a group of older people from another college a few years ago, and they were talking about life on their campus and their love of their school.

They said they enjoyed how men and women attended school together, how all the organizations were open to everyone, and how there were no fraternities or sororities. They enjoyed having the engagement of faculty and staff, including exchanges after evening lectures, and how that was the spirit and nature of their campus. I was almost transfixed: They were speaking as if they could have been right here on the �ֲ���ý campus.

�ֲ���ý founder Oren Cheney also had a major role in the founding of Storer College, in 1867.

I was visiting a campus in Harpers Ferry, W.V., and speaking to some of the remaining living graduates of the Alumni Association of Storer College, an institution founded for freed slaves in 1867 thanks to the influence of Oren B. Cheney, the founder of �ֲ���ý. That institution held on until 1955, and they will have their 150th anniversary in October. Importantly, several �ֲ���ý grads over many decades went there to teach, and as I engaged more with the graduates that day they started to recall how several teachers and administrators were from �ֲ���ý.

Storer had its glory days. One was May 30, 1881, when Frederick Douglass visited the campus and delivered his speech on John Brown and freedom. Another was Aug. 17, 1906: the second meeting of the historic Niagara Conference — which would become the NAACP in 1909.

During that meeting, W.E.B. Dubois led a moving commemoration of John Brown. Importantly, �ֲ���ý people were there that day. I also have identified that Storer has a stained glass window in their chapel that says, “Lewiston.” Every �ֲ���ý grad must see and be moved by that window.

Frederick Douglass and Oren B. Cheney were close friends, and Cheney attended Douglass’s funeral and was reputed to have offered some of the highest remarks about Douglass at that occasion.

A slave who escaped the South, John Dungee later studies at Maine State Seminary.

Douglass was friends with abolitionist , who once helped an escaped slave, John Dunjee, travel the Underground Railroad to Canada, where Dunjee remained until after the Civil War. (Dungee escaped from the plantation of John Tyler, the 10th U.S. president, and Dunjee’s children have said that he was Tyler’s grandson. In his presidential campaign, Tyler had to answer questions about fathering boys to sell in slavery.)

By September 1866, Dunjee was here on this Quad, enrolled as a student in Oren Cheney’s new school, the Maine State Seminary. I’m sure that Dunjee arrived here due to the close connection between Douglass and Cheney.

My own family has a story about being descended from John Tyler’s plantation in Virginia. When I was 12, a great aunt told me the story, and I chose to ride off on my bike rather than listen to her wild tale. But after reading the story of John Dunjee and his bona fide connection to Tyler and his trek to freedom and to here, I decided to return to pursue our family story, and now we seem to be just one bill of sale away from demonstrating that Aunt Alma was speaking with accuracy about being from that same plantation.

Bob Moses is a noted civil rights figure, and many would say his work matched that of King’s. When Bob Moses came to �ֲ���ý to speak of his experiences in the 1960s, I asked him how he had chosen to go to Hamilton College. He smiled and said that when he graduated from high school in New York, he only applied to two colleges: Hamilton and �ֲ���ý. “The only reason I went to Hamilton was because they offered me $300 more than �ֲ���ý.” So �ֲ���ý was only $300 from playing an even larger role in the civil rights movement.

On a Reunion weekend some years ago, an African American graduate of the Class of 1938 asked if I could gather some students so she could chat with them. I did as she asked, and we had a nice conversation.

Forty-five minutes into the chat, I could not wait any longer — I had to ask about her name, Ellen Craft Dammond, because there’s a famous slave-escape story of a fair-skinned woman, Ellen Craft, who dressed as a white man and, with her husband, William, as her attending “slave,” took a train and a ship to freedom in Philadelphia. Was she, Ellen Craft Dammond, related?

“Yes,” she said, “Ellen Craft was my great-great-grandmother.”

The 1938 Mirror yearbook has this portrait of Ellen Craft Dammond ’38.

Ellen Dammond loved �ֲ���ý and immersed herself in the place and in the debate program. Googling her alongside a student a couple years ago, there she was in a picture from 1936 sitting with a great smile and spirit. Seated next to her in the photo was none other than Owen Dodson ’36.

She went on to work in civil rights activities after �ֲ���ý and raise a family. Her daughter, who is very fond of �ֲ���ý, said that her own civil rights contributions connected with Bob Moses and they became great friends and did significant work for our society.

Baccalaureate is about the spiritual. Our �ֲ���ý spirit, drawn from the various global philosophical practices and beliefs, forms the connections we feel toward each other. Some experiences even touch on the nearly divine, as this next story illustrates.

I was in Honduras, and four days into my stay, I started yearning for oatmeal. So my wife and I went to a store, and since I speak a little Spanish, I found the oatmeal after five minutes. As I reached up, someone grabbed my arm. I turned to my right, and there was a �ֲ���ý graduate. “Dean Reese, what are you doing here?” she asked. I looked at her and said, “Heidi, what are you doing here?” She said that she was in the Peace Corps, working in a village two hours away. “This morning, I decided to get on the van and come in to the city so that I could get some oatmeal.”

I have nephew who graduated from Harvard. He said to me, “Uncle James, Harvard is a good school.” (Let me pause and let you know that I am sharing, to you who have been there, that Harvard is a good school.) He said, “Uncle James, Harvard is a good school, but it does not have the Spirit of �ֲ���ý.”

So here we are, and we know the �ֲ���ý spirit in its many vivid forms. In 1973, a �ֲ���ý team was set to depart town after a loss in a holiday basketball tournament in Connecticut. But then, the tournament directors paid the �ֲ���ý pep band to stay for two more days.

I encourage you, as alumni, to continue your �ֲ���ý conversations with spirit of interest, engagement, and cooperation. One �ֲ���ý grad stated that she misses the �ֲ���ý conversations, the ones, she said, where you intentionally try to get the thoughts, insights, and feelings of everyone in the group, and where you continue to try to meet people.

I have enjoyed all of my conversations with the students over the years and with those many exchanges, some stand out each year.

Mary Grace Schwalbe ’17 will recall that during the opening of the Senior Thesis Exhibition at the Museum of Art, I could not help but stare at her work. I asked her about a particular painting, specifically where she got the wood frame. “Chase Hall,” she said. “I saw it just sitting there in a room, ready to be thrown away.” She asked to have it and decided to use it as a part of the show. The frame had been a part of a billiards cue rack for decades, and she recognized that this age-old, spirited piece and expression of history needed to be preserved.

Some of you are matched up with other �ֲ���ýies. That’s fine. But the rest of you are not safe just because you will walk across this stage tomorrow.

Spirit — do as my father does and wear a �ֲ���ý hat in the airports, and experience the joy of someone stopping you and asking how you know �ֲ���ý. �ֲ���ý people are everywhere.

Some of you are matched up with other �ֲ���ýies. That’s fine. But the rest of you are not safe just because you will walk across this stage tomorrow. I have been to three �ֲ���ý weddings of alumni who did not attend �ֲ���ý at the same time: They met at �ֲ���ý club meetings and activities!

I love sharing with our international students the metaphorical meaning of Dorothy’s line in The Wizard of Oz, “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” They love to learn the explanation, and say that they understood its meaning once they arrived here.

But there’s another line from the film that I will share for today’s theme of circular connections: “It was a place. And you…and you…and you…and you were there.”  Yes, it’s you — gathering and sharing among each other, in a strength and manner that’s been one over the ages and, indeed, has made you feel that this is much like home. A student from Saudi Arabia told me that “bayt” in Arabic means home. As she was making her decision about college, she thought of that, and it led to her choice.

Dodson, Craft Dammond, Douglas, Moses, King, Mays, Cheney, and now you are intertwined with each other in this home. All were drawn here, or have been informed by conversations and exchanges conducted and strengthened right here.

I conclude by asking you to give the best of yourself, just as you have these past years at �ֲ���ý. Giving our best is the spirit that prompts everyone to perform well on this stage today. It connects with Dr. Mays, who said, “Whatever you do, strive to do it so well that no person living, and no person deceased, or no person not yet born could do it any better.”

�ֲ���ý: Freedom, brilliance, strength…add your adjectives to the list, go forth, and do all that you wish and know you can achieve from all of the sharing and the connections you have made and will continue to make.

Video clips of the college’s entire 151st Commencement on May 28, from processional to recessional.

Table of Contents

1. Processional
2. Welcome by President Spencer
3. Senior Address by Molly Chisholm
4. Conferral of Honorary Degrees
5. Commencement Address by Geoffrey Canada
6. Presentation of Candidates for Degrees
7. Commencement Choir “Blessing in the Leaving”
8. Alumni Association Welcome by Lisa Romeo ’88
9. Senior Gift Presentation by Matthew Phillips and Susan Leonard
10. Benediction by Multifaith Chaplain Brittany Longsdorf
11. Recessional

Processional

Welcome by President Spencer

Senior Address by Molly Chisholm

Conferral of Honorary Degrees

Commencement Address by Geoffrey Canada

Presentation of Candidates for Degrees

Commencement Choir “Blessing in the Leaving”

Alumni Association Welcome by Lisa Romeo ’88

Senior Gift Presentation by Matthew Phillips and Susan Leonard

Benediction by Multifaith Chaplain Brittany Longsdorf

Recessional

Family gives record-setting donation to liberal arts college — The Associated Press

The public launch of The �ֲ���ý Campaign and the surprise announcement of the $50 million gift from Michael ’80 and Alison Grott Bonney ’80 on May 16 garnered national media coverage.

The Associated Press story, “,” was picked up by many media outlets including ABC News, CNBC, Fox Business, Yahoo! Finance, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Seattle Times, Houston Chronicle, The Roanoke Times, The Washington Times, and US News & World Report.

In addition, original news stories appeared in , , and the .

McDreamy receives an honorary degree from �ֲ���ý College — The Boston Globe

Actor, philanthropist, and Lewiston native Patrick Dempsey, at �ֲ���ý to receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree last Sunday, caught the media’s attention, including , who writes the paper’s Names column.

“It was a homecoming of sorts for Dempsey,” wrote Shanahan.

Kate Berger ’17 (center) of Newton, Mass., and classmate Sadie James of Avon, Maine, take a selfie with actor and philanthropist Patrick Dempsey as graduates line up on Alumni Walk on Commencement morning. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

�ֲ���ý honored Dempsey for his efforts to create the Dempsey Center in Lewiston. In partnership with Central Maine Medical Center, the center provides education, wellness services, and other forms of support to anyone affected by cancer.

Dempsey’s honor, and quoted Cara Starnbach ’19 of Needham, Mass., who talked about Dempsey’s involvement with the annual Dempsey Challenge fundraiser each October.

“He always stays involved on an annual basis, and his successes are something celebrated in Lewiston,” said Starnbach.

Patrick Dempsey tweeted his degree: “Such an honor.”

Elizabeth Strout ’77

Elizabeth Strout’s follow-up to Lucy Barton is a master class on class — The New York Times

Myriad news outlets have glowingly reviewed Elizabeth Strout’s new novel, Anything Is Possible.

The novel “might look like a sequel” to Strout’s My Name Is Lucy Barton, says , but “it’s actually something far more complex, reaching across space…and through layers of memory.”

that the prose is “wrenchingly lovely. It almost always is with Strout,” adding that one reads a Strout novel “for the same reason you listen to a requiem: to experience the beauty in sadness.”

“confirms Strout as one of our most grace-filled, and graceful, writers.”

Her Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive Kitteridge mined the depths of regret, “of the pain that comes from knowing that many things, even most things, are not in fact possible,” the Globe notes.

Yet there’s also in Strout’s work “unbidden, shattering grace,” says the Globe, “what Flannery O’Connor called ‘the almost imperceptible intrusions of grace’ into human lives. In these moments, a deeper knowledge of self becomes possible; radical change — from selfishness to selflessness; from bitterness to love — becomes imaginable.”

Do good looks mean better job opportunities in China? — Radio Taiwan International

The Radio Taiwan International program Margaret Maurer-Fazio about on how attractiveness influences people’s chances for job interviews.

In China, job candidates must include photographs with job applications, which, of course, is “a fundamental difference” from U.S. practices, notes Maurer-Fazio, the Betty Doran Stangle Professor of Applied Economics at �ֲ���ý.

Maurer-Fazio collected stock photo portraits, tested them for attractiveness with Chinese audiences, and then worked with the �ֲ���ý Imaging Center to digitally alter some, making them less attractive.

The photos were paired with mock resumes and submitted to thousands of job openings in China.

The result? “Overall, an unattractive applicant had to put in about a third more applications to get the same number of callbacks,” Maurer-Fazio says.

Boston Cannons draft �ֲ���ý’ Charlie Fay — WCSH-TV

On May 28, the day he graduated from �ֲ���ý, men’s lacrosse standout Charlie Fay of Falmouth, Maine, was drafted by the Boston Cannons of Major League Lacrosse.

Charlie Fay ’17 of Falmouth, Maine, shown competing against Middlebury in May, has been drafted by the Boston Cannons of Major League Lacrosse. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Fay was the fifth selection made by the Cannons and the 59th pick overall, making him �ֲ���ý’ first lacrosse player to be drafted by an MLL team, .

On Tuesday, the with the Cannons’ head coach about Fay’s selection.

Portland chefs Mike Wiley and Andrew Taylor win James Beard Award — Portland Press Herald

The James Beard Award represents “coveted recognition that chefs consider to be the Oscars of the food world,” .

Along with manager Arlin Smith, Mike Wiley and Andrew Taylor co-own three Portland restaurants, Eventide Oyster Co., The Honey Paw and Hugo’s. They won their award in the Northeast category.

Andrew Taylor ’03 poses with one of his restaurants’ seafood providers, Matt Moretti ’06, purveyor of Bangs Island Musssels. (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

Local agency adds golf, stresses tourism — Crain’s Cleveland

Sports agent Sam Duvall, who formed Topnotch Management in 2016 after he left Lagardère Tennis, where he was a vice president, wants to enter the golf tourism space, writes Kevin Kleps for Crains’s Cleveland.

Kleps explains that while Topnotch Management may appear to be “a boutique sports marketing agency” with a roster of “13 tennis players, including American star John Isner, and six up-and-coming golfers,” the firm is “really an events, tourism, and marketing company.”

That’s due to Duvall’s partnership with Vermont-based Grand Slam Tennis Tours, which brings “an average of 2,000 clients each year to prestigious tennis tournaments” where customers enjoy perks like “city tours, courtside seating, and meet-and-greet dinners.”

Grand Slam, Duvall tells Kleps, has tennis tourism “down to a science.” Now Topnotch wants to do the same with golf, as “Duvall believes golf tourism is more of an untapped market,” writes Kleps.

Enjoy these �ֲ���ý Commencement moments, starting with the waning minutes of Midnight Madness and concluding with the hugs and congratulations from family, professors, faculty, and friends.

4:47 a.m. — In a Fog

As the overnight revelry known as Midnight Madness slowly gives way to Commencement morning, members of the Class of 2017 make the traditional climb to the summit of fog-shrouded Mount David.

Durotimi Akinkugbe ’18 for �ֲ���ý College

7:57 a.m. — Guarding the Sheepskins

Facility Services staffers Mike Adams (wearing hat) and Kayi Affo (right) join college registrar Mary Meserve (second from right) in arranging the racks holding 458 diplomas shortly their delivery to the Coram Library stage from Libbey Forum. At left is Jay Phillips, director of Facility Services.

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

8:40 a.m. — Seniors in the Sun

The morning fog having burned off, seniors find a spot in the sun on Alumni Walk less than an hour before the start of the academic procession.

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

8:49 a.m. — Ready for His Closeup

Actor, local philanthropist, and Lewiston native Patrick Dempsey, recipient of an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree, gets the star treatment from photographer Phyllis Graber Jensen.

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

8:50 a.m. — Picture This

Dempsey lends a hand to a photograph these seniors on Alumni Walk.

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

9:12 a.m. — Just Saying

Hannah Yibrah ’17, a sociology major from Somerville, Mass., chooses Proverbs 31:25 for her mortarboard message: “She is clothed with strength and dignity and she laughs without fear of the future.”

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

9:15 a.m. — Honorable Mentions

The 2017 honorands pose with President Clayton Spencer (center) outside Pettengill Hall.

From left, actor, philanthropist, and Lewiston native Patrick Dempsey, Doctor of Humane Letters; art historian Wanda Corn ’62, Doctor of Fine Arts; U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Doctor of Humane Letters; and president of the Harlem Children’s Zone Geoffrey Canada, Doctor of Humane Letters.

Rene Roy for �ֲ���ý College

9:17 a.m. — Waiting Game

Just minutes before the start of the procession, Alumni Walk is packed with seniors.

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

9:21 a.m. — Tassel Bedazzle

Alongside the traditional black tassel, Annakay Wright ’17 of Brooklyn, N.Y., wears a multicolored LGBTQ+-themed tassel and a maroon first-generation-to-college tassel, provided to seniors during a year-end banquet hosted by the college’s Office of Intercultural Education.

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

9:34 a.m. — Pair Marshals

Associate Dean of Students James Reese (center), who helps to wrangle the seniors during the lineup on Alumni Walk, joins junior class marshals John Dello Russo ’18 of Revere, Mass., and Isabella Miller ’18 of New York City as the two marshals lead the class onto the Historic Quad.

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

9:37 a.m. — Riding the Bench

These two Commencement guests seem to know that this bench next to Gomes Chapel is a prime spot to watch the academic procession wind its way across the Historic Quad.

Rene Roy for �ֲ���ý College

9:38 a.m. — Minding Their P’s

The Class of 2017 processes past the Parker Hall porch.

Rene Roy for �ֲ���ý College

9:45 a.m. — Filing and filling

Here’s a time-lapse of the entire academic procession filing in and taking their seats in front of Coram Library.

9:52 a.m. — Into the Light

Led by mace bearer and Phillips Professor of Economics Michael Murray, President Spencer (left) and the rest of the academic procession emerge from the shade under the Historic Quad’s trees and into the sunlight in front of Coram Library.

Rene Roy for �ֲ���ý College

10:25 a.m. — Many Thanks

Senior class speaker Molly Chisholm of Boston begins her address with thank-yous to the �ֲ���ý community:

Thank you to the staff members. From cheerful smiles at the egg line to fist bumps in P’Gill, you made each day a pleasure. Thank you to the students, to the lifelong friends we made or the one-minute conversations we had at the printers. Thank you for the color you have added to our lives. And, finally, to our professors, who sparked our interests and inspired us to see more than meets the eye: Thank you for helping shape the people we have become today.

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

10:30 a.m. — Senator’s Smile

As mace bearer Michael Murray looks on, Susan Collins, Maine’s senior U.S. senator, reacts to applause after she is introduced to the audience.

Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs Matt Auer introduced the senator as “a bona fide member of an endangered species: a bipartisan politician, who has been reaching across the aisle and working for the common good for 21 years as a U.S. senator from Maine.”

Rene Roy for �ֲ���ý College

10:35 a.m. — ‘Ms. American Art History’

Wanda Corn ’62, the Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor Emerita in Art History at Stanford University, listens to her introduction and degree conferral.

As he introduced Corn, Dean of the Faculty Matt Auer quoted Bryan Wolf, chair of the American Studies Program at Yale, who dubbed Corn “Ms. American Art History,” calling her “the teacher, the mentor, and the �ǰ������Ծ������.”

In conferring the degree, President Spencer praised Corn as “an innovative scholar, inspiring teacher, [and] insatiable seeker of knowledge and meaning. Your life’s work reminds us that without art there can be no liberal arts and, it follows, no full or true understanding of the world around us.”

Rene Roy for �ֲ���ý College

10:41 a.m. — Dr. McDreamy, L.H.D.

President Spencer congratulates actor Patrick Dempsey after conferring his honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

In her conferral, Spencer said, “Son of Lewiston, star of screens large and small, entertainer and philanthropist, you have challenged us as you challenge yourself: to reach higher, to do more, to lighten the loads of families who are suffering.”

A Lewiston native, Dempsey and his siblings partnered with Central Maine Medical Center to found the Dempsey Center to provide, at no cost, education, wellness services, and other forms of support to anyone affected by cancer.

Rene Roy for �ֲ���ý College

10:42 a.m. — In the Zone

Commencement speaker and honorand Geoffrey Canada listens as Auer describes Canada’s work as president and builder of the Harlem Children’s Zone, begun as a one-block pilot program in the 1990s and today comprising 97 blocks in Central Harlem.

“Who could not feel obligated to continue their work, to ensure their deaths would not be in vain?”

A 1974 Bowdoin graduate, Canada recalled growing up in the 1960s and how American leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., John Kennedy, and Robert Kennedy had “everything to lose — money, fame, loving families” and they “lost it all for the ideals that this country stood for. Who could not feel obligated to continue their work, to ensure their deaths would not be in vain?”

Through the work he has done with the Harlem Children’s Zone, Canada said, “I hope I can set an example that inspires America to save all children.”

Rene Roy for �ֲ���ý College

11 a.m. — Lean on Tree

Commencement guests use a maple tree in two different ways, as a camera brace and resting spot.

(The tree occupies an infamous spot. Twenty-four years ago, on May 29, the very old maple that used to be in that location toppled into empty seats shortly before the Class of 1993 came onto the Quad for their Commencement rehearsal.)

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

11:13 a.m. — Exit Stage

Monet Blakey, an African American studies major from Washington, D.C., acknowledges the audience as she departs the Commencement stage.

Rene Roy for �ֲ���ý College

11:31 — Clap for the Bobcat

Charles Klein, a politics major from Ross, Calif., applauds the classmate in front of him, Zachary Kinsella, an English and philosophy double major from Manchester Center, Vt.

Rene Roy for �ֲ���ý College

11:34 a.m. — She’s Honored

Honor Moshay, a politics major from Los Angeles, displays some diploma-tic pride.

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

11:38 a.m. — Up Standing Members

Jack Adons, an economics major from Doylestown, Pa., and Matt Baker, a rhetoric major from Clinton, Md., cheer a classmate.

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

11:39 a.m. — Bright and Sashy

President Spencer congratulates chemistry major Phathutshedzo Rambau ’17 of Mulima, South Africa, whose sash has the colors of his homeland’s flag.

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

11:51 a.m. — Bleacher Report

Ever since Commencement was moved to the lawn in front of Coram in 1971, temporary bleachers have been erected on either side of the seated faculty and graduates. But not this year, and the open seating created this pleasing look.

Rene Roy for �ֲ���ý College

11:54 a.m. — Shifting to the Left

After the last grad, Kyle Zollo-Venecek of Concord, N.H., received his diploma, President Spencer asked the seniors to stand. “Will the senior marshals please direct the class to move their tassels from right to left, thereby signifying the degree?” And they did.

Rene Roy for �ֲ���ý College

12:05 p.m. — Congrats to a Grad

During the recessional, Professor of Psychology Georgia Nigro greets Polly Pritz ’17, a sociology major from Ithaca, N.Y. The faculty lines the walkway near Hathorn during the recessional, and as the seniors pass by, hugs abound.

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

12:15 p.m. — Together Time

As families reunite with their graduates, Spencer Wallace ’17, a history and Spanish double major from Madison, Wis., poses with his family near Hathorn Hall. From left, brother Mitch, mother Melissa, brother Johah, Spencer, sister Celia, and father Jeremy.

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

12:22 p.m. — High Sign

Two-year-old Issaga Coulibaly proudly holds the family poster honoring his uncle, Ben Coulibaly, a philosophy major from Philadelphia.

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

12:24 p.m. — Proud Mom

Jessica Wilson, an environmental studies major from Cumberland, Maine, gets a kiss from her mother, Julie Hanlon.

Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College

Aside from a few hours at Convocation in the fall and Commencement in the spring, the ceremonial �ֲ���ý mace spends its days locked in the official �ֲ���ý vault in Lane Hall.

Early this morning, Jay Phillips and Virginia Sturgis of Facilities Services headed into the vault to secure the �ֲ���ý mace for Commencement on Sunday. We followed along.

Here’s our collection “Voices from the Class of 2017,” a series of brief video portraits by Phyllis Graber Jensen and Josh Kuckens of nine seniors set to graduate on Sunday.

Alex Eaton

For biology major Alex Eaton ’17 of Lake Oswego, Ore., working with �ֲ���ý Emergency Medical Services gives him the opportunity to further his knowledge of medicine and learn the ins and outs of emergency medicine.

As a teaching assistant for an EMS Short Term course that trains �ֲ���ý students to become certified EMTs, he is able to share what he’s learned.

Denali Nalamalapu

An English major from Falmouth, Maine, and a recent recipient of a Fulbright U.S. Student award, Denali Nalamalapu ’17 is a Multifaith Fellow who has co-chaired {PAUSE}, a weekly reflective secular service of music, poetry, silence, dance, and art. After the final gathering, she reflects on her personal journey at �ֲ���ý.

Alex Gogliettino

His �ֲ���ý mentors taught neuroscience major Alex Gogliettino ’17 of Branford, Conn., how to think like a scientist.

Headed to a Ph.D. program at Stanford University, Gogliettino describes his biggest �ֲ���ý discovery: You can make a career from being curious and asking questions.

Maddie McLean

Maddie McLean ’17 of Hood River, Ore., a double major in music and biochemistry, talks about her senior honors thesis, in which she explored how singers create different personae in love songs.

What is it, she asks, that makes these songs so powerful?

Zoë Seaman-Grant

Zoë Seaman-Grant ’17 of Charleston, S.C., one of the most accomplished debaters in the illustrious history of �ֲ���ý debate, explains what she loves about the mind-challenging pursuit: “listening to intelligent people say things about topics that you might never have thought about before — and they’re your peers.”

Gideon Ikpekaogu

Gideon Ikpekaogu ’17 of Amsterdam, Netherlands, discusses exploring his multiple identities as Nigerian, as African, and as Dutch during his academic journey at �ֲ���ý. “To be able to explore those identities has been very powerful for me.”

Kevin Tejada

Kevin Tejada ’17 of Mount Kisco, N.Y.,  is the perennial winning designer at the annual Trashion Show.

A popular annual event featuring student-created outfits made from throwaway stuff, the Trashion Show “encapsulates what �ֲ���ý meant to me: discovery — an opportunity to get out of the academic bubble.”

Katie Van Patten

Katie Van Patten ’17 of Chico, Calif., talks about her senior thesis project last fall, directing a Sherlock Holmes play with an all-female cast. “I want to pursue directing,” she says, and the experience has shown her more about “what the job of directing entails, and that’s invaluable for my future.”

Matthew Baker

A �ֲ���ý education, says rhetoric major Matthew Baker ’17 of Clinton, Md., has taught him how “to listen to my own intuition, listen to my gut, and listen to what feels right within myself.”

As this year’s senior speaker, Molly Chisholm of Boston is the soon-to-be �ֲ���ý graduate who will speak on behalf of nearly 460 classmates at the college’s 151st graduation ceremony, on May 28.

Chisholm is a double major in economics and rhetoric, and the latter discipline has certainly helped prepare her to address more than 1,000 people on Sunday, including one surprising dimension. For a course last fall on U.S. presidential campaign rhetoric, Chisholm ran as the Republican candidate in a mock campaign for the White House.

For the politically liberal Chisholm, who lost the �ֲ���ý popular vote by two, the experience was a political and social hall of mirrors that ultimately provided inspiration for her Commencement address.

Chisholm spoke to us about the role of senior speaker, her experience as a presidential candidate, a theme she’ll explore at Commencement, and how a restaurant in Vermont helped steer her toward that theme.

The senior speaker at �ֲ���ý’ 151st Commencement is Molly Chisholm. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Who nominated you for senior speaker?

The first semester of my freshman year I had an economics class with professor Lynne Lewis. She inspired me to keep going with the major because I was at first a little hesitant, and she showed me the side of econ that wasn’t all just numbers. And I had her again this past semester, and she nominated me. It was nice to get that vote of confidence from somebody that I respected.

How does the Senior Address complement the Commencement program?

One thing I’ve really worked on is that I don’t want to speak to the class as much as for the class. It’s an opportunity to channel our perspective as �ֲ���ý students to the audience, and to share what it means to

Playing the role of the GOP candidate, Molly Chisholm ’17 is flanked by campaign workers Jacqueline Forney ’18, left, and Honor Moshay ’17 during a briefing on a public health crisis introduced into a mock presidential election in fall 2016. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

have graduated in our class. So it’s a nice summary for the students, but it’s also a snapshot for the parents and family members who are there.

We’re not going to drop any spoilers here, but we can say your Commencement speech includes stories that bracket your �ֲ���ý experience — one from AESOP during your first year, and one from your last year, from the mock election, actually.

I was done with public speaking for a little bit after the mock campaign. It’s a lot of scrutiny that I don’t really like — you obviously see it with real candidates, but when it’s you it feels very personal. But I also came away from it much stronger. I knew who I was a lot more after it, I knew how to stand up for myself, knew what I believed in.

I’ve grown a lot at �ֲ���ý, so what I really wanted my Commencement speech to focus on was this bookend aspect of my class’s time here. So the speech starts off with a smaller, less impactful story, I guess, and moves on to something larger, how we’ve changed over the last four years.

And the theme tying it all together is love.

There’s a flatbread restaurant in Vermont that my family’s been going to since I was born, and it’s my favorite place. I was there one day making

Associate Professor of Rhetoric Stephanie Kelley-Romano, at left, confers with Molly Chisholm during the fall 2017 course “Presidential Campaign Rhetoric.” As Chisholm has honed the Senior Address she’ll be giving May 28 at Commencement, Kelley-Romano has been a valued adviser. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

a reservation, and they have all these different signs on the walls talking about love, acceptance, humanity, and things like that. So I started thinking about that as the backbone of what I wanted to talk about.

I guess my overarching theme is “�ֲ���ý as a community that’s grounded in love, and acceptance, and respect.” It’s about showing what it means to love people and what it means to spread love in the world, in a larger sense of being intellectually courageous, being confident in the morals and principles that you’re showing the world.

Your speech uses the term “love generation,” which for people who grew up in the 1960s and ’70s has a very specific meaning. Did you explore that much?

The “love generation” for me is a group of people that are just accepting, open, courageous, and smart. And that’s something that we all have the possibility to be. That doesn’t have to necessarily be tied down to any one political action or any one event in our time, but more just who you choose to be as a person, and I think that’s how �ֲ���ý prepared us.

I feel that the original “love generation” was more about personal freedom, and in my speech it’s more about community, working together to make something.

It sounds like your rhetoric studies have stood you in good stead.

Yeah! For the presidential campaign I spoke a lot, so that was helpful, and then having Professor Stephanie Kelley-Romano to bounce ideas off of definitely helps when you’re writing a speech. Every comment that she’s given me, it’s been like, “Oh, of course, why didn’t I think of that!?”

Do you feel any temptation at all to bust loose when you’re up there in front of Coram, and throw your speech away and say, “Power to the people!” and all that stuff?

As senior speaker, I speak for a lot more people than just myself. I’m very honored to have been chosen to do this. It’s a great way to sum up my time at �ֲ���ý, but also I want it to be a great way to sum up everyone else’s time at �ֲ���ý as well. And I, probably arguably, out of all of Commencement speakers know our class the best, so speaking for everybody is a cool and exciting thing.

You’ve worked hard as a double major. You’ve run cross country and run for president. Have you had a good �ֲ���ý experience?

Amazing �ֲ���ý experience! I filled out my senior survey yesterday and it was very strange to look back, but also heartwarming to think about everything and answer all the questions, and be like, “Oh, wow, this is an amazing place!”

Molly Chisholm ’17, playing a fictional Republican governor of Massachusetts, shakes hands with her mock-election opponent Gabriel Nott ’17 during a debate held as part of the 2017 course “Presidential Campaign Rhetoric.” (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

As winter becomes spring, and as snowbanks melt, grass grows, and flowers bloom, �ֲ���ý buildings  are our constant companions.

Here’s an interactive look comparing the look of 10 �ֲ���ý places in the depths of winter and again this week. (The images may take a moment to load.)

Ladd Library

The unmistakable lines of Ladd Library, opened in 1973, are said to evoke the steeply pitched roof of a New England saltbox.

Hedge Hall

Hedge Hall has seen more 500 winters, springs, summers, and falls since it was constructed in 1890. It’s now an academic building for environmental studies, religious studies, and philosophy, plus classroom space.

Roger Williams Hall

Dedicated in 1895, Roger Williams Hall initially housed the Cobb Divinity School. Later a longtime residence hall, “the Bill” was renovated in 2010 for the college’s language programs and Off-Campus Study Office.

Hathorn Hall

Placed on the National Register of Historic Sites in 1970, Hathorn Hall is �ֲ���ý’ first building, opening for use on Sept. 1, 1857, for the brand-new Maine State Seminary, forerunner of �ֲ���ý College.

Alumni Gymnasium

Roger Williams Hall (left) and Ladd Library (right) frame the path that ends at the red door of Alumni Gym, completed 100 years ago.

Pettengill Hall

Falling snow gives Pettengill Hall, dedicated in 1999, a bold, almost stern look. At left is Hedge Hall.

Hathorn Hall, redux

This wider view of Hathorn Hall shows the tree canopy on the Historic Quad closing in.

Class of 1906 Gate

The oft-photographed Class of 1906 Gate handles both a mantle of snow and leafy vines with equal grace.

Coram Library

Did you know that some paths on the Historic Quad, like the one from Coram Library (1902) to Hathorn, go unplowed in the winter?

The Gomes Chapel

Built in 1914, the chapel is made of distinctive seam-faced granite, quarried near Hingham, Mass., which has a different tone and hue depending on the light…and season.

Geoffrey Canada, a visionary American educator whose work has transformed the lives of thousands of inner-city youth, will deliver the �ֲ���ý College Commencement address and receive an honorary degree on Sunday, May 28.

For its 151st Commencement, �ֲ���ý will welcome Canada and three fellow honorary degree recipients whose careers and achievements span politics and government, American art history, and entertainment and community philanthropy:

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, Maine’s senior senator whose power and influence derives from extraordinary diligence and steadfast bipartisanship;

Wanda M. Corn ’62, an innovative interpreter of American modern art and its role in our national identity; and

Patrick Dempsey, an actor who has translated Hollywood success into hope and healing in Lewiston, Maine, the city of his birth.

“On a day that celebrates achievement, hope, and promise, we are proud to welcome four individuals who have brought enormous creativity and relentless dedication to their life’s work,” said President Clayton Spencer. “We are especially honored to hear from Geoffrey Canada, whose career embodies the very mission of a �ֲ���ý education — the cultivation of intellectual discovery and informed civic action as we prepare leaders committed to the responsible stewardship of the wider world.”

Commencement concludes the undergraduate careers of the 460 members of the �ֲ���ý Class of 2017, who represent 37 U.S. states, territories, and the District of Columbia, and 33 countries.

+Geoffrey Canada, Doctor of Humane Letters

“When I was in college, I was absolutely focused on only one thing: How could I improve the outcomes for these poor kids that I knew growing up?” educator Geoffrey Canada told an interviewer in 2010. “Every single class I took, I was looking for the answer.”

Raised in a poor neighborhood in the South Bronx, Canada’s answer to this question has made him a leader in education and community development. From his early work with disadvantaged families, he determined that only a comprehensive approach to eradicating poverty could succeed — comprehensive in the services provided and the proportion of the community that is reached.

The Commencement speaker, Geoffrey Canada will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

As the current president and former CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone, Canada has focused on education but brought a holistic approach — addressing not only academics but health and fitness and the cultures of community and family — to preparing thousands of young New Yorkers for success in college. Described by The New York Times as “one of the most ambitious social-policy experiments of our time,” HCZ’s array of programs support children and their families along the path to educational and economic achievement. It is “cradle-to-career” support, from The Baby College for new parents, through the Promise Academy K–12 charter schools, to the College Success Office for students in academe.

The 2016 college acceptance rate for HCZ students was 96 percent. That same year, HCZ programs served 12,509 people up to age 23, as well as 12,498 adults. HCZ engages an expanse of Harlem totaling nearly 100 blocks.

Canada became president of the Harlem Children’s Zone in 1990, and served as CEO from that year until 2014. Under his leadership, HCZ has become a national model and the subject of considerable media attention. Fans of HCZ include former U.S. President Barack Obama, whose Promise Neighborhoods Initiative adapted aspects of the HCZ program in communities across the U.S.

In 2008, Houghton Mifflin published Whatever It Takes by Paul Tough, a close look at the work of Canada and HCZ. Two years later, Canada and HCZ figured in the documentary Waiting for “Superman.” In 2011, Canada was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People and in 2014, he was listed as one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders by Fortune.

Canada received a bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College and a master’s degree in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He has written two books: 1995’s Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America (reissued as a graphic novel in 2013) and, in 1997, Reaching Up for Manhood: Transforming the Lives of Boys in America. He has written op-eds for The New York Times and Daily News, given a TED Talk on our failing schools that was broadcast on PBS, and has addressed audiences around the world about helping children succeed.

+U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, Doctor of Humane Letters

Maine’s senior U.S. senator, Republican Susan Collins has a national reputation for achieving progress on important issues by working across party lines with a focus on results.

Ranked as the most bipartisan senator by the Lugar Center–McCourt School Index three years running, Collins is “one of the crucially important (and increasingly rare) bipartisan players” in the Senate, said Elle magazine, which named her among Washington’s most powerful women in 2014. In 2016, she received the inaugural Jacob Javits Prize for Bipartisan Leadership. Of the tumult that accompanies bipartisanship today, Collins told a �ֲ���ý audience in November that “you can have vigorous arguments without insulting the integrity and intelligence of the person with whom you disagree. If we can’t respect one another, it makes it far more difficult to solve problems.”

This exceptional approach has thrust her into the national spotlight at important times, including in 2010 when Collins was the lead Republican in the successful repeal of the discriminatory law banning gay Americans from serving openly in the military. “She was nothing short of heroic,” recalled Joe Solmonese, then president of the Human Rights Campaign of the United States.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree at Commencement.

Famously dutiful in the execution of her office, Collins has never missed a Senate roll call vote — more than 6,300 and counting — during her time in public service that began in the wake of defeat. After finishing third in her 1994 bid for Maine governor, Collins considered taking a pass on a run for senator in 1996. But as she has said, “My dream was to serve the people of Maine in elective office, and I didn’t want to get to age 95 saying, ‘If only I had believed in myself. If only I had been willing to take that risk.’”

Collins is the senior Republican woman in the Senate and ranks 15th overall in Senate seniority. Chair of the Senate Aging Committee, she is also a member of the Committee on Appropriations, chairing its Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development. She also serves on the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and the Select Committee on Intelligence. In 2004, Collins coauthored the landmark law overhauling the nation’s intelligence community, improving its effectiveness while protecting civil liberties.

Collins founded the Senate Diabetes Caucus in 1997 and has led the effort to more than triple federal funding for diabetes research. Senate co-chair of the Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer’s disease, she has worked to substantially increase Alzheimer’s research funding.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of St. Lawrence University, Collins was raised in Caribou, Maine, where her family’s fifth-generation lumber business was founded in 1844. “Community, giving back, and public service were very much a part of my life from the very beginning,” she said. “My parents taught me that you had no right to complain if you weren’t willing to get involved.”

+Wanda M. Corn '62, Doctor of Fine Arts

An author, curator, and scholar, as well as a teacher known for both the clarity and passion she brings to her subject, Wanda Corn ’62 is a star among historians of American art. She’s a “national resource,” said art scholar Bryan Wolf, who described Corn as “the teacher, the mentor, the �ǰ������Ծ������.” Another Corn admirer, the art historian Elizabeth Hutton Turner, took a more personal view: “She is, quite simply, my hero.”

Focusing on art and photography from the late 19th to mid-20th centuries, Corn has played an important role in defining American art in the contexts of both international art and U.S. culture. One of seven books Corn has authored or co-authored, her award-winning The Great American Thing: Modern Art and National Identity, 1915–1935 links emergent American modernism to transatlantic trends in history, literature, criticism, and popular culture — and to the energies of artists in Paris as well as New York City.

Wanda M. Corn ’62 will receive an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree at Commencement.

Corn, a �ֲ���ý student for two years before studying abroad and then completing bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees at New York University, taught at Washington Square College, the University of California, Berkeley, and Mills College before moving in 1980 to Stanford University, where she held the institution’s first permanent appointment dedicated to the history of American art. Her record at Stanford includes service as chair of the Department of Art and Art History, director of the Stanford Humanities Center, and interim director of the Stanford Museum. In that role, Corn led a feasibility study for the museum’s comprehensive renovation after it was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. In 2008, she retired from Stanford after eight years as the university’s Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor in Art History.

Exhibitions that Corn has curated include thematic surveys, such as a companion show to The Great American Thing, and exhibitions focused on specific artists such as Grant Wood, who remains an active focus of her research, and Andrew Wyeth. Her curatorial efforts and advocacy helped to bring a collection of American art owned by Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, a body of 110 paintings described as the museums’ “single most important gift of art.” Corn has been lauded for inventive exhibitions that juxtapose material artifacts with art to establish context and richness of interpretation, hallmarks of her 2011 exhibition Gertrude Stein: Five Stories. In the current Brooklyn Museum of Art exhibition Georgia O’Keeffe: Living Modern, Corn explores the artist’s rigorous creation of a public persona by installing beautifully crafted garments from O’Keeffe’s wardrobe in conversation with artwork by and photographs of the artist.

Corn’s honors include the Archives of American Art’s Lawrence A. Fleischman Award for Scholarly Excellence in the Field of American Art History and the College Art Association’s Distinguished Teaching of Art History Award and Distinguished Scholar award.

+Patrick Dempsey, Doctor of Humane Letters

Patrick Dempsey is a household name, thanks to film and television roles that include his 11 seasons as Dr. Derek Shepherd on Grey’s Anatomy. Motorsports cognoscenti also recognize him as a race car driver. But people in Maine, especially Lewiston, know there’s yet another Patrick Dempsey to admire.

That’s the Lewiston native who responded to his mother’s cancer diagnosis by co-founding a facility to support people living with cancer — the Dempsey Center — just blocks from the �ֲ���ý campus. Patrick Dempsey makes headlines every autumn when he comes home for the Dempsey Challenge, joining participants for fund-raising walks and rides and lending his star power to the festivities. In 2016, the three-day event attracted nearly 4,000 participants and raised more than $1.2 million for the center.

Raised in Buckfield and Turner, Dempsey did not thrive in school because of dyslexia that went undiagnosed until seventh grade. But it was a schoolteacher who introduced this born performer to juggling. “Learning how to juggle,” Dempsey told The New York Times in 1987, “changed my life. It gave me a purpose. It led me toward performance.” Embracing a mental and physical discipline in juggling that would serve him well in other pursuits, Dempsey went on to win the national Talent America competition in 1983.

Patrick Dempsey will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree at Commencement. (Photo by Matthew Elsman)

He was also acting by then, and success in the theater quickly led to film and television work: By the end of the 1980s, roles in romantic comedies such as Can’t Buy Me Love had put Dempsey on the map. In 2005, following well-received recurring roles in television programs like Will & Grace, the Emmy-nominated actor helped launch Grey’s Anatomy as neurosurgeon Derek Shepherd. The hit series, wrote an IMDb.com biographer, was “the perfect vehicle to showcase his undeniable charisma and sharp talent for offbeat comedy.” Dempsey, seen on screen last fall competing for Renée Zellweger’s hand in Bridget Jones’ Baby, completed his directorial debut in 2017 with a Tag Heuer spot with Director of Photography Janusz Kaminski.

An automobile collector, Dempsey began racing cars in 2004 and has driven more than 100 competitions, including the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans, placing second in class in 2015. That same year, Dempsey was part of the winning team in the Japanese round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Amanda Dempsey, Patrick’s mother, was diagnosed with cancer in 1997 and succumbed to the disease in 2014. Six years earlier, partnering with Central Maine Medical Center, her children Patrick, Mary, and Alicia founded the Dempsey Center to provide education, wellness services, and other forms of support — free of charge — to anyone affected by cancer. Discussing fame in a 2016 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Dempsey said that “when I can use it to accomplish something constructive — those are the moments that I actually enjoy being famous.”