 During the Commencement Exercises over 500 graduates heard words of wisdom from keynote speaker Carroll Spinney and his creation Oscar the Grouch, along with President Baird Tipson. |
Family and friends filled the Health, Physical Education and Recreation Center to celebrate with the 500 graduates, 102 of whom were from Clark County and the contiguous counties.
Senior Class President Colin Castle, a management major from Galloway, Ohio, shared memories of the class’ four years at Wittenberg, recalling first roommates, fun times and the tour the class has taken together.
Famed puppeteer and author Carroll Spinney, the man behind such endearing characters as Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on the award winning children’s television show Sesame Street, also addressed the graduates.
Joined by Oscar the Grouch, Spinney discussed the evolution of his characters and how their creation fulfilled his childhood dream in his keynote address. He also encouraged the graduates to pursue their own dreams as he shared selections from his book, The Wisdom of Big Bird (And the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch): Lessons from a Life in Feathers.
“You first have to dream and then believe in your dreams,” Spinney said. “You have to imagine the world the way you want it to be.”
Named a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress, Spinney received an honorary doctorate of humane letters during the ceremony, along with Judge Damon Keith, whose 37-year career on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has been punctuated by numerous awards, 38 honorary degrees and a 1990 appointment by President George Bush to the Commission on the Bicentennial of the Constitution.
In recognition of his outstanding work on this Commission, commemorative plaques bearing his name adorn the walls of more than 300 courthouses and law schools throughout the United States and Guam. Keith has also generously mentored more than 70 law clerks, most of them minority and female law students, including such prominent individuals as Harvard Law Professor Lani Guinier, Duke University Law Professor James Coleman and the current Governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm.
This year's Commencement exercises also included a first in the education department as all three master’s degree candidates, Cameron Quick Dixon and Suzanne Percesepe of Springfield, Ohio, and Melinda Scott ’02 of London, Ohio, graduated summa cum laude from Wittenberg’s new master of arts in education program, established in 2000. The Class of 2004 also included School of Community Education magna cum laude graduate and music major Roberta R. Rowland-Raybold, now in her sixties. A resident of State College, Pa., Rowland-Raybold will serve as a church music director in Binghampton, N.Y.
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