Dickinson College Carlisle, PA
For Immediate Release April 29, 1999
Contact: Aimee J. Lewis Media Relations Coordinator [email protected]
New Jersey Governor to Deliver Dickinson College Commencement Address
CARLISLE, Pa. ó Christine Todd Whitman, Republican governor of New Jersey, will serve as the keynote speaker at Dickinson College's 226th commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 16. Graduation exercises begin at 10 a.m. on the lawn of Old West, Dickinson campus, West High Street, Carlisle.
The 50th and first female governor of New Jersey, Whitman defeated Democrat Jim Florio in 1993, marking the first time an incumbent governor lost in a general election in modern state history, and was reelected in 1997. During her tenure, she appointed the first African-American to sit on the New Jersey supreme court, the first female state supreme court chief justice, and the first female attorney general. She also became the first governor to give the formal response to a president's state of the union address in 1995 and served as an honorary co-chair of the Republican National Convention in 1996.
Prior to her election as governor, Whitman served as a former president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and a former director of the Somerset County Board of Freeholders. Born on Sept. 26, 1946, in New York, N.Y., she was raised in Hunterdon County, N.J. She earned a bachelor's degree in government from Wheaton College in Massachusetts in 1968. Currently, she resides in Oldwick, N.J., with her husband John Whitman and her two children, Kate and Taylor.
Following her commencement address, Whitman will receive an honorary degree from Dickinson president A. Lee Fritschler.
Also during commencement weekend, Ted Pulcini, assistant professor of religion, will present the baccalaureate address on Saturday, May 15. A 1976 graduate of Harvard College, he went on to earn master's degrees from the University of Notre Dame in 1979 and Harvard Divinity School in 1982. He received his doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh in 1994. An expert in biblical texts, Islam, early Christianity, and Eastern Orthodox Christianity, he has written numerous articles, including "The Alternative is Worse" which appeared in "Commonweal" in 1992. In addition, he is ordained to the diaconite and the presbyterate of the Orthodox Church.
For more information on commencement activities, contact Dickinson's Office of College Relations at (717) 245-1289.
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