John Wallach: Commencement Speaker

Founder of Seeds of Peace, John Wallach, to Speak at Middlebury College's Commencement on May 23

Middlebury to Award Honorary Degrees to Wallach and Seven Others

MIDDLEBURY, Vt.--John Wallach, founder and president of Seeds of Peace and an award-winning author and journalist, will deliver the commencement address at Middlebury College's graduation ceremony on May 23. He will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

In 1993, Wallach, a member of the Middlebury class of 1964, founded the non-profit youth organization Seeds of Peace in response to the World Trade Center bombings. At a camp in Maine, the organization brings together teenagers from conflicting backgrounds--Arabs and Israelis, Bosnians and Serbs, for example--and helps them break down their barriers of hate and gain a greater understanding of their so-called enemies.

Before founding Seeds of Peace, Wallach was the foreign editor of the Hearst Newspapers from 1968 to 1994. He was a regular commentator on such network news shows as NBC's "Meet the Press," and received numerous journalistic awards--including the National Press Club's highest honor, The Edwin Hood Award, for breaking the story of the Iran-Contra scandal.

The College also will present honorary degrees to seven other distinguished individuals, including Darby Bradley, a resident of Calais, Vt., who will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. As president of the Vermont Land Trust, Bradley has helped the organization to preserve over 235 operating farms and 285,000 acres of land, striving for a balance between using the land and protecting it. The Burlington Free Press named Bradley 1999 Vermonter of the Year for his key role in the Land Trust's accomplishments, including a project with The Conservation Fund, which will conserve an additional 133,000 acres of forestland in northern Vermont.

The College will award James S. Davis, chief executive officer of New Balance Athletic Shoe, an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. A 1966 graduate of Middlebury and a member of the College's board of trustees from 1984-1989, Davis bought the Boston-based company in 1972 when its six-person work force was making 30 pairs of running shoes a day. Today New Balance employs approximately 2,000 people and anticipates revenues of over $750 million in 1999. Named one of the nation's top 10 entrepreneurs by Business Week magazine in 1993, Davis has maintained a commitment to manufacturing many of the company's shoes in the United States, instead of turning to cheaper labor overseas.

Antonia Ax:son Johnson, chairwoman and owner of The Axel Johnson Group, a 122-year-old multinational Swedish conglomerate, will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. Johnson's strong international interest and desire to enhance that dimension at Middlebury has led her to establish a scholarship for Middlebury students who major in international studies. She also has been a proponent of aggressive recruitment of topnotch students from abroad to further diversify the student body. A parent of 1991 Middlebury graduate Caroline Morner, Johnson served on the College's board of trustees from 1992-1997.

Milton V. Peterson, a 1958 graduate of Middlebury College, will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. He is a major developer of commercial property in Virginia and former member of that state's Governor's Advisory Board of Economic Development. Peterson was a member of the College's board of trustees from 1983-1998, serving as its chairman from 1989-1993 as it met daunting fiscal and administration leadership challenges. He and his wife, Middlebury classmate Carolyn Skyllberg, are the parents of three Middlebury alumni.

Eva T. H. Brann, former dean and current Addison Mullikin Tutor at St. John's College in Annapolis, Md., will receive an honorary Doctor of Letters degree. A scholar of archaeology, classics, history, and philosophy, she has been a frequent speaker on the Middlebury campus.

The College will award Donald T. Regan, who served in the Reagan administration as White House chief of staff and secretary of the treasury, the honorary Doctor of Laws degree. Before being called to Washington, D.C., he was chairman and chief executive officer of Merrill Lynch, where he worked for 35 years. Regan is the grandfather of 1999 Middlebury graduate Sara Doniger.

Bill Withers, a singer and songwriter, will receive an honorary Doctor of Arts degree. He won Grammy Awards as a songwriter for "Ain't No Sunshine" in 1971, for "Just the Two of Us" in 1981, and for the re-recording of his 1972 hit "Lean on Me" by Club Nouveau in 1987. Three of his recordings became Gold discs--in 1972, 1977, and 1987. His songs have been recorded by hundreds of artists--including Barbara Streisand and Michael Jackson--covering all types of genres, from hip hop to classical. He is the parent of 1999 Middlebury graduate Todd Withers.

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