U.S. Court of Appeals Judge and Pennsylvania First Lady Marjorie Rendell will speak at Gettysburg College's 168th commencement exercises, which will begin at 11 a.m., May 18, on the north side of Pennsylvania Hall. Rendell and her husband, Gov. Edward G. Rendell, will receive honorary degrees from Gettysburg College at the ceremony. Other recipients are jazz legend Dave Brubeck; Akiko Bowers, philanthropist and widow of 1933 Gettysburg graduate Dr. John Z. Bowers; and Joseph Steger, a 1960 Gettysburg College graduate who is president of the University of Cincinnati.
Marjorie Osterlund Rendell became the 43rd First Lady when her husband was sworn in on Jan. 21, 2003. She earned a bachelor's degree at the University of Pennsylvania and a juris doctor degree at Villanova University School of Law. During her 20 years as an attorney, she specialized in bankruptcy law and commercial litigation, and served as a mediator for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Rendell was inducted to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 1994 and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 1997.
Rendell has participated in many civic and community endeavors. She is a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, chair of the board of overseers of the University of Pennsylvania's School of Nursing and a board member of Penn Medicine. Rendell is also vice chair of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, which she helped found.
Gov. Edward G. Rendell served as district attorney for the City of Philadelphia from 1978 to 1985, and as mayor from 1992 to 1999. Rendell eliminated a $250-million deficit, reduced taxes for four consecutive years, implemented new revenue-generating initiatives and dramatically improved city services.
Rendell also served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee before stepping down in 2000 to join the Philadelphia-based law firm of Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll LLP and teach at the University of Pennsylvania.
After his discharge from the armed services in 1946, Dave Brubeck enrolled at Mills College to study composition with the renowned French composer Darius Milhaud. He and other Milhaud students formed the Dave Brubeck Octet, which led to his other groups: the Dave Brubeck Trio and, in 1951, the Dave Brubeck Quartet, which thrust Brubeck into fame with performances for international audiences and numerous heads of state.
Brubeck disbanded the Quartet in 1967 to devote more time to composing extended works and larger forms. A wealth of orchestral, choral, chamber, ballet and other types of music followed. He has continued to perform jazz throughout the world and was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts, and in 1995, was awarded the Presidential Medal of the Arts. Brubeck and wife Iola have several grandchildren, including Ben Brubeck, a member of Gettysburg College's Class of 2003.
Akiko Kobayashi Bowers came to the United States from Tokyo in 1961 to study business administration as a graduate student at New York University. While serving as the first woman to work with the Japanese ambassador to the United Nations, she met Dr. John Z. Bowers, an internationally recognized leader in American medicine and president of the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, who was a pioneer in the creation of opportunities for minorities in medicine. Dr. Bowers was also awarded the highest level of the Order of the Rising Sun that can be conferred on a foreigner by the Emperor of Japan and was the youngest person to serve as dean of a medical school in the United States.
Throughout their 23-year marriage, Mrs. Bowers served as a researcher, translator, collaborator and co-author. She also traveled extensively around the world coordinating Macy Foundation social functions.
After her husband's death in 1993, Mrs. Bowers established an endowed scholarship fund at Gettysburg College for the benefit of students pursuing science as a career. She also donated artwork to the college's Asian Arts Collection and books by her husband to Special Collections. At the University of Maryland School of Medicine (where Dr. Bowers earned a degree in 1938), she established The John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean's Chair and an endowment to support maintenance of the university's medical artifacts collection, named in her honor, which includes her husband's decorations and citations.
Joseph Steger, a 1960 graduate of Gettysburg College and recipient of a Distinguished Alumni Award, will retire in June as president of the University of Cincinnati, where he spent 18 years rebuilding the university. He brought the Internet into the university's academic programs; increased fundraising from $15 million annually to $73 million and the university's endowment from $150 million to nearly $1 billion; quadrupled research funding to more than $260 million; initiated an international co-op program; and brought new academic and research buildings by world-renowned architects to campus.
Steger earned a master's degree in psychology and a doctoral degree in psychophysics from Kansas State University. He began his career in 1966 at the State University of New York-Albany, where he was named "Outstanding Educator-State University of New York System." From 1971 to 1979, he was at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., serving as a management professor, dean and vice president for administration and budget, and later dean and acting provost. Steger was director of organizational development and human resources for New York-based Colt Industries Inc., then returned to academe in 1982 as provost of the University of Cincinnati.
Gettysburg College is a highly selective four-year residential college of liberal arts and sciences. With approximately 2,400 students, it is located on a 200-acre campus adjacent to the Gettysburg National Military Park. The college was founded in 1832.
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