Treasury secretary to speak at Commencement

John W. Snow, secretary of the treasury of the United States-and a former Kenyon student and honorary-degree recipient-will present the Commencement address at Kenyon's one hundred seventy-sixth graduation ceremony on Saturday, May 22.

The Commencement program will begin at 10:30 a.m. on the lawn of Samuel Mather Hall. (The rainsite is the Ernst Center.) In addition to presenting diplomas to graduating seniors, the College will confer honorary degrees on photographer Mary Ellen Mark and two retiring faculty members, J. Kenneth Smail and Jon L. Williams.

The Baccalaureate speaker this year will be Professor of Drama Harlene Marley, who leaves Kenyon this spring for a year's sabbatical, to be followed by retirement. Marley joined the faculty in 1969, the first woman to be hired for a tenure-track position. The Baccalaureate service will take place on Friday, May 21, at 1:30 p.m.

Snow, who assumed his cabinet office in February 2003, is an economist and lawyer whose career includes posts in academia as well as government and business. After serving as a Transportation Department official in the administration of President Gerald Ford, he built a distinguished career in the railroad industry, rising to become chairman and chief executive of the CSX Corporation, the freight and transportation conglomerate.

Snow attended Kenyon for only a year, in 1958-59-he left to work at a private school near his hometown of Toledo, Ohio, meanwhile completing his college education at the University of Toledo. He earned a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Virginia and an LL.B. degree from the George Washington University Law School. He has taught at both of those institutions, as well as at the University of Maryland.

Snow last returned to Kenyon in 1993, when the College presented him with an honorary doctor of laws degree.

Mary Ellen Mark is one of the most respected and influential documentary photographers in the world. Her photographs have appeared in numerous books, including fifteen devoted exclusively to her work, as well as in many exhibitions and magazines. She has been honored with many of the most prestigious grants and awards in the arts.

Smail, a professor of anthropology, retires after thirty-one years at Kenyon. Williams, the Samuel B. Cummings Jr. Professor of Psychology, is retiring after thirty-six years on the faculty.

For more information about Commencement, consult the Web at www.kenyon.edu/commencement.xml.