Sewanee Graduation Events Begin Today

The University of the South’s 2015–16 academic year comes to a close today through Sunday, May 6–8, with three ceremonies marking graduation weekend in Sewanee. Commencement and baccalaureate ceremonies will take place for students from the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Letters and the School of Theology. Three honorary degrees will be presented during the School of Theology commencement, and four during the baccalaureate ceremony.
Honorary degrees will be presented during the School of Theology Commencement service today (Friday), May 6, to Bruce Eldon Neswick, canon for cathedral music at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Ore.; Richard Webster, director of music and organist at Trinity Church in Boston; and the Rt. Rev. James Russell Kendrick, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast, who will preach at the service. (See page 4 for more information.)
Charlie Rose, anchor and executive editor of “Charlie Rose” and co-anchor of “CBS This Morning;” John Churchill, secretary of the Phi Beta Kappa Society; Richard Davis, poet, translator, and professor emeritus of Persian at the Ohio State University; and Nashville historian and author William Ridley Wills II will receive honorary degrees during the baccalaureate service Saturday, May 7. Rose will give the baccalaureate address.
A Convocation for Conferring of Degrees is at 10 a.m., Sunday, May 8, in All Saints’ Chapel (tickets required) for the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Letters. The convocation will be shown on closed-circuit TV in McClurg Dining Hall (ticket needed) and in Guerry Auditorium, and will be live-streamed. A luncheon honoring the Class of 2016 graduates will follow.
All three services will be streamed live on the University’s website for those unable to attend.

John Churchill is secretary (chief executive officer) of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, which has 286 chapters on college and university campuses. He formerly served as the vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college, professor of philosophy and as interim president at Hendrix College. Churchill’s scholarly interests include topics in the history of philosophy and the philosophy of religion. His publications include journal articles in these and related fields, as well as essays in the popular press. Churchill’s professional activities have included service on the board of directors of the American Conference of Academic Deans and as chair of the Council of Deans of the Associated Colleges of the South. Churchill was educated at Rhodes College, at the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar and at Yale University.
Richard Davis is a poet, translator and professor emeritus of Persian at the Ohio State University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Davis studied English at Cambridge, lived in Iran for eight years and then completed a Ph.D. in medieval Persian literature at the University of Manchester. For 10 years he was professor of Persian and chair of the department of Near Eastern Languages at the Ohio State University. He has written scholarly works on English and Persian literature, as well as eight volumes of his own poetry, and has been the recipient of numerous academic and literary awards. Volumes of his poetry and verse translation have been chosen as books of the year by The Economist (UK), the Washington Post and the Times Literary Supplement (UK). His poems have appeared in many literary journals, including the Sewanee Review.
Charlie Rose is anchor and executive editor of “Charlie Rose,” the nightly program that features in-depth conversations and round-table discussions, and the newly launched “Charlie Rose: The Week,” chronicling the week’s best stories and interviews. He also co-anchors “CBS This Morning” and is a correspondent for “60 Minutes.” Since 1991, Charlie Rose has aired countless hours of interviews with men and women of science, politics, art, business, sports, technology, literature and entertainment. These conversations have made the broadcast a cultural and intellectual archive of our time. Rose has received numerous awards, including the Legion d’honneur, the 2014 Vincent Scully Prize and multiple Emmy and Peabody awards. He was named among the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME magazine. In 2015 Rose received the Walter Cronkite Excellence in Journalism Award. Rose graduated from Duke University and the Duke School of Law.
William Ridley Wills II is a well-known Nashville historian and prolific author. His 22 books include “Lest We Forget: Nashville’s Lost Businesses and their Stories;” “Heritage, Highballs, and Hijinks (Colorful Characters I Have Known)” and “The History of Belle Meade Plantation.” Wills has been called “Nashville’s unofficial historian,” and his insatiable interest in local history led him to write “Touring Tennessee: A Postcard Panorama” based on the 30,000 Tennessee postcards he has collected. Wills won the Tennessee History Book Award in 1991. He has served many charitable, historical, and educational organizations, including the Tennessee Historical Society, the Hermitage, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Vanderbilt University. Wills was educated at Vanderbilt.