Trustee Emeritus Bruce Stewart will be Invited Speaker for May 2008 Commencement

Trustee emeritus Bruce Stewart, who is head of school at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., will be the invited speaker for Guilford's 171st Commencement May 10, 2008. The ceremony will take place at 9:30 a.m. on the central campus quadrangle.

A 1961 graduate of Guilford, Stewart has a life-long career in the education field. From 1970-1984, he served as the college's director of admission and later academic dean, as well as acting president during then-president Grimsley Hobbs's sabbatical. Stewart was a member of the Board of Trustees from 1986-2003 and chair from 1999-03.

He was appointed head of Sidwell Friends School, one of the nation's most academically elite secondary schools, in 1998. During Stewart's tenure, Sidwell has focused aggressively on environmental sustainability. Its Middle School Building, completed last year and recently profiled in Time magazine, was the first secondary school building in the world to receive a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.

"All those values I try to advance here are things I was first exposed to at Guilford College," Stewart said in an interview published in the Fall 2007 Guilford College Magazine. "I credit Guilford with shaping my life in a significant way."

"We are delighted to have Bruce as invited speaker for commencement in that he embodies so many of the college's core values and has such a close association with Guilford over the past 50 years," said President Kent Chabotar. "He has distinguished himself as a Quaker educator and has much to share with our graduates as they take the next step in life's journey."

A native of Lynn, Mass., Stewart followed his bachelor's degree in education with a master's in education administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His first post-graduate job was at Greensboro's Page High School as guidance counselor, working with the first African American students in the newly integrated school. He later served as the first dean of students at the N.C. School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, N.C., and as head of Abington Friends School near Philadelphia, Pa.

Stewart will be joined in speaking at the commencement ceremony by graduating seniors Garrett FitzGerald of Louisville, Ky., and Cynthia Bowen of Greensboro and President Chabotar, who will give a charge to the class. The selection of the invited speaker included a campus-wide nomination process and consensus recommendation to the president by the faculty, staff, and student members of the Convocation and Celebrations Committee. The student speakers were selected from student nominations in the spring semester.

Recent invited speakers for commencement have included trustee and CEO of Self-Help Martin Eakes, retiring faculty member John Stoneburner, trustee and NBA player/executive M.L. Carr '73, journalist Mary Ann Akers '91, and faculty members Christopher Benfey '77 and Mary Louise Bringle '75 of Mount Holyoke and Brevard (N.C.) colleges, respectively.

For commencement information click here.

May 10, 2008