In addition to conferring bachelor’s degrees on several hundred students and master’s degrees on scores of others, Saint Michael’s College will confer honorary doctor of humane letters degrees on four individuals at commencement exercises at 10 a.m. on May 12, 2013, in the SMC Ross Sports Center.
Honorary degree recipients will be:
Alice Boutin, Saint Michael’s first ‘first lady.’ Mrs. Boutin, the wife of Bernard Boutin, the first lay president of Saint Michael’s College, who served from 1969 to 1974, was a beloved first lady who welcomed faculty into her home with gracious dinners, and served the college with great affection. Five of her children graduated from Saint Michael’s. She is said to often feel as though she is a Saint Michael’s graduate herself.
Patrick Robins, chairman of the board of Symquest Group, and long-time civic leader in Burlington, where he resides. He was also president of McAuliffe’s, the predecessor to Symquest. Mr. Robins graduated from Saint Michael’s in 1961 with a degree in English and earned an MBA from Dartmouth in 1964. He served on the Saint Michael’s Board of Trustees, 1992-95 and 1998-99. President of the Downtown Burlington Development Association, Mr. Robins led the development of the Church Street Marketplace and chaired the Marketplace Commission. He has been a champion of Burlington City Arts and the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, as part of his ongoing, life-time campaigns to enrich the business and cultural life of the Burlington, Vermont. He serves on a number of other boards as well.
Father Daniel Riley, ofm, a campus minister at St. Bonaventure University, and a founding member and vice chair of the board of the Mt. Irenaeus Franciscan Mountain Retreat, a very active center in the foothills of the Alleghany mountains. A man of deep faith and commitment to Catholic higher education, Father Riley is a renowned spiritual guide for young people. He has partnered with the Edmundite priests of Saint Michael’s to organize retreats for young people and priests on campus and at Enders Island.
Mark Shields, political analyst, writer, reporter and commentator. Mr. Shields will also be the main commencement speaker. Called “the wittiest political analyst around” and “frequently the most fair-minded, and thoughtful,” Mark Shields has worked in Washington through the administrations of nine U.S. Presidents. He began writing a column for The Washington Post in 1979 which is now distributed nationally by Creators Syndicate. He has matched wits on “The PBS NewsHour” with David Gergen, The Wall Street Journal’s Paul Gigot, and most recently with David Brooks of The New York Times. He was moderator and panelist for 17 years on CNN’s Capital Gang, and is now a regular panelist on “Inside Washington,” aired on ABC and PBS. A former Marine, a graduate of Notre Dame, he has taught politics and the press at Penn’s Wharton School and Georgetown’s Graduate School of Public Policy. He captured the 1984 presidential campaign in his book On the Campaign Trail.
The Edmundite Catholic liberal arts college, Saint Michael's provides education with a social conscience, producing graduates with the intellectual tools to lead successful, purposeful lives that will contribute to peace and justice in our world. Founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, Saint Michael's College is located three miles from Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top college towns. Identified by the Princeton Review, 2013 as one of the nation’s Best 377 Colleges, and included in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2013, Saint Michael's has 1,900 undergraduate students and 500 graduate students. Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Pickering, Guggenheim, Fulbright, and other grants. The college is one of the nation's top-100, Best Liberal Arts Colleges as listed in the 2013 U.S. News & World Report rankings.