NEW YORK – The Province’s two colleges in upstate New York, St. Bonaventure University and Siena College, will celebrate commencement for 2009 graduates on May 17.
At St. Bonaventure in Allegany, CNN political anchor and Buffalo native Wolf Blitzer will give the commencement address. Blitzer received an Emmy Award for his coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1996.
Along with Blitzer, John “Jack” Butler and Marcia Marcus Kelly will receive honorary degrees.
Butler, an all-pro defensive back for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1950s, graduated from SBU in 1951 — where he first played football, trying out at the urging of the late Silas Rooney, OFM.
Kelly is the niece of renowned Olean, N.Y., poet Robert Lax, and a champion of spiritual and environmental causes. She is dedicated to preserving the legacy of her uncle, and his friend Thomas Merton, who taught English at SBU in the 1940s.
Siena, in Loudonville, will present Dr. Robert Paeglow and the Honorable Victoria Graffeo with honorary degrees.
Paeglow was a quality control technician who became a medical doctor to help his poor Albany neighborhood. According to a CBS report, “A Doctor Who Helps Patients — At Any Cost,” he treats patients for little or no cost, and changed his career path because he wanted to make the world a better place.
Graffeo is associate judge of the court of appeals and resides in Guilderland, N.Y.