Clad in cap and gown and amid the landscape of America’s “most beautiful college campus,” distinguished public radio host Leonard Lopate, Class of ’68, delivered the keynote address in the company of proud grads and distinguished alumni – among them Pulitzer Prize and Pen/Faulkner Award winner Professor Michael Cunningham (’54), acclaimed author, translator, poet and director Paul Auster and celebrated professor of psychology, author, humanist and activist Philip G. Zimbardo – during Commencement Day at Brooklyn College.
Close to 3,400 Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees were conferred upon graduating students at the 83rd annual graduation day, held on the campus quadrangle, 2900 Bedford Avenue, and attended by such local luminaries as Senator Charles Schumer and Borough President Marty Markowitz, Class of 1970. Mary Pennisi delivered the valedictorian’s address, and a special salute was delivered to the golden anniversary class of 1958.
The occasion also served to bestow alumni honors upon Sarah Benson (MFA, ‘4), who was recently named the artistic director of the prestigious SoHo Repertory Theatre in New York City; and Willard N. Archie, ’68, CEO of Mitchell & Titus, the largest minority-owned accounting and management consulting firm in the country.
