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College to Celebrate Commencement May 21; Freeland to Earn Honorary Degree

Posted on Friday, May 6, 2011

More than 250 students are expected to earn degrees Saturday, May 21, at Westminster College's 157th commencement ceremonies.  A baccalaureate service will be held at 10:30 a.m. in Orr Auditorium with commencement at 2:30 p.m. on the Senior Terrace of Old Main.

The baccalaureate message, "Best Laid Plans," will be given by the Rev. Dr. Stephen McConnell, senior pastor of Church of the Palms in Sarasota, Fla., and a 1980 Westminster graduate. 

The class of 2011 selected Candace Okello to give the senior address.  A communication studies major, Okello is a daughter of Serafhin and Janie Okello of Youngstown, Ohio, and a graduate of Chaney High School.

In case of rain, the commencement ceremony will be held in Memorial Field House. Contact Gabriella Budai, executive secretary in the Office of Academic Affairs, at (724) 946-7122 for more information.

Wendell G. Freeland to Earn Honorary Degree

The commencement ceremony will include the conferring of an honorary degree, doctor of laws, honoris causa, on Wendell G. Freeland, a respected Pittsburgh attorney, civil rights leader, and former member of Westminster's Board of Trustees.

He will share his thoughts on "Your Generation and Mine."

A native of Baltimore, Freeland graduated cum laude from Howard University and with honors from the University of Maryland Law School.  He was one of the original Tuskegee Airmen and flew as a bombardier for the Army Air Corps' 477th Bombardment Group during World War II.

Freeland entered into the practice of law in 1951 with an emphasis on civil rights and criminal cases.  He was the first president of the Neighborhood Legal Services Association, a nonprofit established by the Allegheny Bar Association to provide legal services to the poor, and was inducted into the National Bar Association Hall of Fame.

Freeland served as president of the Urban League of Pittsburgh, senior vice president of the National Urban League, and was a member of the search committee that selected Vernon Jordan to lead the National Urban League in the 1970s.

In addition to his service on Westminster's Board of Trustees, Freeland has served on the boards of the University of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and chaired the board of governors for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, D.C. 

Freeland received the first Professional Achievement Award from The Amen Corner, a Pittsburgh civic and social organization that dates back to 1870.

Wendell Freeland
The Rev. Dr. Stephen McConnell
Watch the commencement ceremony live on May 21.