The College's three graduate schools were the first to occupy center stage this weekend, as their graduation ceremonies, called Class Day a t D artmouth Medical School and Investiture at the Thayer and Tuck Schools, took place Saturday.
The Tuck School presented 238 graduating students with Master of Business Administration degrees. Curtis Welling '71, Tu'77, president and CEO of Ameri-Cares, a non-profit disaster relief and humanitarian aid organization, spoke at the Investiture ceremony.
Welling only became involved with humanitarian aid after an extensive career in the investment banking and securities industries.
He has been Chief Executive Officer at the Princeton eCom Corp. and president and CEO of SG Cohen Securities. As an undergraduate, Welling was a member of Phi Delta Alpha fraternity. While at Tuck, Welling conceived of the idea to hold a ceremony, called Investiture, to celebrate the completion of the Tuck program.
The Thayer School of Engineering graduated 144 students Saturday as well. Of them, 70 received Bachelor of Engineering degrees, 32 received Master of Engineering Management degrees, 29 received Master of Science degrees and 13 were awarded Doctor of Philosophy degrees.
Thomas J. O'Neill '73 Th'74, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Parsons Brinckerhoff, Inc., an international planning and engineering company, delivered the keynote address at Thayer's Investiture. At the ceremony, O'Neill was presented with the Robert Fletcher award, which goes annually to a graduate or friend of the Thayer school in recognition of distinguished achievement.
The Dartmouth Medical School also sent off 142 students into the medical world Saturday, with 69 receiving their M.D. degrees, 29 receiving Masters of Public Health degrees, 23 receiving Masters of Science degrees, and 21 receiving Ph.D.'s in a variety of fields.
Class Day's keynote speaker was William H. Foege, senior medical advisor to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Global Health Program. Foege played an integral role in the elimination of smallpox from Nigeria in the 1970s and has also focused on other diseases such as Toxic Shock Syndrome and Reye's Syndrome. A former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Foege joined the Emory University faculty in 1997 as Presidential Distinguished Professor of International Health at the Rollins School of Public Health.