Alumni to speak at Commencement

Oberlin College will combine different flavors, notes, colors and teachings at the upcoming Commencement excercises Monday in Tappan Square.

Four accomplished Oberlin College alumni, opera singer Denyce Graves, governmental consultant F. Champion Ward, professer and civil rights activist Albert McQueen and ice cream producer Jerry Greenfield, will attend Monday's ceremony to speak and receive honorary awards for their achievements since graduating from Oberlin College.

Albert McQueen OC '52 will receive an honorary Alumni Medal. He returned to Oberlin College in 1966 to teach sociology and retired from his teaching career in 1995. During the height of the 1960's Civil Rights movement, McQueen was one of the few African-American faculty on campus. During his professional career at Oberlin, he helped establish Afrikan Heritage House in Talcott Hall.

During the 1950's, McQueen's student extracurricular acitvties including serving as president of Oberlin's NAACP. He was also one of the founders of cooperative housing on campus.

Denyce Graves, a mezzo soprano opera singer, will be awarded the honorary Doctor of Music degree. Since graduating in 1985, Graves has performed the lead role in George Bizet's famous opera "Carmen" in at least fifteen separate productions. She has also sung leading roles at the well-known sites such as La Scala, the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, Opera de Paris, Florence's Maggio Musicale, the Vienna State Opera, the San Francisco Opera. Among others,Graves has received the Grand Pix Lyrique award, which is granted once every three years by the Association des amis de l'opera de Monte-Carlo.

Jerry Greenfield is the co-founder of nationally renowned Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Greenfield OC '73 thought of the now popular ice cream brand Ben and Jerry's during his Oberlin College career along with his friend Ben Cohen. Five years after graduating they founded their first Ben and Jerry's ice cream parlor in Burlington, Vermont.

Greenfield and Cohen started their professional careers by driving cross country and serving free samples of their product. Today Greenfield is vice chair of the board of directors and president of Ben and Jerry's Foundation, which offers grants to organizations that advocate environmental safety.

The honorary Doctor of Humanities will be awarded to F. Champion Ward OC '32, who served as dean of the undergraduate college from 1947-54 at the University of Chicago. During the 1950's Ward acted as governmental consultant for the nations of India, Turkey, Jordan and Burma. He also directed the Ford Foundatin's Overseas Development Program for the Middle East and Africa.

In 1967, President Lyndon Johnson appointed Ward as chair of the White House Task Force on the education of gifted and talented persons. He also had the opportunity to serve as the Atlantic member of UNESCO's International Commission on the Development of Education, also known as the Faure Commission.