April 16, 1999
Founder of Seeds of Peace, John Wallach, to Speak
at Middlebury College’s Commencement on May 23
Middlebury to Award Honorary Degrees to Wallach
and Seven Others
John Wallach, who is founder and president of Seeds
of Peace as well as an award-winning author and journalist, will
deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary Doctor
of Humane Letters at Middlebury College’s graduation ceremony
on May 23.
Wallach, a member of the Middlebury class of 1964,
founded the non-profit youth organization Seeds of Peace in 1993
in response to the World Trade Center bombings. At a camp in Maine,
the organization brings together teenagers from conflicting backgrounds—Arabs
and Israelis, Bosnians and Serbs, for example—and helps break
down the barriers of hate between them so that a better mutual
understanding can be achieved.
Before founding Seeds of Peace, Wallach was the foreign
editor of the Hearst Newspapers from 1968 to 1994. He was a regular
commentator on such network news shows as NBC’s “Meet the
Press,” and received numerous journalistic awards—including
the National Press Club’s highest honor, The Edwin Hood Award,
for breaking the story of the Iran-Contra scandal.
The College will present honorary degrees to seven
other distinguished individuals, including Darby Bradley, a resident
of Calais, Vt., who will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws. As
president of the Vermont Land Trust, Bradley has helped the organization
to preserve over 235 operating farms and 285,000 acres of land,
striving for a responsible balance of both use and protection
of the land. The Burlington Free Press named Bradley 1999 Vermonter
of the Year for his key role in the Land Trust’s accomplishments,
including a project with The Conservation Fund which will conserve
an additional 133,000 acres of forestland in northern Vermont.
The College will award James S. Davis, chief executive
officer of New Balance Athletic Shoe, an honorary Doctor of Humane
Letters. A 1966 graduate of Middlebury and a member of the College’s
board of trustees from 1984-1989, Davis bought the Boston-based
New Balance in 1972 when its six-person work force was making
30 pairs of running shoes a day. Today the company employs approximately
2,000 people and anticipates revenues of over $750 million in
1999. Named one of the nation’s top 10 entrepreneurs by Business
Week magazine in 1993, Davis has maintained a commitment to manufacturing
many New Balance shoes in the United States, instead of turning
to cheaper labor overseas.
Antonia Ax:son Johnson, chairwoman and owner of The
Axel Johnson Group, a 122-year-old multinational Swedish conglomerate,
will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. Johnson’s strong
international interest and desire to enhance international studies
at Middlebury College has led her to establish a scholarship for
students who choose it for a major. She also has been a proponent
of aggressive recruitment of topnotch students from abroad to
further diversify the College’s student body. A parent of 1991
Middlebury graduate Caroline Morner, Johnson served on the College’s
board of trustees from 1992-1997.
Milton V. Peterson, a 1958 graduate of Middlebury
College, will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. He
is a major developer of commercial property in Virginia and former
member of that state’s Governor’s Advisory Board of Economic Development.
Peterson was a member of the College’s board of trustees from
1983-1998, and its chair from 1989-1993 as it met daunting fiscal
and administration leadership challenges. He and his wife, Middlebury
classmate Carolyn Skyllberg, are the parents of three Middlebury
alumni.
Eva T. H. Brann, former dean and current Addison
Mullikin Tutor at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Md., will receive
an honorary Doctor of Letters. A frequent speaker on the Middlebury
campus, Brann is a scholar of archaeology, classics, history,
and philosophy. She has written numerous articles on subjects
ranging from Homer’s “Odyssey” to Jane Austin’s novels,
and her most recent book, published in 1999, is titled “What,
Then, Is Time?” Brann’s memberships have included the Maryland
Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and
the U.S. Advisory Commission for International Education and Cultural
Affairs.
The College will award Donald T. Regan, who served
in the Reagan administration as White House chief of staff and
secretary of the treasury, the honorary Doctor of Laws. As secretary
of the treasury, Regan played a key role in shaping what was to
become the Tax Reform Act of 1986. Before called to Washington,
D.C., he was chairman and chief executive officer of Merrill Lynch.
The youngest man to ever hold that post when he became president
in 1968, Regan served the company 35 years. He was inducted into
the Business Hall of Fame in 1981, and has served as vice president
of the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange. Regan
is the grandfather of 1999 Middlebury graduate Sara Doniger.
Bill Withers, a singer and songwriter, will receive
an honorary Doctor of Arts. He won Grammy Awards as a songwriter
for “Ain’t No Sunshine” in 1971, for “Just the
Two of Us” in 1981, and for the re-recording of his 1972
hit “Lean on Me” by Club Nouveau in 1987. Three of his
recordings became Gold discs in 1972, 1977, and 1987. His songs
have been recorded by hundreds of artists—including Barbara Streisand
and Michael Jackson—spanning all types of genres, from hip hop
to classical. He is the parent of 1999 Middlebury graduate Todd
Withers.