More than 5,000 family and friends will converge on the Fredericksburg campus this weekend to celebrate the University of Mary Washington’s 106th commencement.
On Friday, May 12, John D. Burrow, a deputy assistant secretary of the Navy, will give the graduate address at 7:30 p.m. in Dodd Auditorium, George Washington Hall.
On Saturday, Edward Ayers, president emeritus of the University of Richmond, will speak at the undergraduate ceremony, which begins at 9 a.m. on Ball Circle.
Burrow has spent more than 30 years in service to the federal government. In his current position as a deputy assistant secretary of the Navy, he manages matters associated with the Department of the Navy’s Research, Development, Test and Evaluation investments. Author and co-author of numerous publications, Burrow has taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Mary Washington, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Mississippi.
Ayers served as the University of Richmond’s ninth president from 2007 to 2015. Currently, he is the university’s Tucker-Boatwright professor of the humanities. A historian of the American South, Ayers has written and edited 10 books. He also is a pioneer in digital history who created “The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War,” a website that has attracted millions of users and won major prizes in the teaching of history.
Saturday’s undergraduate ceremony will be held on Ball Circle rain or shine. Umbrellas are welcome.
Both the graduate and undergraduate ceremonies will be livestreamed and can be viewed at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/umwevents. For additional information about UMW’s 2017 Commencement, please visit https://www.umw.edu/commencement.
