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The Honorable Dr. Thomas R. Morris
Virginia Secretary of Education |
Randolph-Macon College president Robert R. Lindgren is pleased to announce that the 2009 commencement speaker will be The Honorable Dr. Thomas R. Morris, Virginia Secretary of Education.
Secretary Morris, appointed to his current position by Governor Tim Kaine, is a distinguished Constitutional scholar and political scientist. He was a celebrated faculty member at the University of Richmond for 21 years and served as President of Emory & Henry College, in Southwest Virginia, for more than 13 years before his appointment as Secretary.
“Secretary Morris has dedicated his life to education,” said Lindgren. “He has shown tremendous leadership of education in our state and nation and has been honored for excellence in the classroom. We are thrilled to have Secretary Morris speak to our graduates on this momentous day of celebration.”
Highly regarded as an expert on Virginia Government and politics, Secretary Morris is well known as a political analyst for television, radio, and print media for more than 25 years. He is also the author or co-author of four books, including Virginia Government and Politics: Readings and Comments, Fourth Revised Edition (Univ. of Virginia Weldon Cooper, 1998) which was co-edited by fellow political expert Larry Sabato.
Born in Galax, Virginia, Dr. Morris was also educated in the Commonwealth. He earned a bachelor’s degree in government at Virginia Military Institute and a master’s and doctoral degree in government at the University of Virginia. He also studied at Princeton University, received fellowships for additional advanced study including a year as a Liberal Arts Fellow at the Harvard Law School and a served a year as a fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Randolph-Macon College Commencement will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 30, 2009 on the R-MC campus at the Frank E. Brown Fountain Plaza on Henry Street.
(In the event of rain, commencement will be held in the Randolph-Macon Brock Recreation Center, located at 400 N. Center Street, at 10:00 a.m.).