Randolph-Macon College President Robert R. Lindgren is pleased to announce that the college will confer honorary degrees on two distinguished leaders at its Commencement Ceremony on Saturday, May 28, 2016.

Haywood A. “HAP” Payne Jr. ’68, who will serve as this year’s Commencement speaker, will receive the Honorary Doctor of Humanities degree.

A native of Richmond, Virginia, Haywood “HAP” Payne Jr. ’68 earned a B.S. in chemistry from Randolph-Macon College, where, in 1966, he became the college’s first African American student. He earned an M.B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1977, and he completed post-graduate work in Carnegie-Mellon University’s Program for Senior Executives in 1994.

He joined Gulf Oil Corporation in 1970 as a systems analysis chemist and remained with the company after it merged with Chevron in 1984. Throughout his career, Payne held several management positions, including general manager of research services for Chevron Oil Research Co., general manager of technology support, and general manager and laboratory director for Chevron Petroleum Technology Co.

He is a member of the American Chemical Society, American Management Institute, American Petroleum Institute, International Facility Management Association, and the National Technical Society.

Payne retired in 2010 as president of Chevron Business and Real Estate Services. The unit is responsible for managing the energy company’s facilities, office strategies and property dispositions, and laboratory support; it also provides business services to Chevron’s operating companies throughout the world.

Payne is also the first African American to serve on the college’s Board of Trustees, where he has served with distinction, both from 1988-2000 and after re-joining the Board in 2011. He currently serves as vice chair. He also served on R-MC’s Society of Alumni from 2008-2009, and is a member of the college’s Heritage Society and Presidents Society. In 2011 Payne was awarded the Society of Alumni Distinguished Service Award.

Dedicated to community service, Payne is a member of the Executive Leadership Council, the preeminent membership organization for the development of global black leaders, and serves on the boards of the National Eagle Leadership Forum, the American Symphony Society, the Orange County Pacific Symphony Orchestra (California), and other cultural and educational (STEM) organizations in Southern California.

Payne and his wife, Alice Myers Payne, also a Richmond native, are the proud parents of three children and live in Fullerton, California.

Sue Carrell
Sue Carrell will receive the Honorary Doctor of Humanities Degree.

Carrell earned her B.A. in French from Willamette University in Oregon, her M.A. in French from University of California at Berkeley, and her Ph.D. in French from The University of Virginia.

Now living and conducting research in France, Carrell taught French at The University of California at Berkeley; The University of Virginia; Randolph-Macon College; The University of Southern California; The University of New Hampshire; and Boston University.

Carrell, an independent scholar, is currently editing a four-volume collection of the correspondence between the Comtesse Eléonore de Sabran and the Chevalier Stanislas-Jean de Boufflers, which took place before, during and after the French Revolution. The letters recount events of important historical significance, but they also provide a very personal window into French culture and society during the Enlightenment and the French Revolution through the lives of two extraordinary people. The first two volumes of the correspondence were published by the renowned French press Tallandier. In 2011, Carrell received the Prix d’ Academie award from the Académie Française for her work.

Carrell was a member of the Randolph-Macon faculty from 1975-1979, but her service to the college has continued. She has supervised R-MC students conducting Schapiro Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) projects in Paris, and she has returned to the campus to lecture on the Sabran-Boufflers correspondence.

Randolph-Macon College’s Commencement ceremony will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 28, 2016 at the RMC Frank E. Brown Fountain Plaza on Henry Street. (In the event of rain, Commencement will be held in the Randolph-Macon Brock Sports and Recreation Center, located at 400 N. Center Street, at 10:00 a.m.)