Randolph-Macon College President Robert R. Lindgren is pleased to announce the College’s 2022 Commencement speaker will be Dr. Ronald A. Crutcher, president emeritus of the University of Richmond. RMC’s Commencement ceremony will be held on Saturday, May 22, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. at the Frank E. Brown Fountain Plaza. Tickets are not required for the event.

“I’m so pleased our graduates will get to hear what promises to be a meaningful message from Dr. Crutcher,'” commented President Lindgren. “His compelling personal journey, many professional and leadership achievements, and his place as a role model all combine to make his a significant voice, with a message to our students that will encourage them to make a difference in their own lives going forward.” 

RMC will award Dr. Crutcher an honorary Doctor of Education degree at the Commencement ceremony. The College will also confer honorary degrees on two other distinguished community leaders: accounting executive Ralph Crosby and local doctor and philanthropist Dr. Dianne Reynolds-Cane.

 

Dr. Ronald A. Crutcher

Dr. Ronald A. Crutcher, a national leader in higher education and a distinguished classical musician, will receive an honorary Doctor of Education degree. Crutcher was the president of the University of Richmond from 2015-2021 and is also president emeritus of Wheaton College in Massachusetts, where he served from 2004-2014. Prior to Wheaton, he was provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Miami University of Ohio. In August 2021, he was named a senior fellow at the Aspen Institute.

Dr. Crutcher writes and speaks widely on the value of a liberal arts education, the democratic purposes of higher education, diversity and inclusion, and free expression on college campuses. He is chair of the board of the American Council on Education, a senator of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, a member of the board of the Institute for the International Education of Students Abroad, and chair of the board of the Jepson Scholars Foundation. He previously served on the boards of the Posse Foundation, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and the Fulbright Association, and was chair of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts. His thematic memoir, I Had No Idea You Were Black: Navigating Race on the Road to Leadership, was published in February 2021.

Throughout his 44-year career in higher education, Dr. Crutcher has consulted with higher education institutions, nonprofit organizations, and corporations across the U.S. and abroad on issues related to organizational culture—especially bridging racial and cultural divides—as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion.

He is a former member of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and several other symphonies. For almost 40 years, Dr. Crutcher performed nationally and in Europe as a member of The Klemperer Trio. He has served on the boards of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Richmond Symphony, the Austin Symphony, and the Berklee College of Music. Earlier in his career, he was president of Chamber Music America, director of the highly ranked Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin, and dean of the Conservatory at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Dr. Crutcher began studying cello at the age of 15 with Professor Elizabeth Potteiger, a faculty member at Miami University. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in March 1985 and was the first cellist to receive the doctor of musical arts degree from Yale University, where he also earned his master’s degree. During his graduate study, he received a Fulbright Fellowship, a Ford Foundation Doctoral Fellowship, and a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Miami University (OH), he has received honorary degrees from Wheaton College (MA), Colgate University, Muhlenberg College, University of Richmond, and the University of Cordoba in Spain.

Dr. Crutcher has been married for more than 42 years to Dr. Betty Neal Crutcher, an educational consultant and community volunteer. They have one adult daughter, Sara Elizabeth Neal Crutcher, who is an entrepreneur and children’s book author.

 

Ralph R. Crosby, Jr.

Ralph R. Crosby, Jr., a retired partner of the international accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP (PwC), will receive an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree.

Mr. Crosby graduated from Brown University in 1952 with a bachelor’s in economics. From 1952-1955, he served as a line officer in the United States Navy, and upon discharge he joined the public accounting firm Lybrand, Ross Bros. & Montgomery (now PwC) in Pittsburgh, PA. Crosby was promoted to the Pittsburgh, PA; Hartford, CT; and New Haven, CT offices of the firm before coming to the Richmond office as managing partner in 1972. He retired as executive partner in 1992.

In Richmond, Mr. Crosby became an active member in a number of local communities. He is the former president of several organizations, including Children’s Hospital, Junior Achievement of Richmond, Central Richmond Association, the Richmond Symphony, the Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts, and the Kiwanis Club of Richmond. Additionally, he was a board member of the Virginia Literacy Foundation and the J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College Education Foundation.

Mr. Crosby, an RMC trustee emeritus, has served the College in a variety of capacities since the 1970s. He was a member of the College’s Board of Trustees for 26 years, leading the Audit and Finance committees in addition to participating on most other committees. He was also a member of RMC’s Board of Associates from 1995-2001, serving one term as president. A two-time Parent Class Agent and former member of the Annual Fund Leadership Council, the Annual Fund Committee, and the Arts Committee, Crosby received the Society of Alumni’s 2012 Distinguished Service Award, an especially rare feat considering Crosby is not an alumnus of the College—a testament to the high esteem with which he is held by Yellow Jackets.

Mr. Crosby and his late wife, Joan, have five sons (one recently deceased) and seven grandchildren, all living in Richmond. Their oldest son, Douglas, is a 1975 graduate of Randolph-Macon.

 

Dr. Dianne L. Reynolds-Cane

Dr. Dianne L. Reynolds-Cane received her doctorate of medicine from the Howard University College of Medicine and is the primary care physician at the Southside Medical Center of the Capital Area Health Network. She will receive an honorary Doctor of Science degree.

She is a former Agency Director of the Virginia Department of Health Professions, an Executive Branch agency in Virginia’s Health and Human Resources Secretariat, which licenses and regulates more than 380,000 healthcare practitioners. She is a former medical director of the Daily Planet Health Care for the Homeless Medical Clinic, now the Daily Planet Health Services, in Richmond.   Additionally, she was the Medical Director for Henrico County’s Jail West and Regional Jail East.

Dr. Reynolds-Cane is a VCU Williamson Institute Health Law Fellow, a Claude Moore Physician Leadership Institute Health Policy Fellow, and a past fellow of the U.S. Federation of State Medical Boards. Previously, she served on former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell’s Homeless Outcomes Advisory Committee, the Virginia Wounded Warrior Program Interagency Executive Strategy Committee, the board of directors of the Virginia Healthcare Workforce Development Authority, the Virginia Health Innovation Plan (co-chairing the healthcare workforce subgroup), and Virginia’s Health Reform Initiative as the senior advisor for workforce capacity.

Governor McDonnell designated Reynolds-Cane Virginia’s team leader for the development of a statewide plan to reduce prescription drug abuse in the Commonwealth, a collaboration with the National Governors Association Policy Academy. She is a past president of the Virginia Board of Medicine and a past member of the Virginia State Bar Third District Committee.

Dr. Reynolds-Cane served on several committees and boards of directors of government agencies and initiatives, community service organizations, museums, hospitals, colleges, and private schools. She was designated a Virginia Hero by tennis pro Arthur Ashe’s organization, and in 2009 Dominion Resources honored her as a Strong Woman in Virginia History. She received an Award of Excellence from the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and an Outstanding Woman Award in Health and Science from YWCA Richmond.

After her daughter Elizabeth entered RMC 2000, Dr. Reynolds-Cane turned her significant talents to Randolph-Macon, serving twice on the Board of Trustees. As a trustee emerita, she continues to make critical connections to help ensure the continuing success of the College’s health and medicine programs.