Noted leaders, WSU alums to address graduates

A university president from Texas, a Washington State University regent and the head of a Pullman company serving the electric power industry worldwide will address graduates at Washington State University’s 110th spring commencement May 6 at Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum.

Texas Tech University President Jon Whitmore, a WSU graduate, will speak at the 8 a.m. ceremony for liberal arts graduates. WSU Regent Joe King, with King, Crowley and Co. public affairs consultants, will address graduates at 11:30 a.m. at the ceremony for business and education graduates. Edmund O. Schweitzer III, founder and president of Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories in Pullman and a WSU graduate, will speak at the 3 p.m. ceremony for agricultural, human, and natural resource sciences; engineering and architecture; pharmacy; nursing; sciences and veterinary medicine graduates.

WSU President V. Lane Rawlins will preside at all three ceremonies, which are open to the public.

Teri Nelson, university commencement coordinator, estimates about 2,200 students –1,975 undergraduates and 225 graduate and professional students — will take part in the three ceremonies. Recently, WSU has conferred
approximately 5,310 bachelor’s, master’s, professional and doctoral degrees in a typical year.

Whitmore became president of Texas Tech, located in Lubbock, Texas, in 2004. He earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in speech from WSU in 1967 and 1968, respectively. His doctoral degree in dramatic arts is from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Prior to joining Texas Tech, he was University of Texas at Austin fine arts dean and, before that, University of Iowa provost and a theatre arts professor. His background includes administrative and faculty positions at West Virginia University and State University of New York at Buffalo.

King, a regent since 1996 and the father of a WSU graduate, spent 20 years in the insurance and employee benefit field, where he was a partner in an agency. He served in the state Legislature (1980-1992), where his positions included speaker of the house, majority leader and trade and Economic Development Committee chair. A Tenino resident, he is an English graduate of Oregon’s Linfield College and earned a master’s degree in education from Western Kentucky University.

Schweitzer earned a WSU electrical engineer doctoral degree in 1977 and was a faculty member at the university. As his WSU doctoral project, he developed a digital relay. In 1982, this led to the creation of Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories. It makes protective relays, controls and devices which serve the electrical power industry. An
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Fellow, he earned an electrical engineering bachelor’s and master’s degree in 1968 and 1972, respectively, from Purdue University.  A WSU Alumni Achievement Award recipient, his philanthropy has aided WSU and others.