Presbyterian College’s Class of 2008 will be celebrated this spring as the college stages its 125th commencement exercises Saturday, May 10, on the West Plaza.

The college’s traditional outdoor graduation ceremony begins at 10 a.m. and also will feature speeches by mathematics professor Dr. Brian Beasley, PC’s Professor of the Year, and Outstanding Senior Cody Mitchell of Bethune, S.C.

The college also will confer two honorary degrees.

The Doctor of Divinity degree will be conferred on the Rev. Joan S. Gray, the moderator of the Presbyterian Church USA.

A 1973 graduate of PC, she is a parish associate pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Ga., where she lives with her husband, Bill, a member of the college’s board of trustees who also graduated from PC in 1973.

An expert on church polity and structure, Gray is the co-author of Presbyterian Polity for Church Officers and has served as moderator of the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission and as a member of the Advisory Committee on the Constitution for the PCUSA. Ordained as a Minister of the Word and Sacrament in 1978, she has primarily served as an interim minister in the Atlanta area. She also has served as an adjunct faculty member at both Columbia Theological Seminary and Johnson C. Smith Seminary, and has taught at Princeton Theological Seminary. In 2006, she was elected moderator for the 217th General Assembly in Birmingham, Ala.

Gray also will deliver the sermon at PC’s baccalaureate service at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 9.

The Doctor of Humane Letters will be conferred on Dr. Rand L. Stoneburner, a leading epidemiologist whose research on the AIDS epidemic has made a strong case for better education and communication regarding the disease and its decline.

A 1971 graduate of PC, Stoneburner is an independent health consultant associated with the World Health Organization. The former director of AIDS research and epidemiologic activities for the City of New York, he has a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University and a medical degree from Tulane University. He also has served with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and as an independent health consultant associated with the Health Population Evaluation Unit of Cambridge University in England.

Stoneburner currently resides in Wakefield, Rhode Island. He and his wife, Jennifer, have one daughter, Gillian. His brother, Craig Stoneburner, is a 1968 graduate of PC.

Commencement weekend will begin at 2 p.m. Friday, May 9, in Edmunds Hall with the traditional commissioning ceremony for Scottish Highlander Battalion graduates, the presentation of the Wysor Saber, and the induction of a distinguished soldier and PC alumnus into the college’s ROTC Hall of Fame.

This year’s ROTC Hall of Fame inductee is retired brigadier general Roscoe Lindsay Jr. of Charlotte, N.C. A retired attorney, he was active  in the U.S. Army, the Army Reserves, and the Army National Guard for more than 30 years.

Lindsay served in Germany during both the Berlin Crisis and the Cuban Missile Crisis and commanded both a Mountain Battalion and the 30 Infantry Brigade. During this tour, he trained with NATO troops at Fort Bragg, N.C.; Italy; and Portugal as part of the Land Forces Southern Europe in Verona, Italy.

He was awarded the Legion of Merit and the North Carolina Distinguished Service Medal, in addition to the Ancient Order of Saint Barbara. After his service as commandant of the OCS Academy in North Carolina, Lindsay had a cannon and monument dedicated in his honor at Fort Bragg.

Established in 1988 to honor graduates of the college who, after completing the ROTC program, went on to distinguished military careers that brought credit upon themselves and the college, the ROTC Hall of Fame is located in the college’s military science department in Jacobs Hall.

Inductees are nominated for the ROTC Hall of Fame and selected by a board that includes members representing the PC ROTC Alumni Association, as well as members of the college’s alumni office, advancement office, and military science department.

posted by Stacy Dyer '96