Newsman Hockenberry Will Speak to KSC Grads
KEENE, N.H. 4/30/02 Emmy Award-winning news correspondent John Hockenberry will address graduates and receive an honorary doctorate at the Keene State College Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 12. The event begins at 1 p.m. on Fiske Quad. KSC President Stanley J. Yarosewick will award associates, bachelors, and masters degrees to the 600 graduates who are expected to attend.
Hockenberry, a correspondent with Dateline NBC, has spent more than 20 years reporting on local and international events for television and radio. He spent more than a decade with National Public Radio as a general assignment reporter, Middle East correspondent and program host, then served as a correspondent for the ABC newsmagazine Day One, before becoming a correspondent for Dateline NBC and host of the prime-time program Hockenberry. Overseas, he covered the Persian Gulf War and the Palestinian uprising, and was one of the first Western journalists to report from Kurdish refugee camps. In this country, he investigated the discrimination faced by the disabled community and reported on a scientific controversy surrounding AIDS.
When he was 19, Hockenberry lost the use of his legs in an automobile accident. He wrote about his experiences as a foreign correspondent working in a wheelchair in his book Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs and Declarations of Independence. Hockenberry also performed Spokeman, an off- Broadway show based on his book, wrote the novel A River Out of Eden, and has contributed to many current affairs publications.
Hockenberry has won many awards for his work, among them Emmy Awards, Peabody Awards, a National Headliner Award, a National Press Club Honorable Mention, and a Columbia DuPont Award for foreign news coverage. He lives with his wife, Alison, and their four children in New York City.
The Commencement ceremony is the culmination of graduation activities at Keene State. On Saturday, May 5, the Spring Honors Convocation will be held at 5 p.m. in the Main Theatre of the Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond. Also on Saturday, a baccalaureate ceremony, sponsored by the Newman Center and Keene State College Campus Ministry, will begin at 8 p.m. in the Alumni Recital Hall of the Redfern Arts Center. Emerging Art: The Annual Art Student Exhibition will be on display at the Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery on Saturday and Sunday, from noon to 4 p.m. All events are free and open to the public.
For more information, visit the KSC web site at www.keene.edu/commencement.
