Lander University will hold its spring commencement ceremonies on Saturday, April 28, at 11 a.m., in the university's Finis Horne Arena. Degrees will be awarded to 296 students including 12 international students from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Finland, France, Sweden and Zimbabwe.
The commencement speaker will be Howard C. Kauffmann, an oil industry executive for more than 40 years, who retired in 1985 as director and president of Exxon Corporation.
Kauffmann, who graduated from the University of Oklahoma College of Engineering in 1943 with a mechanical engineering degree, will be awarded an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree by Lander. He is the father of the Rev. Doug Kauffman, pastor of Connie Maxwell Baptist Church in Greenwood and a member of the adjunct faculty of Lander University, where he teaches world religions. He will give the Invocation and Benediction at the opening and closing of the ceremony.
Among the graduates are four students who completed Lander's Reserve Officers' Training Corps program and will be commissioned as second lieutenants in the U.S. Army. They are: Eva Sample, of Saluda, a sociology major; Kyle Pileggi, of Greenwood, majoring in physical education; Ronald Powell, of Greenwood, a history major, and Stephen Skelly, of Chapin, majoring in business with a management/marketing emphasis.