Samford University in Birmingham graduated about 1,074 seniors during seven commencement ceremonies that were held May 6–14.
Speakers touched on themes of service, persistence in pursuing goals, finding contentment in personal and professional life, not waiting to be a force for good, being the hands and feet of Christ and other topics of encouragement and challenge.
At the ceremony for the Howard College of Arts and Sciences on May 14, Samford President Andrew Westmoreland made special mention of two women who completed their academic work decades after they began it.
Lottie Jacks, 85, of Vestavia Hills, received the bachelor’s degree that she began pursuing in 1948. After dropping out of Howard College in 1951 one semester shy of graduation, she re-enrolled at Samford in 2015 to complete a degree in biology. She is a member of Vestavia Hills Baptist Church.
Awards, recognitions
Elois Ewart, 90, of Mooresville, North Carolina, received an associate’s degree after recently earning the three remaining credits she needed for the degree she had begun in 1944.
Samuel T. Hahn, a classics major and University Fellows honor student from Siloam Springs, Arkansas, received the President’s Cup — the valedictorian honor.
Laura C. Bean, a Brock Scholar and University Fellow from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, received the Velma Wright Irons salutatorian award.
Lauren Elizabeth Sims, a journalism and mass communication major from Trenton, Georgia, earned the John C. Pittman Spirit Award, which recognizes a graduating senior who has consistently exhibited exceptional Christian character in community life.
Cumberland School of Law graduating senior Stewart Alvis, of Birmingham, received the law school’s annual Daniel Austin Brewer Professionalism Award.
Commencement speakers were: Nashville business executive Stuart C. McWhorter, McWhorter School of Pharmacy; Episcopal Diocese of Dallas Bishop George R. Sumner, Beeson Divinity School; Samford vice president for marketing and communication Betsy Holloway, Brock School of Business; Cherokee County physician Ryan Dru Rainer, College of Health Sciences; Birmingham attorney Terry McCarthy, Cumberland School of Law; New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary administrator William F. Warren, Howard College of Arts and Sciences; and Samford Legacy League Executive Director Jeanna Westmoreland, School of the Arts and Orlean Bullard Beeson School of Education.
In a relatively new tradition of spring commencement weekend, about 300 graduates and faculty members gathered for a prayer breakfast May 13. Words of inspiration and encouragement around the themes of friendship, scholarship and faith were voiced by students and faculty, including Andrew Westmoreland.
“In every way imaginable you have touched our lives and caused us to be better people because you were here,” Andrew Westmoreland said. “This institution will endure long after all of us are gone. But it will be stronger because you are here today and because of the memory that you were here. You will make the world a better place because of your time at Samford.”
Three graduating seniors were commissioned second lieutenants in the United State Air Force during ceremonies for Samford’s Air Force ROTC Detachment 012 on May 12. They are: Benjamin Edward Coleman, of Pleasant View, Tennessee; Kaley McRae Glenn, of Fairburn, Georgia; and Katie Elizabeth Kosan, of Madison.
Seven Samford faculty members will retire this year. They are: Patricia Outlaw, divinity; Jim Brown, history; Lavone Warren, law; Arlene Hayne and Joy Whatley, nursing; Eric Olson, theatre; and Millicent Bolden, world languages and cultures.
(Samford)
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