Locatelli chooses graduation speakers

By MICHAEL KOSTECKA

The speakers for this year's commencement ceremonies are Bob Newhart, civic leader Ann Bowers, and Abner J. Mikva, a former legislator and retired federal court judge.Chosen by Paul Locatelli, SJ, the speakers were approved by the Board of Trustees on Feb. 11 and then invited to speak at the respective ceremonies.

Bob Newhart, the well-known and widely regarded veteran of television, movies, theater and records, will give the commencement speech on June 8th at Buck Shaw Stadium. He will be given an honorary degree from Santa Clara as well as the opportunity to hand his daughter Courtney her bachelor's degree.

Newhart began his career in the early 1960's, creating a series of dry humor routines in which he played a well-meaning but slightly confused organizational man reacting to events such as the invention of tobacco and King Kong's scaling of the Empire State Building. The reactionary comic is probably most famous for his understated roles in "The Bob Newhart Show," which ran ahead of Mary Tyler Moore from 1972-1978, and "Newhart," which ran from 1982-1990.

Abner J. Mikva, a well-known legislator and retired judge, will receive an honorary degree and speak at the Santa Clara University School of Law commencement ceremony on May 13. Mikva, once called the "darling of America's liberals" by the New York Times, has led a distinguished career in both the private and public sector. Mikva served his state by representing the members of his district, first as an Illinois assemblyman from 1956-66, and then as a five-term congressman.

He was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1979 by President Carter. Mikva served on the appellate court until 1991, when he became chief judge of the 10th Circuit. Watching three of his fellow appellate judges promoted to the Supreme Court ahead of him, including the now infamous Clarence Thomas, Mikva once said that he was "too old, too white, too male and too liberal" ever to be named to the Supreme Court. President Clinton lured Mikva back into the political arena once again during the Republican resurgence of 1994, this time as White House Counsel, where he served until 1996.

Ann Bowes-Noyce, a member of the Santa Clara University Board of Trustees and the Silicon Joint Education Initiative, will give the commencement speech at the graduate ceremony on June 11 at Buck Shaw Stadium. During her years in the community, she has been active in the civic arena, especially in the merger of education and technology. As chair of the Silicon Valley Joint Venture Education Initiative, Bowers has played a key role in challenging Silicon Valley Schools to orient themselves to the technological advances of the twenty-first century. She also serves as a senior trustee of the Noyce Foundation, which focuses on initiating system-wide improvements in K-12 public schools in the areas of literacy, math and science.