FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 8, 2003

CONTACT: Lisa Lacher, (515) 271-3119

DRAKE TO HOLD THREE COMMENCEMENT CEREMONIES THIS WEEK

More than 1,000 graduating students will participate in Drake University's commencement ceremonies, which will be begin with the Hooding Ceremony for pharmacy graduates at 4 p.m. Friday, May 9, at the Drake Knapp Center, 2601 Forest Ave.

The Law School Commencement Ceremony will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, May 9, in the Drake Knapp Center. Linda Reade, federal district court judge for the Northern District of Iowa, will give the commencement address. She received her bachelor's degree from Drake in 1970 and her law degree from Drake Law School in 1980.

The Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony will start at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 10, at the Drake Knapp Center. The recipients of the Madelyn M. Levitt Outstanding Mentor of the Year Award and the Madelyn M. Levitt Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award will be announced at this ceremony and again at the Graduate Commencement Ceremony. Speakers will include Drake President David Maxwell, Amber Clapp, winner of the Oreon E. Scott Award (the top honor for Drake seniors), and Iowa Chief Justice Louis A. Lavorato, who will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

Lavorato was appointed to the Iowa Supreme Court in 1986 and has presided over the court since 2000. The son of parents who emigrated from Italy to the United States in 1920, Lavorato graduated first in his class from Drake University Law School in 1965, served as assistant editor of Drake Law Review and was named to the Order of the Coif. His father, Charles, worked as a shoe repairman by day and a janitor at Drake by night while Lavorato and his siblings attended Drake.

Lavorato worked in private law practice in the firm of Williams, Hart, Lavorato and Kirtley in West Des Moines until he was appointed to the 5th Judicial Court in 1979. In 1983, he was elected chief judge of the 5th Judicial District Court. As chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court, Lavorato has been instrumental to a reorganization of the Iowa court system and the construction of a new Supreme Court building.

The Graduate Commencement Ceremony for students graduating with master's, specialist and doctoral degrees will take place at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 10, in the Drake Knapp Center.

The commencement address will be given by former College of Arts and Sciences Dean Myron "Mike" Marty, who recently retired as the Ann G. and Sigurd E. Anderson university professor of history. His address is titled "Recycling the 'A's.' "