Batch to speak at 214th W&J commencement
Two-time Super Bowl champion quarterback and Pittsburgh native Charlie Batch will deliver the keynote address at Washington & Jefferson College’s 214th commencement ceremony at 10 a.m. May 18 on the lawn in front of Olin Fine Arts Center on Wheeling Street in Washington.
Batch will receive an honorary degree, as will Dr. Bernard Harris Jr., retired NASA astronaut and the first African-American to walk in space; James E. Rohr, executive chairman of PNC Financial Services Group, the nation’s seventh-largest bank with more than 5 million customers and 56,000 employees; and Rabbi Serena Fujita, Jewish chaplain at Bucknell University.
Fujita will be the keynote speaker at the Baccalaureate service at 6 p.m. May 17 at Church of the Covenant on East Beau Street in Washington. More than 330 students are expected to participate.
Batch was drafted by the NFL’s Detroit Lions and has played for the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2002. He is a free agent. Well known for his philanthropic efforts, Batch was presented with the first Jerome Bettis Award for Humanity and Community Service for his work supporting children through his Best of the Batch Foundation and for efforts to upgrade local football fields and basketball courts for area children. Most recently, he received the 2013 Byron “Whizzer” White NFL Man of the Year Award. The award honors work in the community.
Batch established The Best of the Batch Foundation in 1999 to serve underprivileged youth and is extensively involved in the Homestead community, where he grew up.
Harris became an astronaut in July 1991. Harris served as the crew representative for shuttle software in the Astronaut Office Operations Development Branch. He was a mission specialist on a flight from April 26 to May 6, 1993, and the payload commander on a February 1995 flight.
Harris received a bachelor of science degree in biology from the University of Houston, a doctorate in medicine from Texas Tech University School of Medicine and a master’s degree in biomedical science from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston in 1996.
A Cleveland, Ohio native, Rohr has spent his 41-year professional life at PNC-affiliated or predecessor companies, the last 13 as chief executive officer. Involved in a number of civic, cultural and educational organizations, Rohr has personally helped raise or contribute more than $300 million for charitable organizations. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame and earned a master’s degree from Ohio State University.
Fujita joined the Bucknell community in 2000 as its first full-time Jewish chaplain. During her tenure at Bucknell, she has instituted a series of Jewish heritage trips for students of all faiths to Holocaust sites in Eastern Europe, Russia, Peru and Uruguay. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history and philosophy from Queens College and a master’s degree in Hebrew literature from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.