CEO of Kellogg Foundation to Speak at Gallaudet

Washington, DC— Gallaudet University’s Board of Trustees announced that the University will award Honorary Doctorate degrees to Drs. Thomas A. Mayes, and William C. Richardson, president and chief executive officer of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan. Dr. Richardson will also be the commencement speaker at Gallaudet University’s 129th commencement exercises on May 14, 1999, at the University’s Field House.

Dr. Thomas A. Mayes is often referred to as “The Father of Adult and Continuing Education for Deaf People.” He was the University’s first dean of Continuing Education and, later, vice president of Public Services.

Prior to becoming the dean, Mayes was a member of the University’s Board of Trustees. Under Mayes’ guidance, Gallaudet University reached out to thousands of deaf people, their families, and employers through the National Academy, the Family Learning vacations, Adult Basic Education, Continuing and Extension Programs, Sign Language Training, the National Information Center on Deafness, and programs for people who are deaf and blind. Mayes also established the Gallaudet University regional centers and secured funding from the Kellogg Foundation for the “Schools of the Future.”

Dr. Richardson, a highly regarded educator and executive and former president of Johns Hopkins University, joined the W.K. Kellogg Foundation as its president and CEO in August 1995.

Richardson is responsible for the Foundations $5 billion in assets, of which about $250 million a year is awarded to philanthropic causes. The Gallaudet University Kellogg Conference Center was made possible by a gift from the Foundation in 1993.

Dr. Richardson is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and is a fellow of the American Public Health Association. In addition to serving on the boards of the Kellogg Company and CSX Corporation, he was recently elected to The Board of Directors of The Bank of New York Company, Inc., and its principal subsidiary, The Bank of New York.

Gallaudet University will also award Professor Emeritus status to Dr. John S. Schuchman who will retire in December 1998 after an outstanding 30-year career at Gallaudet as a professor in the History and Government Department. During his long career at Gallaudet, Schuchman also served as Dean of the College and then vice president for Academic Affairs. Schuchman is an internationally recognized expert on “oral history” and an author of numerous articles and the book “Hollywood Speaks: Deafness and the Film Entertainment Industry.”