As more than 5,000 people watched under the oaks on its front campus, Davidson College gave diplomas to 427 students during 2010 commencement exercises Sunday morning. Also at the ceremony, the college gave an honorary degree to a Presybterian missionary whose daughter was among the graduates, and presented the annual Algernon Sydney Sullivan community service awards to two residents and a graduating senior.

Residents Bernice Houston & Pam Stephenson honored. See related story, CLICK HERE>

As they prepared to leave, the class of 2010 pulled off a big achievement: the highest participation rate ever at Davidson in a senior class gift.  Class president Laura Sousa announced that 99.3 percent of members made gifts to the Annual Fund, totaling $12,013. That achievement, led by gift drive chairs Linnea Buttermore and John Edwards, allowed the class to claim an additional $14,000 under a challenge from Davidson’s president.

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

In keeping with tradition, Davidson President Thomas W. Ross ’72 was the only speaker Sunday. His remarks – under sunny skies – quoted from past speeches by Davidson’s three living presidents emeritus, who were all at the ceremony. The message urged graduates, to use a Latin phrase, “esse quam videri” (to be, rather than to seem).

President Ross borrowed a comment from former president Samuel R. Spencer ’40 at the 1981 commencement, saying: “Having been a part of this community, you will know that honor and integrity can indeed be more than empty, worn-out terms; that respect for persons as persons can be more than a pretty theory.”

The president then quoted John W. Kuykendall ‘59, who said at a celebration this year of the 100th anniversary of Davidson’s student-administered Honor Code, “The honor system at Davidson is intended to convince each person who submits to its discipline that she or he will be the one person most responsible for the conduct of the rest of her/his life.”

Finally, President Ross quoted Robert F. Vagt ’69, who said in 2006: “Davidson encourages a lifelong commitment to this thing called personal honor; and it develops and flourishes with every passing year that we are away from this place.”

“Nothing is more important to your reputation and credibility than living with integrity and honor. It must be a lifetime commitment, and you must renew it day by day,” President Ross said.

He closed by inviting graduates to consider the implications of esse quam videri. He said, “Are you going to be a person of integrity or merely seem like one when it serves your self-interest? You must decide. Davidson has prepared you to make good choices. So now it is up to you.”

SERVICE AWARDS

The college presented three Algernon Sydney Sullivan Awards for outstanding spiritual qualities unselfishly applied to daily living without regard to recognition. They went to townspeople Pam Stephenson and Bernice Houston, and to Katie Epstein ’10. (See related story, “College honors Houston, Stephenson, Epstein.”

HONORARY DEGREE

The college presented an honorary doctor of divinity degree to Frank E. Dimmock, a Presbyterian missionary and doctor who has treated the ill in sub-Saharan Africa for the past 30 years. His daughter, Jesse, was a member of the graduating class.

“He is a practical visionary who has joined faith, intellect, and relentless compassion to strengthen communities and improve countless lives,” read Dimmock’s citation. A native Tarheel and 1978 N.C. State graduate, Dimmock studied public health, epidemiology and tropical medicine at Tulane University. As the first Africa Health Liaison of the Presbyterian Church (USA), he has founded and served numerous Christian health associations and networks in Africa.

One of his many achievements is development of “Health Passports.” These small booklets carried by individuals contain preventative health information, as well as blank pages on which health-care providers can describe illness and record treatment. The health passports have benefitted public health efforts in Sub-Saharan Africa, reducing unnecessary tests or treatments, and giving health providers quick access to a patient’s history.

HONORS

First Honor for the highest grade point average in the class went to Julia B. Ward of Port Orange, Fla., graduated magna cum laude with a major in Spanish. Ward studied abroad for a year in Madrid with a Hamilton College program, and was active in Dance Ensemble, Freedom Schools, the Timmy Foundation and the Ada Jenkins Community Center dental clinic. Next year she will be a Teach for America teacher in Phoenix, and she has a long-term interest in practicing medicine.

Second Honor went to Baker E.L. Shogry of Greensboro, N.C., who graduated magna cum laude with a major in economics. He served as vice president of the Student Government Association, founded the Davidson College Aviation Club, participated in club-level athletics and was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. He has secured employment with the Bain and Company management consulting firm, and will start in the Atlanta office this fall.

Hunter-Hamilton Love of Teaching Awards, the college’s top teaching honor, went to Durwin R. Striplin, Associate Professor of Chemistry, and to Elizabeth Mills, Professor of English and chair of that department. Each award includes $7,500 for the recipient, and $7,500 more for the recipient to designate to a college cause.

Dr. Striplin, a summa cum laude graduate of Eastern New Mexico University who earned his Ph.D. at Washington State University, was described as maintaining “a well-known zeal for life that is shared with the world through a nearly permanent smile.”

Current and former students who nominated him for the honor praised his ability to help students achieve, and patience in helping them both in the classroom and his office. One stated, “With him, I learned more than I ever had in such a small amount of time . . . and however hard I was working, I knew he was working harder.” Dr. Striplin, who has taught at Davidson since 1996, also received the Student Government Association’s 2006-07 Faculty Award.

In research he conducts with student assistants, Dr. Striplin is striving to discover the “holy grail” of chemistry. For the past 15 years, his research has concerned breaking down water into its component elements of hydrogen and oxygen, a process that mimics photosynthesis, and which would provide an almost limitless supply of fuel for hydrogen-burning engines.

Dr. Mills has taught at Davidson since 1985, and currently chairs the English department. She was appreciated for instilling a thirst of knowledge into students. One nominator said, “None of the students in my class brought a love of the subject to the first meeting, but we all took a love of it away from the last meeting.”

She was praised for demanding high standards from students, and helping them achieve, for caring and nurturing students outside the classroom, and for extending helping relationships with students beyond their four years on campus.

Dr. Mills earned her Ph.D. from UNC, writing her dissertation on poets Emily Dickinson and A.R. Ammons. Her scholarly interests remain in American literature, particularly poetry, and all literature by women. She has taught seminars about Emily Dickinson, literature of the American South, and the development of writers Sylvia Plath, Toni Morrison, and Margaret Atwood. Mills has also been a director in the Humanities program. She won the Omicron Delta Kappa Teaching Award in 2000.