UPDATE: Obama to deliver Notre Dame commencement address

By MARGARET FOSMOE, Tribune Staff Writer

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Obama in Elkhart

President Barack Obama speaks at a town hall meeting on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, Monday, Feb. 9, 2009, in Elkhart, Ind. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

By Beth Boehne

Story Created: Mar 20, 2009 at 1:54 PM EST

Story Updated: Apr 28, 2009 at 3:12 PM EST

SOUTH BEND — President Barack Obama will deliver the commencement address May 17 at the University of Notre Dame.

Obama will be the principal speaker and the recipient of an honorary doctor of laws degree at the university’s 164th commencement ceremony, which will be in the Joyce Center, Notre Dame officials announced Friday.

Obama will be the ninth U.S. president to be awarded a Notre Dame honorary degree and the sixth to be the commencement speaker.

President George W. Bush spoke about faith-based and community initiatives when he was the commencement speaker in 2001. His father, President George H.W. Bush, gave the commencement address in 1992.

Notre Dame’s first presidential commencement speech was delivered by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1960.

President Jimmy Carter spoke at commencement in 1977, and President Ronald Reagan spoke in 1981, in his first public appearance after surviving an assassination attempt.

President John F. Kennedy received the Laetare Medal, Notre Dame’s highest honor, in a White House ceremony in 1961. Years earlier — as a U.S. senator in 1950 — he delivered the winter commencement address and received an honorary degree.

Notre Dame also awarded honorary degrees to Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Gerald Ford at special academic convocations.

Obama also will deliver commencement addresses at Arizona State University on May 13 and the U.S. Naval Academy on May 22, according to the Associated Press.

Staff writer Margaret Fosmoe:
mfosmoe@sbtinfo.com
(574) 235-6329

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