More than 600 students joined the ranks of Shepherd University alumni at the 138th Commencement exercises on Saturday, May 14. This year 622 baccalaureate degrees were awarded and 34 master's degrees. (Submitted photo)

More than 600 students joined the ranks of Shepherd University alumni at the 138th Commencement exercises on Saturday, May 14. This year 622 baccalaureate degrees were awarded and 34 master’s degrees.

Jim Lehrer, executive editor and anchor of the PBS NewsHour, delivered this year’s commencement address and was also awarded an honorary doctorate.

In October 1975, the half-hour Robert MacNeil Report, with Jim Lehrer as the Washington correspondent, premiered. Over the next seven years, The MacNeil/Lehrer Report, as it was renamed in 1976, won more than 30 awards for journalistic excellence. In September 1983, Lehrer and MacNeil launched The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. The 1995-96 season marked the 20th year of their journalistic partnership, as well as MacNeil’s departure and Lehrer’s stewardship of the program as The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. In 2009, the program title changed to PBS NewsHour to reflect the program’s expanded role as the hub of news and public affairs programming on PBS both online and on air.

Lehrer has served as the moderator of 11 nationally televised presidential debates during the last six presidential elections. He is the author of 20 novels, two memoirs and three plays.

Recipients of this year’s President’s Award were Tia and Robert A. (Bob) McMillan, chair of Shepherd University’s Create the Future Campaign. The McMillians were recognized for their exemplary service to Shepherd University and the community.

Bob McMillan’s long service to the University includes membership on the Board of Advisors (2000) and the Board of Governors (2001-09), where he served as board chair from 2007-09. Tia McMillan was a founding member of the Contemporary American Theater Festival, serving on its board of trustees from 1991 to 1997. She is now an honorary CATF board member.

In addition to their financial support of the Create the Future Campaign, the McMillans have established the McMillan Family Scholarship with the Shepherd University Foundation, which is awarded annually to a theater student. They are members of Shepherd’s Friends of Music and the Shepherd University Foundation’s Scarborough Society, a friends of the library association.

A reception, sponsored by the Shepherd University Alumni Association, followed the ceremony at the Shepherd University Wellness Center.