Honorary Degrees To Be Awarded to Alumni Ronald W. Simms and Robert Bruggeworth
Wilkes University will hold its 72nd Spring Commencement on Saturday, May 18 in the McHale Athletic Center of the University Center on Main, 169 S. Main St. in Wilkes-Barre. Graduate students earning master’s and doctoral degrees will receive their diplomas at a 10 a.m. ceremony. Undergraduate students earning bachelor’s degrees will be awarded diplomas at a 3 p.m. ceremony. Wilkes President Patrick F. Leahy will preside over both ceremonies, marking his last commencement as president.
Anne Skleder, Wilkes senior vice president and provost, will address the graduates at the 10 a.m. ceremony. It is Skleder’s last commencement before she departs the university this summer to become president of Brenau University in Georgia.
Two honorary degrees will be awarded at the 3 p.m. ceremony. Robert Bruggeworth, a 1983 Wilkes graduate, and Ronald W. Simms, a 1960 Wilkes graduate, will each receive an honorary doctorate of business. Bruggeworth, who majored in electrical engineering at Wilkes, is president and chief executive officer of Qorvo, a global communications chip maker headquartered in Greensboro, N.C. Simms, a Shavertown, Pa., resident, earned his Wilkes degree in commerce and finance. He is chairman of the board of Petroleum Service Co., an international distributor of petroleum products, and president and chairman of the board of Mountain Productions, a national leader in stage design and construction. Both companies are based in Wilkes-Barre. Graduating senior Kya Lewis, a Philadelphia area resident, will be the student speaker at the 3 p.m. ceremony. Lewis is the recipient of the Alumni Leadership Award, presented by the Wilkes University Alumni Association to the member of the graduating class considered to have made the strongest contribution to student life and the student activities program of the University. Lewis, a business management and marketing major, has served as two-term president of programming board, been a resident assistant and was orientation coordinator.
