Honorary Degree Recipients

December 15, 2007

Conrad M. Hall
Awarded the Doctor of Humane Letters, Honorus Causa.

Hall serves as president and chief executive officer of Dominion Enterprises, a Landmark Communications-owned company that provides media and information services to the employment, automotive, real estate, marine, recreation and industrial markets. A native of Norfolk, he joined Landmark Communications Inc. in 1970 and has since served in a variety of business operations and financial positions before moving into his current role.

Thelma Harrison
Awarded the Doctor of Humane Letters, Honorus Causa.

Harrison has been an active participant in the civil rights movement her entire life. Born in Norfolk, she attended the segregated J.J. Smallwood Elementary School, which was once located on the present Old Dominion University campus. She later moved to New York City where she was a nurse at Lenox Hill Hospital, and she worked with U.S. Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. for 30 years in the area of voter registration. Today, she continues to work in her community, including registering voters in her neighborhood.

ADM Edmund P. Giambastiani, U.S. Navy (Ret.)
Awarded the Doctor of Science, Honorus Causa.

Giambastiani is a former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation's second-highest ranking military officer. During a 37-year naval career, Giambastiani was the first director of strategy and concepts at the Doctrine Command and led several submarine and anti-submarine commands. In these roles, he supported the creation of an Old Dominion University master's degree devised specifically for Navy nuclear-qualified officers, to be delivered by asynchronous technologies above and below the ocean's surface.

GEN Benjamin S. Griffin
Awarded the Doctor of Science, Honorus Causa.

Griffin, commanding general of the U.S. Army Materiel Command headquartered at Fort Belvoir, graduated from Old Dominion University in 1969 with a bachelor of science degree in business management. As commanding general, Griffin directs a workforce of 50,000 military and civilian employees, located in 45 states and 38 countries, whose missions range from the development of sophisticated weapons systems and research to the maintenance and distribution of spare parts worldwide. Prior to his current assignment, he was the Army's deputy chief of staff.

George C. Crawley
Awarded the Doctor of Humane Letters, Honorus Causa.

Crawley has dedicated his life to serving the city of Norfolk, and was eventually promoted to assistant city manager in 1982, a post he would hold for 14 years. After retiring, Crawley returned to public service in 1997 as assistant executive director for community building with Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority. Active in the community, Crawley is the founder, president and chairman of the board of The 200+ Men Inc., a regional organization of African American men who work to improve access to opportunities in education, economic development and community betterment.

M.G. Vassanji
Awarded the Doctor of Humane Letters, Honorus Causa.

Vassanji, a nuclear physicist turned writer, grew up in Kenya and Tanzania. He is a co-founder of a literary magazine, The Toronto Review of Contemporary Writing Abroad, and in 1989 published his first novel, "The Gunny Sack." He has gone on to write six more novels and two collections of short stories. His most recent novel, "The Assassin's Song," was a finalist for both the Giller Prize and the Governor-General's Literary Awards for best novel in Canada.

May 5, 2007

Marian Wright Edelman
Awarded the Doctor of Humane Letters, Honorus Causa.

Ms. Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund (CDF), was the speaker for the morning commencement ceremony on May 5, 2007.