Saint Peter’s College Anoounces Commencement Date and Honorary Degree Recipients

Jersey City, NJ – Saint Peter’s College will conduct its 113th Commencement on Sunday, May 23 at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey. The 11 a.m. ceremony will salute a graduating class of more than 800 full-time, part-time, evening and graduate students. The College will bestow Honorary Degrees upon 1967 graduate Robert G. Lahita, M.D., Ph.D., Freeman Dyson and Bernice Wilbur Alexander, RN. Dr. Lahita will deliver the Commencement address. Dr. Lahita is the Vice President and Chairman of Medicine at Jersey City Medical Center and a Professor of Medicine at the Mount Sinai Medical School. He is a leading authority in rheumatology and autoimmunity. As an expert in lupus, Dr. Lahita was called to the White House in 1990 to treat “First Dog” Millie who was suffering from the disease. He later consulted on the treatment of President George H. Bush and the First Lady Barbara Bush when they developed Graves’ disease. Dr. Lahita, one of New York magazine’s Best Doctors in New York for the last six years, has authored 14 books, the latest, Women and Autoimmune Disease: The Way The Body Betrays Itself, will be published by ReganBooks in July. Dr. Lahita is also an emergency medical technician (EMT) who gained national acclaim for his heroic acts on September 11, 2001. Immediately following the World Trade Towers attacks, as only doctor on site at Jersey City’s Exchange Place Pier where hundreds of the injured were evacuated to, Dr. Lahita became the triage commander and set up a field hospital where he worked for five days. After caring for the victims immediately following the attack, he then administered medical care to construction workers, firefighters, police officers and even rescue dogs. He gained praise from the American Red Cross, President and Mrs. George W. Bush, Jersey City Mayor Glen Cunningham and Hudson County Executive Thomas DeGise. He was also featured in the Time-Life Book Faces of Ground Zero. Dyson, a Professor Emeritus of Physics at the Institute for Advance Study in Princeton, worked on nuclear reactors, solid-state physics, ferromagnetism, astrophysics and biology, looking for problems where elegant mathematics could be usefully applied. He has written a number of books about science for the general public. Alexander served under Dwight D. Eisenhower as Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Nurse Corps and supervised 4,500 nurses in Africa, Italy and France during World War II. She was a delegate at-large to the United Nations and held numerous appointments to national committees and organizations including the Peace Corps and the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Saint Peter’s College is the Jesuit College of New Jersey. Founded in 1872, Saint Peter’s has an enrollment of more than 3,000 students in undergraduate and graduate programs. The main campus is located in Jersey City and a branch campus, specializing in adult education, is located in Englewood Cliffs. Saint Peter’s also offers classes in downtown Jersey City near the waterfront financial district and in South Amboy.