At GVSU's spring commencement ceremony Saturday,around 1,180 students are expected to receive their bachelor's degrees and 300 will be awarded master's degrees.
Also at the ceremony, which begins at 10 a.m, former first lady Betty Ford, who will be presented with an honorary degree.
Since former President Gerald R. Ford led the nation from 1974-77, Betty Ford has been known as an active advocate for women's health care issues and improved awareness of and treatment for substance abuse problems. In 1982 she opened the Betty Ford Center, now regarded as the outstanding substance-abuse treatment facility in the nation, and she continues today to take an active role as chairman of the board. Mrs. Ford's accomplishments will be honored with the doctor of humane letters conferred by GVSU President Arend D. Lubbers.
Author and historian David McCullough will provide the commencement address. McCullough, called the master of the art of narrative history, is a familiar presence on PBS as host of The American Experience and narrator of many documentaries, including Ken Burns' The Civil War. His 1992 book, Truman, won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography and sold more than a million copies; his next book, a biography of John Adams, is due out in May. GVSU awarded an honorary degree to McCullough in 1997.
