Former College President Timothy J. Sullivan will keynote the graduation ceremony at Christopher Newport University this year, CNU President Paul Trible announced in an e-mail to CNU students Wednesday.
p. Sullivan was the College’s graduation speaker in 2005, his last year leading the College. Since then, Sullivan has served as president and CEO of the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News.
p. “It is a great honor to have Tim Sullivan address our graduates,” Trible, a former U.S. Republican Senator from Virginia, said in a CNU press release. “As a professor and dean of the Marshall-Wythe School of Law and President of William and Mary and now as President of the Mariners’ Museum, Tim Sullivan has contributed immensely to the success of Virginia. His life embodies the qualities of leadership, honor and civic engagement that we strive to instill in all our students at CNU.”
p. Sullivan’s tenure at the College began in 1962, when he entered as a freshman. After graduating in 1966, he received a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Sullivan then served in the army during the Vietnam War. He returned to the College to run the Marshall-Wythe School of Law and became dean in 1985. In 1992, the Board of Visitors appointed him the College’s 25th president, a position he held for 13 years.
p. CNU’s commencement ceremony will take place May 13.