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News and Event Releases > William Winter to Speak at Millsaps College Graduation on May 8, 2010

William Winter to Speak at Millsaps College Graduation on May 8, 2010

Former Mississippi Governor William F. Winter, known for his leadership in passing the 1982 Mississippi Education Reform Act, will deliver the commencement address at Millsaps College on Saturday, May 8, 2010 at 9:30 a.m.

This year, 211 undergraduates and 56 graduate students are expected to receive degrees during the ceremony on campus in the Bowl. The ceremony will be the 116th commencement of the college.

Honorary degrees will be bestowed upon Sister Mary Dorothea Sondgeroth, president and chairman of the Board of St. Dominic Health Services, Inc.; Fred L.  Banks Jr., former presiding justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court; Christy Gilliland Dunaway, a Millsaps alumnus and director of LIFE (Living Independence For Everyone of Mississippi); and Rt. Rev. Duncan Gray Jr., former bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi.

Millsaps College Acting President Howard L. McMillan said that Millsaps is honored to have Winter, a true statesman and advocate for social progress, speak to the 2010 graduating class.

"Governor Winter has given speeches throughout the years that demonstrate his belief that the institutions of higher learning play a major role in charting a course for the future by providing not only an education for our children, but a better life for us all," he said. "We anticipate an inspiring commencement address."

Winter served as Mississippi's governor from 1980 to 1984. He was a member of President Clinton's National Advisory Board on Race, and was instrumental in the founding of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi. In 2008, he was awarded the Profile in Courage Award by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. He was the first holder of the Eudora Welty Chair of Southern Studies at Millsaps College in 1989 and holds an honorary degree from Millsaps.

Winter is a graduate of the University of Mississippi School of Law and an attorney in the firm of Watkins Ludlam Winter & Stennis.  He is married to the former Elise Varner, and they have three daughters and five grandchildren.