Mark Whitaker, newly tapped Newsweek magazine editor and son of Wheaton French professor emerita Jeanne Whitaker, will deliver the 164th commencement address to the college’s class of 1999 on May

May 16, 1999

Mark Whitaker, newly tapped Newsweek magazine editor and son of Wheaton French professor emerita Jeanne Whitaker, will deliver the 164th commencement address to the college's class of 1999 on May 22. The ceremony, which begins at 10 a.m., will be broadcast on the World Wide Web.

"We're happy to have Mark Whitaker addressing the Wheaton community. He has a very distinguished record in journalism with worldwide experience and a particular familiarity with technology issues, so he's on the cutting edge of issues that are of interest to Wheaton students and their families. Mark Whitaker is multicultural, young and dynamic," says President Dale Rogers Marshall.

Joining Mr. Whitaker on the dais will be honorary degree recipients Dr. Nancy Kernan, a 1974 Wheaton graduate and assistant chief of bone marrow transplant services at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Joanna DeHaven Underwood, founder and president of INFORM, Inc., an environmental research organization; and Harry V. Keefe, Jr., a Wheaton College trustee, leading investment banker and founder of Keefe Managers, Inc..

Commencement speaker Mr. Whitaker rose to editorial fame the old-fashioned way, according to his mother and Norton resident Professor Whitaker. "He got to where he is through hard work and perseverance. He's a perfectionist, and when he tackles something, he really wants to do it well."

Upon graduating from Harvard and leaving his post as editorial director of the Harvard Crimson, Mr. Whitaker took a Marshall scholarship with him to England's Oxford University. After internships with five different Newsweek bureaus, he joined as a full-time staffer in 1981.

Mr. Whitaker has been lauded as the first black to be named editor of a national weekly magazine of Newsweek's stature. But, as Whitaker told newspapers including the Washington Post upon his November 1998 appointment, he prefers to be recognized first for his merits as editor.

Mr. Whitaker, the son of academics, moved with his mother and brother Paul to Norton in 1965. He read books from Wheaton's library. He talked with college students, all female before Wheaton's transition to coeducation. "He felt that Norton was a good place to be, a safe place to be," says his mother.

Young Mark Whitaker also swam in the college pool, enjoyed local theater and went to Norton Junior High School. He spent a year in France during his mother's first sabbatical and later attended a Quaker boarding school.

Wheaton College is a private coeducational liberal arts college with a 1,400-member student body drawn from 45 states and 35 countries. It is a member of the Twelve College Exchange, which also includes Amherst, Bowdoin, Connecticut College, Dartmouth, Mount Holyoke, Smith, Trinity, Vassar, Wellesley, Wesleyan and Williams.