Times columnist Friedman named commencement speaker

Thomas L. Friedman, foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times and author of the provocative bestseller, The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization, will address the Class of 2001 at Wheaton's 166th commencement on Saturday, May 19 at 10 a.m.

Considered one of America's leading interpreters of world affairs, Friedman was born in Minneapolis in 1953. He completed his undergraduate education at Brandeis University and in 1978, received a master's degree in modern Middle East studies from St.Antony's College, Oxford, through the British Marshall Scholarship program. His first book, From Beirut to Jerusalem, won the National Book Award for non-fiction in 1988.

Using globalization as a framework for interpreting international affairs, Friedman has served as foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times since 1995. Before that, he worked as bureau chief of the Times' Beirut office, chief White House correspondent, chief diplomatic correspondent covering Secretary of State James Baker and the end of the Cold War and foreign economics correspondent for the Times. He won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting twice in the 1980s. ''I have a very simple rule of journalism,'' Friedman has said of his storied career. ''If you come home empty, you leave empty. You've got to come with a point of view.''

Friedman last spoke at Wheaton in 1993 as part of the college's Miriam Lee Tropp Memorial Lecture Series. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the British Marshall Scholarship Commission and is a trustee of Brandeis University. He has received honorary degrees from Brandeis, Macalester, Haverford and Hebrew Union College. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with his wife, Ann, and their daughters, Orly and Natalie.

Joining Friedman on the dais on May 19 will be four honorary degree recipients. They are Margaret J. Tibbets'41, former ambassador to Norway; Frederick Barton, the United Nations deputy high commissioner for refugees; Winston R. Hindle, Jr., Wheaton trustee and former senior vice president of Digital Equipment Corporation, and John F. Mars, president and CEO of Mars, Inc. Mars is the husband of Wheaton trustee Adrienne B. Mars '58.

Wheaton, located in Norton, Mass., is a selective college of the liberal arts and sciences with a student body of 1,500. It is a member of the Twelve College Exchange, which also includes Amherst, Bowdoin, Connecticut, Dartmouth, Mount Holyoke, Smith, Trinity, Vassar, Wellesley, Wesleyan and Williams. For more information about commencement at Wheaton or for directions, please contact the office of communications at 508-285-8235.
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