MCPS Commencement Speakers in 2002

With graduation right around the corner and the 2024 commencement speaker announcement for MCPS schools coming soon, we are continuing to take a look back at some of the speakers for previous classes. Last week we looked at the class of 2024 and now we will take a look at the speakers for the class of 2002.

Commencement speakers included public officials, business leaders, journalists, educators, scientists, actors, and sports figures. The schedule of speakers was highlighted by Condoleezza Rice, assistant to the President for National Security, who addressed graduates at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. Congresswoman Constance A. Morella spoke at both Rockville and Montgomery Blair high schools. Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend addressed students at Watkins Mill High School. Michael Algeo, associate judge with the Montgomery County Circuit Court, spoke to students at the Rock Terrace School.

Jason Kravits, actor in the TV series The Practice and Col. Zadok Magruder graduate, spoke at his alma mater. Other graduates who returned to their high schools to speak were Steve Coll, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at the Washington Post (Thomas S. Wootton High School), Hank Fraley of the Philadelphia Eagles football team (Gaithersburg High School), and Benja Akinagle, a graduate of Mark Twain School and Bucknell University.

Among other prominent commencement speakers were actor Danny Glover, who spoke at Walter Johnson High School, and four members of the 1971 Alexandria Titans football team, at Richard Montgomery High School. The speaker at Walt Whitman High School was political satirist William Strauss, a member of the Capitol Steps performing group. Former astronaut Frederick Hauch was the speaker at Winston Churchill High School. Paint Branch High School graduates hosted Assistant Chief Shawn Kelley of the Arlington Fire Department, who served at ground zero at the Pentagon. The class also invited former principal Fred Lowenbach to speak.

A number of teachers were asked to be commencement speakers by the graduating class at their school. They included Joan Schultz, social studies resource teacher at Poolesville High School; Al Thomas, former math teacher and coach at Seneca Valley High School; Ed Dalton, science teacher at Wheaton High School; Ian Bain, foreign language teacher at Springbrook High School; and Jeffery Deitchman, English teacher at Sherwood High School.

Other notable speakers included Terry Busch, former director of Human Resources for the CIA (Damascus High School), Board of Education member Kermit Burnett (Longview School) and student member Dustin Jeter (RICA), and TV journalists James Adams, WRC TV (Albert Einstein High School), Tim Kurkjian, ESPN (Quince Orchard High School), Rene Knott, WJLA TV (John F. Kennedy High School), Ken Mease, WUSA TV (Northwest High School), and Del Walters, WJLA TV (James Hubert Blake High School). Community Superintendent Louis Martinez addressed graduates of alternative programs.

Information courtesy of MCPS