Florida Tech Confers 1,400 Degrees in Spring Commencement Ceremonies

Aerospace Innovator Tom Vice
Addresses Undergraduates

MELBOURNE, FLA. — Students from 36 states and a record 69 countries crossed the stage at the Clemente Center Saturday, May 6, distinguished by their geography but united by their accomplishment: graduating from Florida Institute of Technology.

In the undergraduate ceremony, 575 students received their associate and bachelor’s degrees. The graduate ceremony later that afternoon featured 478 students who have earned master’s and doctoral degrees.

Add to that 167 graduates from off-site programs, 297 graduates from the university’s online programs and 21 dual degree recipients, and Florida Tech bestowed 1,402 degrees for spring 2017.

The morning ceremony featured a keynote address from someone who knows about accomplishments: Tom Vice, a longtime member of the Florida Tech board of Trustees who has more than 30 years of experience at Northrop Grumman.

Vice joined the company in 1986 as an engineer on the B-2 stealth bomber. Since then, he has led nearly every aspect of the business – engineering, program management, advanced programs and technology, manufacturing and operations, supply chain management, business development, quality and mission assurance, and information technology. He has led businesses at more than 300 locations in all 50 states and 29 countries, supporting a diverse customer base, including the U.S. departments of Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, State and the Interior, as well as NASA.

In the afternoon ceremony, President T. Dwayne McCay offered remarks and conferred two posthumous honorary degrees. One degree was for Bjornar Hermansen, the cruise industry visionary, businessman and philanthropist who served on the Florida Tech Board of Trustees for 26 years. He passed away Dec. 30, 2015. The other degree was conferred on Nathan Bisk, the online education pioneer and Florida Tech benefactor who served on the university’s Board of Trustees for nearly eight years. He passed away March 6.

For more information and details on the Web broadcast of both ceremonies, go to www.fit.edu/graduation/.

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