Former President Bush to Offer World Views to Class of 2000

CONTACT: Mike Cinelli

PHONE:
(713) 831-4794
E-MAIL: mcinelli@rice.edu

FORMER PRESIDENT BUSH TO OFFER WORLD VIEWS TO CLASS OF
2000

Rice University Commencement Ceremonies Set for May
13

President George Herbert Walker
Bush, whose vantage points have stretched from the cockpit of a World War II
fighter plane to the Oval Office during the Gulf War and the implosion of
communism, will deliver his views on world affairs during Rice University’s
Commencement ceremonies May 13, 2000.

It will mark the second time in three years Bush has
attended commencement festivities on the Main Street campus. He and former first
lady Barbara Bush were on hand in 1998 to witness the graduation of grandson
George P. Bush, son of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

”It will be a great privilege for our year 2000 graduates
and their families to hear the 41st president of the United States,” said Rice
President Malcolm Gillis. ”George Herbert Walker Bush has had a truly luminous
career in the military, in business, politics, intelligence and diplomacy. In
addition to being a Rice grandparent, he was an associate of Lovett College. We
are pleased that he will once again grace our campus with his
presence.”

Bush continues the lineage of recent distinguished
Commencement Day speakers at Rice, which include former German Chancellor Helmut
Schmidt, novelist Kurt Vonnegut, former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker
III, current Republican Party presidential candidate and former head of the
American Red Cross Elizabeth Dole, current Democratic Party presidential
candidate and former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley, Harvard law professor Alan
Dershowitz and former President Jimmy Carter.

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