Biden, cartoonist Garry Trudeau among local commencement speakers

Between Vice President Joe Biden and Pulitzer Prize-winning "Doonesbury" cartoonist Garry Trudeau, graduates at two Hudson Valley colleges will likely hear plenty about politics during their commencement exercises.

Biden on May 21 will return to the United States Military Academy at West Point to deliver the commencement address. He was also the commencement speaker there in 2012.

Trudeau, who is also an author and producer, will deliver Marist College’s undergraduate commencement speech on May 21.

In 1975, he became the first comic strip artist to ever win a Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. Trudeau will also be awarded the Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree by the Town of Poughkeepsie college.

'Doonesbury' cartoonist to give Marist graduation speech

“Doonesbury continues to provide a sharp take on current events and I know our students will enjoy hearing from Trudeau the kind of wit and wisdom that has informed his strip for nearly five decades,” said Marist College spokesman Greg Cannon.

Michael O'Looney, a 1987 graduate of Marist and former reporter and anchor for the "CBS Evening News" and WCBS Television in New York City, will address graduates at the adult and graduate commencement on May 20.

Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, will deliver the commencement address at Vassar College in the Town of Poughkeepsie May 29.

Ifill, who graduated from Vassar in 1984, will be the fifth graduate to deliver the school’s commencement address. Actresses Meryl Streep and Lisa Kudrow, journalist Chip Reid and physicist Sau Lan Wu have also given addresses.

Attorney and best-selling author Regina Calcaterra on Sunday will deliver the commencement address at SUNY New Paltz. A 1988 graduate, her memoir “Etched in Sand" reached number two on The New York Times Best Sellers list and remained there for 17 weeks.

Dr. Timothy P. Flanigan on May 21 will deliver the commencement address at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh.

Flanigan is a professor of medicine in the Infectious Diseases Division of the Miriam and Rhode Island hospitals and Brown Medical School. He has also worked extensively in the field of HIV care.

A spokesperson for Bard College in Annandale said the school was still finalizing plans regarding its commencement speaker. Dutchess Community College typically does not have a keynote speaker during its commencement exercise.

John W. Barry: jobarry@poughkeepsiejournal.com, 845-437-4822, Twitter: @JohnBarryPoJo