The University of Missouri-Rolla’s winter commencement will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 18, in UMR’s Gale Bullman Multi-Purpose Building, 10th Street and Bishop Avenue. U.S. Sen. Christopher S. "Kit" Bond will deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary degree from UMR.

Approximately 550 degrees will be awarded.

Dr. Farouk El-Baz, research professor and director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University and a UMR graduate, will also receive an honorary degree.

People with sight, hearing and mobility impairments who are planning to attend commencement should contact UMR’s Office of Affirmative Action, Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator, at (573) 341-6314 as soon as possible for the university to provide reasonable accommodations.

In addition, the campus will hold its 2004 Winter Graduation Jubilee from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 17, in the Miner Lounge and Centennial Hall of University Center-East on campus. The event is held to salute UMR’s graduating students and will feature student projects, departmental showcases, student organizations, entertainment, food and fun. UMR students, faculty and staff, as well as parents and friends of graduating students and the professional degree recipients, are all invited to participate in this commencement event.

Bond is a sixth-generation Missourian, born in St. Louis in 1939. A native of Mexico, Mo., he graduated from Princeton University in 1960 and received his law degree from the University of Virginia, graduating first in his class.

After serving as a clerk to the chief judge of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Bond practiced law in Washington, D.C., before returning home to Mexico.

In 1969, Bond became an assistant attorney general under former Sen. John Danforth. Before his election to the state auditor post in 1970, Bond was chief counsel of Missouri’s Consumer Protection Division.

At age 33, Bond became Missouri’s 47th governor on Jan. 8, 1973 — the youngest governor in Missouri history. Bond was elected to a second term in 1980. Among his greatest accomplishments was taking the Parents as Teachers program statewide.

In 1986, Bond was elected to the U.S. Senate, the only Republican to capture a seat previously held by a Democrat. He was re-elected in 1992, 1998 and again in 2004.

As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Bond chairs the Veterans, Housing, NASA, Environmental Protection Agency Subcommittee. Bond also chairs the transportation and infrastructure subcommittee of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and the aging subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

Bond is also a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Commencement will be broadcast by streaming video after 5 p.m. on Saturday, for those parents and family members who cannot attend.

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