Winter commencement at the University of Missouri Rolla will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 16, in UMR’s Gale Bullman Multi-Purpose Building, 10th Street and Bishop Avenue in Rolla. UMR graduate David Wisherd will deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary doctorate.

Approximately 500 degrees will be awarded during commencement. In addition to Wisherd’s honorary doctorate, 10 honorary professional degrees will be awarded.

Wisherd is chairman of the board of WhereNet, a wireless resource management company in Santa Clara, Calif. Wisherd earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from UMR in 1969.

In 1984, Wisherd helped start Spectrian Corp., which designs and manufactures power amplifiers for use in cellular telephones. Prior to co-founding Spectrian in Sunnyvale, Calif., Wisherd held engineering and management positions at Motorola Inc. in Schaumburg, Ill.; King Radio in Olathe, Kan.; Communications Power Inc. in Mountain View, Calif.; Communications Transistor Corp. in San Carlos, Calif.; and MMD Inc. in Mountain View.

In 1995, Wisherd contributed to UMR’s Emerson Hall project in order to name the Gabriel G. Skitek Electromagnetics Laboratory after one of his favorite professors. A member of the university’s Order of the Golden Shillelagh, Wisherd established the David S. Wisherd Endowed Scholarship at UMR in 1996.

Wisherd founded WhereNet (formerly WiData) in 1997. WhereNet develops, manufactures and markets a wireless resource management system used for tracking inventory, monitoring job orders and maintaining equipment.

UMR awarded Wisherd an honorary professional degree in electrical engineering in 1999.