DATE: Saturday, March 1, 1997               TAG: 9703010407

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: NEWPORT NEWS DAILY PRESS 

DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG                      LENGTH:   31 lines

THATCHER WILL BE SPEAKER AT W&M COMMENCEMENT

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher will be the speaker at this year's commencement ceremony at the College of William and Mary, college officials announced Friday.

Thatcher, the college's current chancellor, gave a speech at last year's Charter Day ceremony. Thatcher also has been on campus to attend meetings of the college's Board of Visitors.

The May 11 commencement ceremony, scheduled for 1 p.m. in William and Mary Hall, is open to college graduates and their parents. Tickets are not available to the public. Three people will receive honorary degrees at commencement: Rep. Herbert Bateman, R-Newport News; Natalie Zemon Davis, a retired professor of history at Princeton University; and Mark H. McCormack, chairman of the International Management Group and husband of tennis champion Betsy Nagelson.

Thatcher, Britain's prime minister from 1979 to 1990, succeeded the late Chief Justice Warren E. Burger as William and Mary's chancellor in 1993. The post is largely ceremonial and carries a seven-year term.

Commencement speakers are invited by the Board of Visitors, with input from a committee of students.

Bateman, a 1949 graduate of William and Mary who was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982, will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu