(Posted April 29, 2016)

Betty Ann Cherry, professor emerita of history, will be the Commencement speaker at the event starting May 14 at 10 a.m.
Betty Ann Cherry, professor emerita of history, will be the Commencement speaker at the event starting May 14 at 10 a.m.

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Betty Ann Cherry, a resident of Huntingdon, Pa. and professor emerita of history at Juniata College, will deliver the commencement address at Juniata College May 14 at 10 a.m. during Juniata's 138th commencement ceremony.

In addition, Carl D. Glaeser, a 1977 graduate of Juniata and managing partner for Palladian Capital Partners in New York, N.Y., and his wife, Nancy N. Glaeser, a 1976 Juniata graduate and a teacher and math specialist for grades 1-3 in the Mahwah School District in Mahwah, N.J., will receive honorary doctor of humane letters degrees.

A historian by profession, Cherry's background is interwoven with the history of Juniata College. The daughter of Calvert Ellis, president of Juniata College from 1943 to 1968, and Elizabeth Wertz Ellis, Cherry was professor of history at Juniata from 1962 to 1998, and was married to the late Ronald Cherry, professor of economics and business administration from 1958 to 1998. She was previously honored with an honorary doctor of humane letters degree in 2005.

Currently residing in the Westminster Woods retirement community, Cherry remains active in the Huntingdon area. She also is very active in the Church of the Brethren. She is a former moderator at the Stone Church of the Brethren and is in her second term as the chair of church's Middle District Pennsylvania Coordinating Team. In 2004, she performed the duties of reader for a Brethren Christmas Eve service televised nationally on CBS-TV.

"What I want to talk about is one of the outcomes of a Juniata education, by which I mean the totality of the four-year experience here, namely , the importance of relationships, and the attitudes required to initiate and maintain them," Cherry says of her commencement address. "This is a very new experience for me and I will be wrestling with just how to start it, how to set the context, how to 'catch' their attention, up until I start to speak."

"What I want to talk about is one of the outcomes of a Juniata education, by which I mean the totality of the four-year experience. The importance of relationships, and the attitudes required to initiate and maintain them."

Betty Ann Cherry

She taught a variety of general education courses over her career, most notably the "Great Epochs" courses, which were the first interdisciplinary, team-taught courses at the college. She also taught courses in the history of science, ancient Greece and medieval history. She believes her lasting contribution to the college was her work as an adviser to many Juniata students.

Cherry received the Beachley Award for Distinguished Academic Service in 1990 and received the Beachley Distinguished Professor Award in 1998. She was named Juniata's "Woman of the Year" in 1995 and 1998. She is a member of the American Historical Association and Phi Alpha Theta. She started her academic career at Juniata in 1962 as an instructor. She was promoted to assistant professor in 1965, to associate professor in 1975, and to full professor in 1998.

Cherry earned a bachelor's degree in history from the College of Wooster in 1956 and earned her master's degree from Columbia University in 1957. She was a visiting fellow in history at Harvard University in 1973-74. She and her husband spent a year teaching at Hokusei Gakuen University in Sapporo, Japan during the 1992-1993 academic year.

Cherry has two children, Charles "Chip" Cherry, of Chicago, Ill., a principal at The Pennsy Group, a business systems consulting group; and Anne E. Rice, of Huntingdon, Pa.

Carl Glaeser, a Baltimore, Md. native, is managing partner of Palladian Capital Partners LLC , an investment firm specializing in private equity, based in New York, N.Y.

Glaeser, a 1977 graduate of Juniata, co-founded at Palladian Capital after a long executive career at large, medium-sized and entrepreneurial companies. Before his career at Palladian, he was president and chief executive officer of Bowne Global Solutions, a leading provider of business process outsourcing globalization services.

Glaeser started his business career in the consumer goods industry, including positions at Snyder's of Hanover; H.J. Heinz; and Cadbury Schweppes. He then moved into the technology sector as national sales manager at MECA Software. Glaeser started his entrepreneurial career as co-founder and vice president of Pastel Development Corp., a personal information software developer. Next, he moved to Lucent Technologies, where he served as director of business development, then as vice president and general manager of AG Communication Systems.

Nancy Glaeser, a native of Philipsburg, Pa., has been a teacher in the Mahwah School District since 2002. She started her career in education right after graduating Juniata, teaching from 1976 to 1990 in various school districts, including Philipsburg, Pa., Greenwich, Conn., Boise, Idaho, and New Jersey. She started as an elementary school teacher and soon specialized as a teacher for the deaf and for communication disorders.

She also worked as a lecturer in special education at Boise State University from 1983 to 1987 while also working as a special education consultant for the Idaho Department of Education.

She earned a bachelor's degree from Juniata in elementary education and went on to earn a master's degree in communication disorders in 1981 from Penn State University.

She is active in her community at her local Lutheran church. She has taught Sunday school at the church for more than 20 years. She also is a member of the Mahwah Education Association.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.