In addition to the graduates honored during the University of South Florida's Spring Commencement Ceremonies, Dr. Stuart Silverman was singled out after almost half a century of service.
Silverman, who is retiring after 44 years at USF, received the President's Fellow Medallion, which is given at the President's discretion to highly distinguished meritorious individuals.
Silverman served as Dean of the USF Honors College for the last 27 years, the longest anyone has led an academic program at the university.
"I’m going to miss students coming in. I’m going to miss students sharing their successes with me. And I’m going to miss the problems that students have that we’re able to help them out with," he said.
"The way that we’ve developed, I think, is that it’s now clear that our honors students are competitive with the best students anywhere in the country," Silverman added. "And the 40 national scholarships that we have won each year for the last four or five years is just no less than the best schools in the United States. Our students are fantastic."
Silverman may best be known for serving as the announcer at commencement exercises on the Tampa campus for the last 26 years, reading the names of almost 100,000 graduates. He read his last names at the first commencement exercises at USF on May 2.
http://youtu.be/BfYgH6EJ3dM
Silverman was succeeded as announcer at the remaining Tampa ceremonies by USF Associate Athletic Director and "voice of the Bulls," Jim Louk, USF World Associate Vice President Dr. Roger Brindley, and WUSF Producer/Reporter Mark Schreiner.
