Troy, N.Y. – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute today announced that the Honorable Paul A. Volcker, Robert T. Coonrod, and Joé Juneau will be awarded honorary degrees at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 199th Commencement, on Saturday, May 21, 2005 at 9:30 a.m. at the Harkness Field. 

Juneau will be awarded honorary degrees at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 199th Commencement, on Saturday, May 21, 2005 at 9:30 a.m. at the Harkness Field. 

As previously announced, United States Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) will deliver the 2005 Commencement address, and also will receive an honorary degree.

Paul A. Volcker was chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 1979 to 1987, after serving for four years as chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He worked in the federal government for almost 30 years, serving in office under five presidents – John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan. Educated at Princeton, Harvard, and the London School of Economics, he is professor emeritus of international economic policy at Princeton University. Former North American chairman of the Trilateral Commission, he is presiding chairman of a special committee investigating the Oil-for-Food Program of the United Nations.

Robert T. Coonrod was the longest serving president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), serving from 1997 to 2004.  Prior to joining the CPB in 1994, Coonrod worked in the Foreign Service for more than 25 years including as deputy managing editor of the Voice of America, and in the United States Information Agency’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, where he managed global educational exchange programs.  He graduated from LaSalle Institute in Troy, New York, Fordham University, and attended Albany Law School (NY). Coonrod currently serves as senior counselor to Policy Impact Strategic Communications Inc., a Washington, D.C. public relations and government affairs firm.

Joé Juneau ’91, former Rensselaer ice hockey standout and aeronautical engineering major, retired in 2004 after 12 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL). Juneau started his NHL career with the Boston Bruins in 1992 and retired with the Montreal Canadiens last year. He led the Canadian National ice hockey team to a silver medal in the1992 Albertville Winter Olympics. Juneau has started a new career as an engineering account executive with Harfan Technologies, an engineering technology company based in Juneau’s hometown of Pont-Rouge, Que., and in Frederick, Md. Harfan Technologies develops infrastructure asset management solutions for the private and public sector.

Contact: Theresa Bourgeois
Phone: (518) 276-2840
E-mail: bourgt@rpi.edu