Technology pioneer Robert W. Metcalfe, former U.S. Secretary of Labor Lynn Martin, economics Nobel Prize-winner William F. Sharpe and educator Asa G. Hilliard, III, will be among those honored at DePaul University’s 99th commencement June 14 and 15.

DePaul’s School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems (CTI) will award an honorary degree to Metcalfe at a combined commencement ceremony for CTI, DePaul’s School of Education and School for New Learning on June 14, beginning at 11:15 a.m. at Medinah Temple, 600 N. Wabash Ave. Hilliard will receive an honorary degree from the School of Education and give the commencement address at the ceremony.

At DePaul’s College of Commerce graduation on June 15, the college will confer honorary degrees upon Sharpe and Martin, who will deliver the college’s commencement address. The ceremony will begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Rosemont Horizon, 6920 N. Mannheim Road, Rosemont.

As an inventor, business leader and writer, Metcalfe has been in the vanguard of the technology revolution. In 1972, while working for Xerox Corporation and completing his Harvard doctorate degree in computer science, Metcalfe invented Ethernet, a local area network (LAN) technology that allows several computers to be linked to the same database files and devices.

Six years later, he founded the multi-billion-dollar computer networking company 3Com, which recently announced a merger with Skokie-based U.S. Robotics.

Metcalfe retired from 3Com in 1990. Today he reaches nearly 500,000 readers through his InfoWorld magazine weekly column, "From the Ether," and serves as the vice president of technology for InfoWorld’s parent company, International Data Group.

Hilliard, the Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Urban Education at Georgia State University, holds joint appointments in the department of educational policy studies and the department of educational psychology and special education.

A teacher, psychologist and historian, he began his career in the Denver Public Schools. He taught honors philosophy at the University of Denver and later served as dean of San Francisco State University’s School of Education. As a consultant to the Peace Corps, he served as superintendent of schools in Monrovia and school psychologist in Liberia, West Africa.

Hilliard has helped develop several national assessment systems, including proficiency assessments for professional educators and developmental assessments of young children and infants.

He is a founding member of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations and is its first vice president. Hillard and Barbara Sizemore, dean of DePaul’s School of Education, recently served as chief consultants on the "Every Child Can Succeed" television series produced by the Agency for International Development.

Martin served as Secretary of Labor under President George Bush.

Under her leadership, Congress passed the administration’s proposal to increase pension portability and instituted programs such as Job Training 2000, a national youth apprentice system. She also spearheaded a nationwide effort to implement the recommendations of the Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills and a reorganization of the department to focus on the new American workplace. Her work to shatter the glass ceiling was a leading Bush administration initiative.

Since her return from Washington, Martin has continued her efforts to improve the workplace for women. Rocked by allegations of sexual harassment at its Normal, Ill., assembly plant last year, Mitsubishi turned to Martin to investigate the charges and develop procedures to improve the treatment of women there.

Martin currently chairs Deloitte & Touche’s Council on the Advancement of Women and is an advisor to the firm. She is also a regular panelist on the public television show "To the Contrary."

Sharpe, the STANCO 25 Professor of Finance at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1990. He was one of the originators of the Capital Asset Pricing Model. He also developed the Sharpe ratio for investment performance analysis, which is a widely used method for the valuation of options and other contingent claims. He created a computer algorithm used in many asset allocation procedures, and a technique for evaluating the style and performance of investment funds.

At separate commencement ceremonies, DePaul will also honor Elie Wiesel, the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Peter B. Edelman Professor of Law Georgetown University, Mary Nelson, Founding President of Bethel New Life, Inc., and Bennett Reimer, the John W. Beattie Endowed Chair in Music at Northwestern University.