Event To Attract Dignitaries and Guests From Around the World

DePaul University will commemorate 100 years of achievement at a centennial convocation and celebration Sept. 26 in the Grand Ballroom of McCormick Place South. Carol Marin of News 2 Chicago will give remarks at the event that will attract dignitaries and guests from around the globe.

The festivities will begin with a convocation that will call together as many as 2,500 DePaul University alumni, students, faculty and staff, many of whom will join a procession attired in full academic regalia to open the event. Following the processional pageantry, the program will continue with a celebration of DePaul in words, music and images. The event is part of a yearlong series of centennial events.

"This will be the grandest anniversary celebration of the year," said Thomas Fuechtmann, director of centennial programs at DePaul. "The convocation provides the perfect foundation for the DePaul community to recognize our past contributions, and look to our future with determination and enthusiasm."

A dramatic presentation featuring spoken memories, a chorus, music and visual imagery will weave together DePaul’s history in a tapestry that salutes its achievements in education and service. The DePaul Wind Ensemble and a DePaul chorus will provide music for the program.

Marin, who enjoys a national reputation as a journalist with impeccable ethical standards, will provide the evening’s remarks. Inducted into the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame in 1992, Marin has earned numerous awards including the prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award, an Associated Press Award and several national and local Emmys.

Mayor Richard Daley, a DePaul alumnus, and a host of other national and local dignitaries will attend the invitation-only festivities. International guests will include rectors, the American equilalent of a president or chancellor, from universities around the world including: Marek Szymonski, vice rector of Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland; Jose Benjamin Lopez Guillen, rector of the University of El Salvador; Mohammed Kindiri, rector of Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakech, Morocco; and Krirkkiat Phipatseritham, president of University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce in Bangkok, Thailand.

The festivities will continue with a fun-filled reception complete with a buffet feast. Rich Daniels & the City Lights Orchestra will provide the sounds and a special program of dance party music. Daniels is a DePaul alumnus as are 24 members of his 34-piece orchestra. Each of DePaul’s eight colleges and schools will have special areas where alumni and friends can meet and share their personal memories of DePaul.

For more information call DePaul’s centennial office at 312/362-8606.