Monmouth University will celebrate its 75th anniversary at Founders’ Day on Oct. 8. The convocation ceremony begins at 2:15 p.m. at Pollak Theatre at the West Long Branch campus.
Monmouth was founded in 1933 to provide an opportunity for higher education to area high school graduates who could not afford to go away to college. It was a two-year institution, holding classes in the evening. It became accredited to offer a four-year program in 1956 and attained university status in 1995, according to the university’s Web site. A nationally ranked university, it now offers 29 undergraduate and 20 graduate degrees.
The convocation address funded by the Jack and Lewis Rudin Distinguished Lecture Series will be delivered by Princeton resident Nancy L. Snyderman, M.D., chief medical editor at NBC News. She has reported on wideranging medical topics and has traveled the world extensively, reporting from many of the globe’s most troubled areas. Dr. Snyderman will receive an honorary degree during the ceremony.
Also honored will be Tim McLoone, Little Silver, who will receive the Maurice Pollak Award for Distinguished Community Service; and Pittstown resident David J. Ennis, class of 1974, receiving the 2008 Distinguished Alumni Award.
McLoone is founder and president of Holiday Express. Schooled at Harvard and accomplished in music, athletics and business, McLoone has stated that he wanted to make a positive difference in the lives of the sick, the isolated elderly, the mentally disabled and others in need. He and his friends in the music business founded Holiday Express, a volunteer, nonprofit and non-sectarian organization dedicated to bringing music, gifts and holiday cheer to those less fortunate. The organization now includes approximately 80 professional singers and musicians who volunteer their time and more than 600 other volunteers, including school-age children and adults. McLoone is also involved with the Boys and Girls Club of Monmouth County, Asbury Park.
McLoone owns McLoone’s Rum Runner, Sea Bright, and has restaurants in Long Branch, Woodbridge and Asbury Park, all of which have received “green certification” by the Green Restaurant Association.
Ennis was chosen to receive the Alumni Award in recognition of a career spanning more than three decades in land conservation and preservation. A fourth-generation Realtor, the Long Branch native was one of the first to use a business-like approach to conservation. By combining traditional real estate techniques, public funding initiatives and tax benefits, he created transactions that could be duplicated by others, successfully protecting over 80,000 acres in New Jersey alone.
The celebration will be centered on the convocation ceremony presided over by President Paul G. Gaffney II, and attended by invited guests. The ceremony is devoted to the remembrance and renewal of Monmouth University’s dedication to education and scholarship.