752 Clemson students receive degrees; alumnus honored

Published: August 10, 2012

Graduates celebrate after Friday's ceremony. image by: Craig Mahaffey
Clemson University

CLEMSON — Clemson University awarded 752 degrees Friday at the summer graduation ceremony.

With family, friends and faculty looking on, the students crossed the stage at Littlejohn Coliseum to get degrees and President James F. Barker’s congratulations. At the ceremony, 337 received bachelor’s degrees, 357 master’s degrees and 58 doctorates.

Clemson alumnus Thomas Fields Hash was awarded an honorary doctorate of science during the ceremony.

Hash graduated from Clemson with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1969. He spent 26 years working with Babcock and Wilcox Co., a manufacturing company specializing in advanced energy and operational solutions. He joined Bechtel Group Inc. in 1996 as vice president for business development, and within three years, was appointed president of Bechtel National Inc., the corporation’s high-technology government contracts branch. He retired in 2007 as president and board chairman of the Federal Services Division. 

Hash demonstrates a strong commitment to sustainability and its importance for future generations. In 2010, he donated $2 million to Clemson to create the Thomas F. Hash ’69 Endowed Chair in Sustainable Development. He has served on the Clemson University Foundation Board and the President’s Advisory Board. In 2002, he was named an Alumni Fellow of the College of Engineering and Science. 

After receiving the doctorate, Hash told the graduates, “You have achieved an important milestone that will make a lifelong difference for you and your families.”

Other honors announced at the ceremony were:

• the Board of Visitors Graduate Researcher Award to Priyanka Bhattacharya, physics, and Matthew Tyler James Brownlee, parks, recreation and tourism management;
• the Board of Visitors Graduate Teaching Assistant Award to Aaron Kenneth Brown, biological sciences, and Kevin Andrew Craig, management; and
• the Faculty Scholarship Award to Lauren Elizabeth Frantz, forest resources, and Paige D. Wartko, preprofessional health studies.

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