April 26, 2012
Newburgh, NY -
President Fr. Kevin Mackin to honor Elizabeth Ailes, Cardinal
Peter Turkson, Joseph Reilly, and over 600 degree candidates
Mount Saint Mary College will hold its 49th annual invitational
commencement ceremony at noon on Saturday, May 19, 2012.
Fr. Kevin E. Mackin, OFM, Mount president, will recognize more
than 600 bachelor’s and master’s degree candidates during the
ceremony.
Mount Saint Mary College will also confer an honorary doctorate
upon Elizabeth Ailes, publisher of The Putnam County News &
Recorder and The Putnam County Courier; His Eminence
Peter Cardinal Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for
Justice and Peace; and Joseph A. Reilly, CEO of the Empire
Broadcasting Corporation.
Ailes is scheduled to give the commencement address, and Turkson
will also speak.
“Our Mount Saint Mary College graduates, of whom we are very
proud, will be inspired by these examples of regional, national and
international leadership,” Mackin said.
Elizabeth Ailes
Publisher of The Putnam County News & Recorder and
The Putnam County Courier
Elizabeth Ailes is a 20-year veteran of NBC News, CNBC, and
America's Talking, the forerunner of MSNBC. She has brought her
intensity of journalistic focus to both The Putnam County News
& Recorder and The Putnam County Courier as
publisher of both papers.
Mrs. Ailes began her career at NBC News Radio and NBC News after
graduating with a BS Degree in Journalism from Southern Connecticut
State University. She was the first producer hired at CNBC and part
of a 3-person team responsible for launching the network in April
1989. Mrs. Ailes later became Director of Business Programming at
CNBC, before becoming Vice President of Programming at America’s
Talking, the predecessor to MSNBC.
Mrs. Ailes is the owner of the Hudson Valley Freedom Press. She
is the publisher of two weekly newspapers in the Hudson Valley,
both the 145-year-old Putnam County News & Recorder
which hits newsstands on Wednesdays and the Putnam County
Courier, New York State's oldest, continually published weekly
established in 1841 and available every Thursday.
In April of 2009, the Courier was threatened with
extinction when its parent company went into bankruptcy. Mrs. Ailes
realized what a tragic loss this locally based news source and
center of the community for over a century would be to the area and
stepped in to preserve it.
Mrs. Ailes is the recipient of the Whipple Foundations' 2010
Preserve Putnam Award given annually since 1999 for her efforts to
save the Courier and community service. She is also the
recipient of the Chamber of Commerce Entrepreneurial Spirit Award.
Mrs. Ailes recently restored a historic building on Main Street in
Cold Spring to its original 1908 grandeur. After lovingly
overseeing every detail, the former Old Homestead Club is now home
to the PCN&R.
She is married to Roger Ailes, Chairman and CEO of the Fox News
Channel and Fox Business Network. They were married on Valentine's
Day 1998. They have a twelve year old son Zachary who was born on
New Year's Day 2000. The Ailes Family home is in Garrison, New
York.
His Eminence Peter Cardinal Turkson
President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace
Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson was appointed President of
the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace by Pope Benedict XVI
on October 24, 2009.
His objectives and mandate include to “promote justice and peace
in the world, in the light of the Gospel and of the social teaching
of the Church” and “foster relations with international Catholic
organizations and with other bodies, be they Catholic or not, that
are sincerely committed to the promotion of the values of justice
and peace in the world.”
Among his many activities, Cardinal Turkson serves on the Board
of Directors of Medicus Christi: founded to bring professional and
compassionate medical care into poor countries where crucial
medical and surgical expertise is lacking.
Born in Nsuta Wassaw, Ghana, he was ordained a priest for the
Archdiocese of Cape Coast in 1975, did doctoral studies in Sacred
Scripture at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome, and taught at
St Theresa’s Minor Seminary and St. Peter’s Major Seminary. In 1992
he was appointed Archbishop of Cape Coast, and he was created and
proclaimed Cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2003, of the Title of
San Liborio (St. Liborius).
Cardinal Turkson was President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’
Conference from 1997-2005, and member of the Pontifical Commission
for Methodist-Catholic Dialogue; Chancellor of the Catholic
University College of Ghana; member of the National Sustainable
Development, Ministry of Environment; member of the Board of
Directors of the Central Regional Development Committee and
treasurer of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and
Madagascar.
He is also on the Congregations for the Doctrine of the Faith,
Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, and
Evangelization of Peoples; Pontifical Council for Promoting
Christian Unity; Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of
the Church; Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic
Congresses; XII Ordinary Council of the Secretariat General of the
Synod of Bishops.
He has attended many general and special assemblies, and served
as General Relator of the 2nd Special Assembly for Africa of the
Synod of Bishops, "The Church in Africa, at the Service of
Reconciliation, Justice and Peace.'You are the salt of the earth,
... you are the light of the world'" in 2009.
Joseph A. Reilly
CEO of the Empire Broadcasting Corporation
Joseph A. Reilly, a native New Yorker, retired as President and
CEO of the New York State Broadcasters Association in 2011. He was
the first full-time Executive Director of the Association in 1980,
and became President in 1986.
Reilly represented the interests of more than 750 radio and
television stations, including the major New York City based
networks, and advocated for the broadcasting profession before
state and federal legislative bodies and represented the
Association throughout the nation. Over the past decade, membership
in the Association tripled. Before joining the Association, he
founded, co-owned, and operated a dozen broadcast properties in
Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York.
Among Reilly’s many achievements was his leadership to open New
York State courts to cameras and microphones; in 1987, Governor
Mario Cuomo signed into law a landmark bill permitting electronic
media entry in courtrooms throughout the state. The Association
also led in the transition from analog to digital television.
Reilly’s name has surfaced for top level national positions
including the presidency of the Radio Advertising Bureau, and of
the Radio Division of the National Association of Broadcasters.
Reilly has served on the boards of the Broadcasters Foundation
of America; Teresian House of Albany; Capital Bank & Trust
Company; New York State Partnership; Chase Lincoln First Bank;
Governors Telecommunications Exchange; Governor’s Committee for a
Healthier New York; and the New York State Youth Advisory Board. He
is also a member of the Advisory Board of Straus Digital Media,
LLC, and a member of the Board of Trustees of Christian Brothers
Academy.
His many awards include the New York State Broadcasters
Association Hall of Fame, Empire State Society of Association
Executives “Distinguished Member” award, Christian Brothers
Academy’s “Distinguished Alumnus” award, and the National Academy
of Television Arts and Sciences Silver Circle Award, New York
Chapter.
He is a graduate of Christian Brothers Academy in Albany and
Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ.
Reilly resides in Voorheesville, Albany County, NY. He has two
children, Jeffrey and Donna Patrick, and four grandchildren.
For information about the invitational commencement ceremony,
contact Elaine O’Grady, ceremonials chair, at 845-569-3508.