WATCH: Florida Tech Fall Commencement at Clemente Center Confers Nearly 900 Degrees
By Space Coast Daily // December 14, 2019
Florida Tech alumnus, trustee and Two-Time World Series Champion Tim Wakefield delivered Commencement
ABOVE VIDEO: Florida Tech conferred nearly 900 degrees upon students from the U.S. and around the world Dec. 14 as the university held its fall commencement ceremonies. SPACE COAST DAILY TV: The Florida Institute of Technology held fall commencement ceremonies on Saturday at the Clemente Center. After the graduate ceremony, Space Coast Daily’s Chris Bonanno spoke to Danielle Juzwick, who earned her master’s in biological oceanography.
BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – Florida Tech conferred nearly 900 degrees upon students from the U.S. and around the world Dec. 14 as the university held its fall commencement ceremonies.
Florida Tech alumnus and trustee Tim Wakefield offered remarks at the 9:30 a.m. ceremony for undergraduate students. Wakefield, a two-time World Series champion with the Boston Red Sox, will also receive an honorary degree from Florida Tech President Dwayne McCay.
Commencement for graduate students took place at 2 p.m. President McCay spoke to the students, families and guests at the ceremony.
Both ceremonies were held at the Charles and Ruth Clemente Center, 150 W. University Blvd. on the Florida Tech campus.
The university will bestow 889 degrees to fall graduates from 36 U.S. states and 58 countries. The undergraduate ceremony will involve an estimated 246 students, and 393 are scheduled to participate in the graduate ceremony.
Among the graduates are 252 students from Florida Tech Online and 147 from the university’s Extended Studies sites.
Wakefield returns to the campus where he won two Most Valuable Panther awards as a slugging first baseman for Florida Tech baseball in 1987 and 1988 before embarking on a distinguished, 19-year Major League pitching career.
The Melbourne native was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, becoming the first baseball player from Florida Tech to be drafted.
It was in the Pirates system that Wakefield was converted from an infielder to a pitcher – one who possessed the ability to throw the most beguiling pitch in a hurler’s repertoire, the knuckleball.
In 1995 he signed with the Boston Red Sox and played for that team the remaining 17 years of his professional career.
He won two World Series with the Red Sox, including the 2004 series against the St. Louis Cardinals when he was the Game 1 starter and the team went on to win its first title in 86 years.
Find more commencement information, and galleries from past commencements, HERE.
