Thomas College Commencement 2006
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Commencement will be held May 13, 2006 at 1 p.m.
Regardless of the weather, the ceremony will be held outside under a tent.
Tickets for guests are not required. Seating is on a
first-come, first-serve basis.
For those needing special accommodations, please contact the registrar's office at registrar@thomas.edu or 207-859-1405.
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P. James Dowe Jr. is Thomas' 2006 Commencement speaker. He will also receive an honorary Doctor of Science in Business Administration degree during the ceremony. The Mainebiz 2003 Business Leader of the Year is the president and CEO of the Maine Public Broadcasting Network, the statewide public television and radio service, where he served as vice chair and a member of the board of trustees for several years before becoming CEO.
He is the former president, CEO and trustee of Bangor Savings Bank—posts he assumed in 1995. Prior to his work at Bangor Savings Bank, he was the president and CEO of Bath Savings Institution for nine years.
Mr. Dowe has been involved in the banking industry in many capacities, having served as chair of the Maine Association of Community Banks and as director of America’s Community Bankers. He is also active in community affairs as a trustee of The Nature Conservancy and as a member of the Action Committee of 50, a Bangor-based group with a mission to grow the local economy. He further serves as a trustee of the University of Maine System and is a member of the Creative Economy Council.
Mr. Dowe is a graduate of the University of Maine and he also attended the University of Vermont.
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Walter Simcock, the former president of Colonial Distributors and a local philanthropist, will receive an honorary Doctor of Science in Business Administration degree during Thomas’ 2006 Commencement ceremony.
Mr. Simcock was born in Cambridge, Mass. and received his bachelor’s degree from Springfield College. He was also a student at Boston University. Before embarking on his career as a businessman, Mr. Simcock briefly worked in the education field, teaching history at Jaffrey High School in Jaffrey, N.H. He and his wife, Mary, moved to Waterville in 1960 and bought Colonial Distributors, which he built into one of the region’s leading companies. Mr. Simcock spent the next four decades leading the company, before selling it in 2002.
Active in the community, Mr. Simcock is the past president of the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce and former King Lion of the Waterville Lion’s Club. He and his late wife have been generous supporters of Thomas College as well as a wide range of other organizations in the region such as the Waterville Opera House, the Alfond Youth Center, the South End Skate Board Park, Mt. Merici Academy, Maine Children’s Home for Little Wanderers, Waterville Animal Shelter and the Town of Winslow. Mr. Simcock is also a proud Thomas parent. Daughter Walda “Wally” Fitton graduated with a degree in elementary education in 2005 and she currently teaches in Waterville.
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