Rhode Island Supreme Court Justice to Deliver 2007 OSU Commencement Address
Friday, March 2, 2007
Frank J. Williams, Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, will be the featured
speaker for the Oklahoma State University commencement on May 5.
“Judge Williams is one of the nation’s leading scholars on Abraham Lincoln, and when
he speaks on leadership, his remarks are framed around the life of Lincoln, as well
as around his own military and judicial experiences. We are delighted to have him
for commencement,” said Dr. Marlene Strathe, interim OSU System CEO and President.
During the commencement ceremony, Williams will be awarded an honorary Doctor of
Laws degree, which recognizes government and public service or preeminence in any
field. The degree is presented with the support of the OSU Department of Economics
and Legal Studies in Business in the Spears School of Business and the approval of
the OSU Honorary Degree Committee.
Ron Moomaw, Spears School of Business Associates Professor and Head of the Department
of Economics and Legal Studies, said Williams service as Chief Justice of Rhode Island
and his congressional appointment to the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission,
as well as “his career of public service in Rhode Island and the significant assignments
that he has received from both the executive and legislative branches of the federal
government merit an honorary Doctor of Laws.”
In 2000, he was appointed to the U.S. Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission by the
Congress. His latest book, written with Harold Holzer and Edna Greene Medford, is
“The Emancipation Proclamation: Three Views: Social, Political, Iconographic,” which
was published in 2006.
Born and raised in Cranston, R.I., he received his A.B. degree in government and history
from Boston University in 1962 before serving for five years in the U.S. Army in Germany
and Vietnam, rising to the rank of captain. He was awarded a Bronze Star, three Air
medals, an Army Commendation Medal, two Vietnamese Campaign Medals and a Combat Infantryman’s
Badge, and was decorated by the Republic of Vietnam with, among other honors, the
Gallantry Cross with Silver Star for Valor.
After his honorable discharge, he entered Boston University of Law, where he was graduated
with a juris doctorate in 1970. He was admitted to the Rhode Island Bar in 1970 and
to the U.S. Supreme Court Bar in 1976, and was appointed Chief Justice in 2001 after
serving for five years as Associate Justice of the Superior Court.
He later earned a master’s degree in taxation and served as a visiting lecturer at
the Rhode Island School of Design. He currently is an adjunct professor at Roger Williams
University School of Law and the U.S. Naval War College.
Williams has served as a solicitor and arbitrator for numerous Rhode Island towns.
He was twice elected town moderator or Richmond, R.I., was elected a delegate to the
1986 Rhode Island Constitutional Convention, and was appointed chair of the Rhode
Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation by the governor in 1995. He also has
served in numerous judicial capacities and is a member of several arbitration and
legal advisory panels.
In 2006, Williams received an honorary doctorate from the University of Rhode Island
and the “Distinguished Jurist Award from the College of Arts and Sciences and Office
of the President” from Mississippi State University.
Previous recipients of honorary doctorates at OSU include William L. Burlison and
William A. Tarr, 1927; Carl Williams and Patrick J. Hurley, 1930; George Bush, 1990;
Wilma Mankiller, 1992; Henry Bellmon, 1995; John Montgomery, 1996; Willard R. Sparks,
1998; M.B. Seretean, 1999; Hannah Diggs Atkins, 2000; T. Boone Pickens, 2002; Gen.
Tommy Franks (Ret.), 2004; and George W. Bush, 2006.