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The Staley Distinguished Scholar series is a project of the Thomas F. Staley Foundation of Larchmont, New York, established in 1969 by Mr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Staley of Rye, New York, in memory of their parents, Dr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Staley and Judge and Mrs. H.H. Haynes of Bristol, Tennessee.
The Staley Foundation firmly believes that the message of the Christian Gospel, when proclaimed in its historical fullness, is always contemporary, relevant and meaningful to any generation. To this end, the foundation seeks to bring the college and university campuses distinguished scholars who hold to the historic Christian faith and who can clearly communicate with students.
August 27, 2008, Sister Helen Prejean will speak at Convocation. This event was made possible in part by the Staley Foundation.
Sister Helen Prejean, author of
Dead Man Walking
and
The Death of Innocents,
is the featured speaker during Lees-McRae College’s
Convocation ceremony Wednesday,
August 27 at 3:30 p.m. in Hayes Auditorium.
Convocation is
an important part of the academic tradition at Lees-McRae College,
and each year Lees-McRae offers a Summer Reading Program that
relates to the ceremony. This acts as an introduction to academic
life
and provides a common academic experience for incoming students.
This year’s selection is
The Death of Innocents.
“The Summer Reading Program is a way for us to get students off to a
great start in their first year at college. They arrive, often
knowing no one else and unsure of college expectations. But right
away they get to know each other as they engage in discussions of a
book they all read during the summer. And the book is always one
intended to be thought-provoking, one that demonstrates the value we
place on critical examination of tough issues,” said Dr. Debra
Thatcher, Lees-McRae College Provost. “The opportunity to actually
meet the book’s author makes the reading even more meaningful.”
Sister Helen Prejean, a native of Louisiana, is known
internationally for her tireless work against the death penalty. She
was instrumental in sparking national dialogue on the issue and in
shaping the Catholic Church’s newly vigorous opposition to all state
executions.
“We are
especially pleased to host Sister Helen Prejean for this year’s
Convocation. Sister Helen has a compelling story; her personal
experiences with prisoners on death row provide us a more intimate
connection to issues associated with capital punishment. Our hope is
to have students engage in meaningful discussions about justice,
forgiveness, human rights, dignity; to become deeply aware of every
opinion, decision, and action they make; to take action in order to
make the world a better place,” Dr. Thatcher continued.
At 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday in Evans Auditorium, Sister Helen Prejean
will take part in an open forum with time for questions and answers.
The programs are open to the public.
Sister Helen is a member of the Congregation of St. Joseph. She
spent her first 24 years with the Sisters teaching religion to
junior high school students and working within her community, first
as religious education director and then as formation director.
Since then, Sister Helen has divided
her time between campaigning against the death penalty and
counseling individual death row prisoners. She has accompanied six
more men to their deaths. In doing so, she began to suspect that
some of those executed were not guilty. This realization inspired
her second book
The Death of Innocents – An
Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions.
In 1982, she started visiting Patrick Sonnier in Louisiana’s Angola
Prison. She became his spiritual adviser, worked to prevent his
execution, and finally walked with him to the electric chair. She
did the same thing with a second prisoner, Robert Willie. Concerned
with the plight of murder victims’ families, she founded Survive, an
organization that provides counseling and support for grieving
families.
She then wrote a book about the experience. The result was
Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness
Account of the Death Penalty in the United States,
which Random House published in 1993. The book became a best seller,
was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and spawned an Oscar-winning
movie and an internationally-acclaimed opera.
Susan Sarandon
won Best Actress in a Leading Role in 1995 for her portrayal of
Sister Helen. Now Tim Robbins has made it into a play that is being
performed by high school and college students across the country.
Lees-McRae Performing Arts will present the play November 7-11,
2008.
She is a regular interviewee and contributor to national and
international publications, and has become a recurring presence on
major TV news shows. Sister Helen lives in
