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U.S. Archivist to Speak at NC State Commencement

David S. Ferriero, archivist of the United States, will deliver NC State’s commencement address on Saturday, May 10, at 9 a.m. at the PNC Arena in Raleigh.

During the ceremony, Chancellor Randy Woodson will confer honorary degrees on Ferriero and noted sculptor Thomas Sayre.

Ferriero heads the National Archives and Records Administration, responsible for running 13 presidential libraries and safeguarding national treasures such as the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights, along with billions of historic documents, photos, films, recordings, maps and electronic records.

Ferriero previously served as the Andrew W. Mellon Director of the New York Public Libraries and held top positions with academic libraries at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Duke University. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English literature from Northeastern University in Boston and a master’s degree from the Simmons College of Library and Information Science in Boston. He served in the Navy during the Vietnam War.

Sayre, an active sculptor, has designed and built public art projects all over the world, serving on design teams for civic, educational, museum and transportation projects. Among numerous honors, he received the North Carolina Award for Fine Arts in 2012 and the Sir Walter Raleigh Individual Award in 2008.  Sayre studied English and studio art on a Morehead Scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating summa cum laude in 1973.

Sayre and architect Steven D. Schuster formed Clearscapes, a multidisciplinary design firm in Raleigh, in 1981. Clearscapes, which combines the hands-on process of the sculpture studio with architectural skills, won the 2007 North Carolina Firm of the Year award from the American Institute of Architects.

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