College Marshal Appointment

To the Williams Community,

I am pleased to report that Jay Thoman, the J. Hodge Markgraf Professor of Chemistry, has accepted appointment as college marshal. Jay Thoman

As such he’ll oversee the planning and direction of our Convocation and Commencement ceremonies. He’ll be following in the footsteps of his departmental mentor, and the namesake of his chair, Hodge Markgraf, Class of 1952, who also served as marshal.

He’ll take up the position on July 1 from Jeff Strait, professor of physics, who over the last seven years has, with enthusiasm, attended to the great many details involved in planning these weekends; with cleverness, wove together schedules to accommodate the growing number of Commencement Weekend events; and with thoughtfulness, broadened the number of faculty who have been enlisted to serve as Commencement Weekend hosts of our honorary degree recipients.

We should thank both Jeff and Jay for agreeing to serve the college in this role.

Regards,
Adam Falk
President