About 270 Lander University students will hear a motivational address from Sonoco Products Company Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Harris E. DeLoach Jr. during the university's commencement ceremonies, 11 a.m. Saturday, May 10, in Horne Arena.

The university will confer an honorary doctorate of humane letters on professional psychotherapist Fay Maria Mitchell Hart of Greer. A 1957 Lander alumna, Hart was presented with the 2006 Living Legend in the Upstate award from the South Carolina legislature in honor of her accomplishments in the state.

Tickets are required to attend the ceremony, and graduate candidates can pick up or sign for their tickets with a picture ID from 8 a.m. – 4 p.m., April 24 – May 1, at the University Police Office. Candidates completing their degree requirements at the University Center of Greenville will be able to pick up their tickets from the UCG office during normal office hours. Each candidate will be provided with eight tickets.

For more information about Lander University’s spring commencement, visit www.lander.edu/registrar/Graduation.

Harris E. Deloach Jr.

DeLoach, a native of Columbia, received a degree in business administration from the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina (USC) in 1966. He earned a J.D. from the USC School of Law in 1969. He received the Distinguished Alumnus Award, Moore School of Business, in 1998 and the University of South Carolina Distinguished Alumni Award in 2006.

From 1969 to 1972, DeLoach served in the United States Air Force as a captain in the Judge Advocate General Corps. From 1972 to 1985, he was in private law practice in Hartsville, serving throughout the period as an outside counsel to Sonoco.

In 1986, DeLoach joined Sonoco, a $4 billion worldwide industrial and consumer packaging company, as vice president of administration and general counsel. In 1990, he was named vice president of Sonoco’s High Density Film Products Division. In February 1993, he was named vice president of Film, Plastics and Special Products before being promoted to group vice president in October of that year. Over the next decade, DeLoach continued to move into higher leadership positions at the company, joining Sonoco’s Board of Directors in 1998 and being named president and CEO in July of 2000. He was elected chairman, president and CEO in April of 2005.

While in Hartsville, DeLoach has served as attorney for the City of Hartsville; president of the Hartsville Rotary Club; chairman of the Hartsville Chamber of Commerce; chairman of the Coker College Board of Trustees; president of the Darlington County Bar Association; chairman of the Board of Trustees of Byerly Hospital and the Byerly Foundation; and chairman of the Board of Directors of Thomas Hart Academy. He has also served as a member of the Darlington County School Board, the NationsBank Advisory Board (Hartsville), and the Board of Directors of the Bank of Hartsville. The recipient of an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Coker College, DeLoach also received the college’s Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award and was named Rotary Club Citizen of the Year. He was selected by the Pee Dee Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America as the recipient of the Council’s 2006 Distinguished Citizen Award.

In addition to the Sonoco Board of Directors, he currently serves on the Goodrich Corporation Board of Directors; Progress Energy Inc. Board of Directors; the University of South Carolina Business Partnership Foundation; Board of Directors of the South Carolina Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics Foundation; The Palmetto Business Forum; and The Palmetto Institute Board. He is past chairman of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce.

Fay Maria Mitchell Hart

Fay Hart, a licensed professional counselor and nationally certified psychotherapist, graduated from Lander in 1957 with a degree in music. She is the recipient of a master’s degree from Furman University and a counselor specialist certificate from the University of South Carolina and the state department of education.

An author and lecturer, Hart has been a pioneer in the fields of counseling and education. She began her career as a middle school choral director and eventually moved into school administration. She secured a research project with Instructional Television (ITV), and in conjunction with ITV, wrote Old World History Guides for teachers in South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia.

With more than 30 years of experience in the Greenville school district, Hart served as assistant principal and dean of counseling at Sevier Middle School. With the assistance of then-South Carolina Governor Richard Riley, and in conjunction with the Appalachian Counsel of Governments, Hart designed and operated the state’s elementary guidance program and assisted surrounding colleges with training in elementary counseling. She was instrumental in developing a middle school program at Blue Ridge Middle School in Greenville County, where she launched the school’s first counseling program. She has also worked with the legislature for licensure for counselors in South Carolina.

Hart, a member and board associate with the American Counselors Association and the Palmetto School Counselors Association, has counseled individuals, children and families in private practice for 20 years. Her professional affiliations include: South Carolina School Counselors Association; Phi Delta Kappa International; board member for South Carolina Foster Care; Mental Health Association of South Carolina; Guardian Ad Litem; state president and national position holder with Career Development; board member and past president for South Carolina Counselors; and grant consultant for the U.S. Department of Education in conjunction with former Governor Riley. A master therapist and certified master chaplain with the American Psychotherapy Association (APA), she has been granted Diplomate and Fellow status by the APA and holds a position on the academy board.

Hart, who wrote the first mediation program for the Upstate, has served as president of Ethical and Religious Practices for South Carolina and has received commendation from the U.S. Department of Education. She was named to Who’s Who in American Professional Women and received national recognition for her work to devise a test for post-traumatic stress in veterans.

Hart currently serves as an Advocate for the Aged in the state legislature and has been appointed as a counselor to legislators under the auspices of the AARP. The creator of an endowed music scholarship at Lander, Hart works with Erskine College to select state scholarship recipients and acts as an evaluator of independent colleges in South Carolina.

Hart is a member of and holds offices with: Daughters of the American Revolution, in which she serves as state chairman of American History; Daughters of the American Colonists 1607-1776, for which she is chaplain; United Daughters of The Confederacy, in which she holds state chairmanship; and The Bench and Bar of 1565-1861. An organist, choir director and soloist for churches in the Upstate, she is a member of St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Greenville.