By Nick Pantages
@nick_pantages22
Peter G. Watson will be the commencement speaker at the Springfield College Undergraduate Student Commencement Ceremony this year.
Watson was a graduate of Springfield College in 1979, and he received his master’s degree the next year. Watson was also a member of the football team, and then became a coach for a brief period after graduating before moving on to Cornell University.
Following his coaching career, Watson shifted into a business career. He joined Greif, Inc., a packaging company, in 1999 until his recent retirement earlier in 2023. During his time there, Watson served in many high ranking executive positions. He was the President and CEO from 2015-2021, and then served as the Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Despite Watson’s strenuous and time-demanding position at Greif Inc., he was still a frequent visitor to the campus, and very much still committed to helping Springfield College as much as he could.
“He’s been very committed to helping our students develop and grow through going into classrooms and running leadership programs,” said Kerry Calnan, Chief of Staff of the Office of the President.
Although they ultimately decided on Watson, selecting the commencement speaker is no easy task.
A committee in the Office of Academic Affairs has to do a large amount of research on potential candidates they think would be interesting and engaging speakers for the students that are graduating. Once they have nominated a group of potential candidates, the nominated candidates move to the Office of the President, where the final selection happens.
This year, the committee and the Office of the President decided on Watson due to his strong ties to the campus he once resided on.
“He truly is a leader, so we thought it would be a really good opportunity for him to share that on a bigger scale, instead of classroom to classroom,” Calnan said. “He’s still very connected to Springfield, having been on the football team, he still works a lot with our athletes and in our business classrooms, and it was just a perfect fit.”
When Watson was approached about being the speaker, he was very much up to the task.
“President Cooper had a meeting with him, and he was very, very interested in moving forward with the process,” Calnan said. “I think he was humbled about being asked and really excited about the opportunity.”
The Undergraduate Student Commencement Ceremony will be held on May 14 at 9:30 a.m. The ceremony will take place in downtown Springfield, Mass. at the MassMutual Center, where attendees will get a chance to hear from Watson.
“I think that folks that attend will really see his passion come through,” Calnan said.
Photo Courtesy Springfield College