Bill Gates to receive honorary doctorate, deliver keynote address during NAU graduation

Bill Gates is one of four people who will be recognized with honorary doctoral degrees from Northern Arizona University during this year's commencement ceremonies on May 12 and 13.

Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will deliver the keynote address and receive his honorary degree during the 3 p.m. ceremony on Saturday, May 13.

“It is our privilege to recognize Bill Gates for his pioneering work in science and technology and his longstanding thought leadership and philanthropic commitment to creating a world where every person has the opportunity to live a healthy life and live up to their full potential,” NAU President José Luis Cruz Rivera said, in a statement announcing the speakers.

Arturo A. Massol-Deyá, executive director of Casa Pueblo, will deliver the first keynote address of the weekend and receive an honorary doctorate during the 11 a.m. ceremony on Friday, May 12.

In addition to spending two decades as a faculty member at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, Massol-Deyá has spent his life working with Casa Pueblo, the community-based organization that his parents originally founded and has chaired its board of directors since 2007.

Casa Pueblo was responsible for protecting the central region and its critical watersheds from an open pit mining proposal and later from a massive gas pipeline. After Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017, Massol-Deyá and Casa Pueblo founded a community assistance response that aimed to change the energy landscape of a country dependent on fossil fuels to one based on renewable energy sources.

Ty White, the 2023 Arizona Education Foundation Teacher of the Year, will follow later that day, receiving his honorary degree and delivering the keynote address at the 4 p.m. ceremony.

White, an award-winning chemistry teacher at Willcox High School in southeastern Arizona, has been recognized repeatedly for his work.

White received the 2020 American Chemical Society Teacher of the Year Award for Southeast Arizona and the Rocky Mountain Region. He was eventually named the 2021 Rural Teacher of the Year by the Arizona Rural School Association and the 2022 National Rural Teacher of the Year by the National Rural Education Association.

At Willcox High School, White sponsors the Science Club, the Solar Go-Kart Challenge, and the Knowledge Bowl. He is also the Southeast Arizona Cabinet Coordinator for the Chief Science Officers program and the Southwest Regional Space Settlement Design Coordinator.

The fourth honorary doctorate will go to David P. Franke, a principal at Franke & Company and president of the Northern Arizona University Foundation Board when he delivers the keynote address at 10 a.m. on May 13.

Franke & Company is a family office that invests capital into a diverse set of private, alternative investment opportunities. Since joining the firm in 1991, Franke has underwritten thousands of investment offerings, led the negotiations of company investments, and has been active in the ongoing oversight of portfolio companies and investments. He is primarily responsible for the firm's philanthropic efforts, which include identifying philanthropic opportunities, assessing the merits of such gifts, and overseeing their impact.

Franke is a board member for both the NAU Foundation and the University of Washington Foundation. He maintains active philanthropic committee roles at NAU, the University of Montana, the University of Arizona, and Arizona State University.

Additional information about this year's spring commencement NAU Skydome, including ceremony times, directions, parking and more is available online.

Contact northern Arizona reporter Lacey Latch at LLatch@gannett.com or on social media @laceylatch.

Coverage of northern Arizona on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is funded by the nonprofit Report for America and a grant from the Vitalyst Health Foundation in association with The Arizona Republic.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Bill Gates to deliver keynote address at NAU graduation