CHESTERTOWN, MD—Former FBI Director Louis J. Freeh will be among the honored guests when Washington College holds its annual George Washington’s Birthday Convocation on Friday afternoon, February 22, 2013.

A former FBI Special Agent, assistant U.S. attorney and federal judge, Freeh led the Bureau as director from September of 1993 through June of 2001. His tenure included the investigations of Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and Russian spy Robert Hanssen.

This past year the Board of Trustees of Pennsylvania State University hired Freeh and his law firm, Freeh Sporkin & Sullivan, to conduct an independent investigation of the child sex-abuse scandal centered on former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. Some 3.5 million documents and 430 interviews later, Freeh published a scathing rebuke of Penn State’s senior leadership and its failure to protect and care for Sandusky’s young victims
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Freeh, 62, is now a partner at the law firm Pepper Hamilton LLP, and chairs Freeh Group International Solutions, LLC, a business-risk consulting firm he formed in 2007.  Prior to creating his law and business firms, he served as General Counsel and Ethics Officer to MBNA Corporation, a bank holding company. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Rutgers University, Freeh also holds a law degree from Rutgers and earned a master’s degree in criminal law from New York University Law School. He will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree from Washington College.

ANNUAL AWARDS:

The winter convocation is also the venue where the College recognizes the recipients of the President’s Medal, the President’s Distinguished Service Awards and the Alumni Service Award.

The 2013 President’s Medal, presented to a member of the community who has made a sustained positive contribution to the quality of life in the region, will go to Chestertown Town Manager Bill Ingersoll. Ingersoll began his career in 1975 as Chestertown’s Housing and Grants Administrator and has served as Town Manager and Zoning Administrator since 1984. Among his many accomplishments, he has championed low-income housing and services for seniors, and helped create the town’s Industrial Park, Volunteer Fire Company building and Visitors’ Center. He also has helped maintain the delicate—often difficult—balance between new development and historic preservation.

Three College employees will receive Distinguished Service awards: librarian Ruth Shoge, who shepherded the major renovation of the Clifton M. Miller Library over the past year; her colleague Cynthia Sutton, who has served as the library’s Head of Circulation for the past 17 of her 30 years at Washington College; and Joe Case, who as Grounds Manager has beautified and maintained the landscaping on campus for six years.

Former College trustee Chuck Covington ’56 will receive the 2013 Alumni Service Award in recognition of three decades of service and loyalty to his alma mater. An economics major who forged a successful career in information technology, Covington retired from Unisys Corporation as V.P. for Information Systems Engineering and has since been active in civic affairs in Avalon, N.J.

The George Washington’s Birthday Convocation is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. that Friday, February 22, in Decker Theatre, inside the Gibson Center for the Arts.  The public is invited to attend, and admission is free.