Award-Winning Broadcast Journalist and Alumna Lynn Sherr
to Speak at Wellesley College Commencement May 28

WELLESLEY, Mass.— She has told the story of a 67-million-year-old dinosaur known as Tyrannosaurus Sue, won a Peabody Award for her coverage of extreme anorexia, and reported live from the 1990 Wellesley College commencement, as then-First Lady Barbara Bush addressed the graduates.

When it came time for former ABC News correspondent Lynn Sherr to tell her own story, in her 2006 memoir Outside the Box, she chronicled the many events that shaped her life and career— including how she put her liberal arts education to work. Although she had always known she would be a journalist and assumed she’d study English, at Wellesley College she was swept into the “magical world” of Greek, which she chose as her major.

“I learned about life from Sophocles, passion from Sappho, evil from Euripedes, laughter from Aristophanes,” wrote Sherr, a member of the Wellesley College class of 1963. “It was another way to find out the truth firsthand, without a translator coming in between. No, Greek didn’t get me a job in TV. But I’m sure I understand the English language more intimately. I know it’s why I do crossword puzzles so quickly, why I can figure out definitions more readily. Greek brought words to life.”

Sherr will return to her alma mater to address the approximately 600 members of the Class of 2010 and their friends and families at Wellesley College’s 132nd Commencement, Friday, May 28, at 10:30 am on the Academic Quad of the Wellesley, Mass., campus.

"We thought Lynn Sherr would be a great speaker at Commencement not only because of her many accomplishments, but also because we found her love and devotion to Wellesley College absolutely inspiring and heartwarming," said Rosa Hu, Wellesley senior class president.

As an award-winning correspondent with ABC News' 20/20, Sherr covered a range of stories, focusing on investigative reports, national politics and women's issues. She has also reported regularly on NASA Space Shuttle missions. Before joining 20/20, Sherr was a national correspondent for ABC News, which she joined in 1977. Earlier in her career, she was an on-air correspondent for WCBS-TV and WNET in New York and WETA in Washington, D.C., and worked for Conde Nast Publications and the Associated Press.

In addition to her memoir, Sherr is the author of several books, including “Failure is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words,” “America the Beautiful: The Stirring True Story Behind Our Nation’s Favorite Song” and “Tall Blondes,” a book about giraffes. She has won numerous awards, including an Emmy in 1980 for her election coverage.

She received the Wellesley College Alumnae Achievement Award in 1988 and served as an alumnae trustee from 1998 to 2004.

More information on Wellesley’s commencement exercises can be found at www.wellesley.edu/PublicAffairs/Commencement/.

Since 1875, Wellesley College has been a leader in providing an excellent liberal arts education for women who will make a difference in the world.  Its 500-acre campus near Boston is home to 2,300 undergraduate students from all 50 states and 75 countries.

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