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Final Tech Assignment: Graduation

May 8, 2007

By Rex Bowman

BLACKSBURG — You could call Ed Henneke Virginia Tech's Mr. Commencement, and this year Mr. Commencement has his work cut out for him.

Henneke, associate dean of en- gineering at Tech, has been at the school for 36 years, and each year he has worked on the committee that plans the ceremony. For 15 years, he's been the chair of the commencement committee.

But the April 16 massacre of 32 students and teachers at Tech has made the upcoming commencement — the last for the retiring Henneke — more difficult, as he and other organizers strive to pay tribute to the victims while ensuring the ceremonies Friday and Saturday remain a joyous occasion for the approximately 5,000 graduates.

"It's certainly much more dramatic than I expected it to be," said Henneke, 66, of his final assignment. "We'll try to make it as normal as possible."

That will take some effort. For one, the national media are expected to return to the Blacksburg campus. Also, unlike previous years, security will be tight, with purses and packages searched as proud parents and friends crowd into Cassell Coliseum and Lane Stadium. That could mean long lines.

In another deviation from past commencements Henneke has planned, the university plans to give 27 diplomas to the families of the victims, along with 27 school rings, during the ceremonies.

Finally, Tech faculty and students could find themselves thinking not about the future — the purpose of commencements — but about the past as speakers address the mass murder.

Henneke, for instance, had his office in Norris Hall, where student Seung-Hui Cho killed 30 of his 32 victims. Henneke said he was in his third-floor office, interviewing a prospective faculty member, when the first gunshots rang out on the second floor. Police eventually led him out, but some of his friends were killed.

"It's been therapeutic to work on commencement," he said. "I've been crying and hugging people more than I've done in my life."

Contact staff writer Rex Bowman at rbowman@timesdispatch.com or (540) 344-3612.