Every so often, we get to see a college president overjoyed by the honor of awarding their son/daughter a diploma at commencement.
That was the case for Dr. David K. Wilson, of Morgan State University in Baltimore, who in 2021, presented a degree to his son, alongside hundreds of other cheering Morgan graduates.
But rarely do we see a college president preside over a commencement ceremony where they get to award a degree to their spouse. But that's what's slated to take place on this Sunday when Bonita Brown—interim president of Northern Kentucky University (NKU)—hands over a degree and likely a big hug—to her husband Wesley, who will proudly walk across the stage after earning a bachelor's degree in photography several decades after he first graduated from high school.
Four years ago, Wesley Brown enrolled at NKU shortly after his wife Bonita, was named vice president and chief strategy officer at NKU. But when the former president of NKU resigned from his post earlier this year, the NKU board appointed Bonita Brown to the interim post, making her the first woman and the first African American to lead the school that boasts a student population of about 15,000.
As fate would have it, Bonita Brown's new position meant that she would now officiate this year's commencement ceremony that includes her husband, making an already celebratory event an even more joyous occasion.
“We couldn’t have dreamed this would have happened,” said Bonita, who has been Wesley’s biggest cheerleader. “I couldn’t have scripted that.”
Like so many others, Wesley enrolled in college after he graduated from high school. But then he "ran into financial issues," before starting a family with his first wife, who would later pass away after a bout with Crohn’s disease. In the subsequent years that followed, Wesley was mostly concerned with taking care of his children and making ends meet, though he would go on to earn an associate’s degree.
