Dr. Robert L. Hewitt, Professor Emeritus of social work at Shippensburg (Pa.) University and a Bluffton University alumnus, will return to Bluffton as commencement speaker on Sunday, May 8. The ceremony will begin at 2 p.m. in Salzman Stadium.

Hewitt, who received his bachelor's degree in social work from Bluffton in 1969, was a member of the university's board of trustees from 1995-2001.

He also taught at Bluffton while on sabbatical from Shippensburg in spring 2002, serving as a visiting professor of social work as well as a consultant to the administration and to the Damascus Road anti-racism training team. A member of the football and track teams as a Bluffton undergraduate, he is a member of the university's Athletics Hall of Fame.

In his speech, titled "For Such a Time as This ...," Hewitt will emphasize that earning a Bluffton degree offers graduates "O.R.R.s" (opportunities, rights and responsibilities to actively fight for social and economic justice for all people), and requires a commitment that they keep those O.R.R.s "moving in the waters of humanity," he says.

The Chambersburg, Pa., resident was a full-time faculty member in Shippensburg's Department of Social Work and Gerontology from 1987 until his retirement in 2008.

He was promoted to the rank of full professor in 1994 and, for 16 years, was field practicum coordinator for undergraduate social work field education. He was a leader in the development of new classroom curriculum and field instruction training that was instrumental in the department receiving reaccreditation with honors from the National Council on Social Work Education.

Hewitt's many honors have included several for his work in the social work and gerontology department. In 2007, he received the first Faculty Award for outstanding commitment and service to students from Phi Alpha, the national social work honor society.

The following year, the department renamed its endowed Vision of Excellence Student Scholarship-the highest award a social work student can earn from the department-the Dr. Robert L. Hewitt Vision of Excellence Scholarship. This March, the department honored him again with its Human Relations Award, for his consistent modeling of the human relations tenant of the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics.

Hewitt received his master's degree in social work from Wayne State University in Detroit in 1971 and his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1985.

From 1979-83, while living in Panama and serving in various direct-practice and administrative human-service positions for the U.S. Defense Department, he was an adjunct faculty member in the criminal justice master's degree program at Nova University, Panama Canal Branch.

The Massillon, Ohio, native has assisted youth in building character and life skills, and has promoted the growth and development of clinical-practice skills for human-service and juvenile-justice practitioners.

He and his wife, Dr. Nicole Hewitt, are presenters and trainers in the areas of human diversity, multiethnic church development and family development. He is currently involved with the Pennsylvania Family Development Credentialing Program as a trainer, consultant and classroom instructor.