Office of Communications

Contact: Amy Batheja

Communications Specialist

Office: (817) 531-7521

abatheja@txwes.edu

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TEXAS WESLEYAN COMMENCEMENT DEC. 14

Texas Wesleyan will host graduation exercises at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 14, at the Will Rogers Auditorium, 3401 W. Lancaster Ave, Fort Worth. The precommencement robing ceremony will be at 11 a.m. Friday in Polytechnic United Methodist Church, 1310 S. Collard St., Fort Worth. The Texas Wesleyan School of Law commencement and hooding will be at 2 p.m. Friday, Dec. 14, at First United Methodist Church, 800 W. 5th St., Fort Worth.

John Murphey, BBA '71 and member of the Texas Wesleyan Board of Trustees, will deliver the commencement address for Texas Wesleyan. Murphey retired in July 2005 as CEO of AgustaWestland’s U.S. Operations with responsibility for the US101 Presidential Helicopter.

Prior to his time with AgustaWestland, Murphey was Chairman and CEO of Bell Helicopter; he retired from that position in December 2004 after more than 40 years with Bell and other Textron companies in aerospace and defense-related businesses. As CEO, Murphey was responsible for all of Bell Helicopter's worldwide business operations. As President and COO (1998-2001), Murphey was responsible for all engineering manufacturing and procurement operations of Bell Helicopter. Throughout the 1990s, Murphey served as Executive Vice President Military Business and Senior Vice President for Information Technology, and Senior Vice President Commercial Sales and Marketing. He was Executive Vice President of Operations at Textron Aerostructures, a company that designs and builds wings and aircraft structure for military and commercial airplanes and the NASA space shuttle program.

He earned his Bachelor of Business Administration from Texas Wesleyan University and a Master of Business Administration from Texas Christian University. He also attended executive development courses at Harvard University and the Chicago Graduate School of Business.

Murphey is the Executive in Residence for the Texas Wesleyan School of Business Administration and Professional Programs.