Benedictine College celebrates 472 graduates with commencement weekend tribute

Benedictine College sent 472 seniors into Atchison’s next chapter at its 54th annual commencement, but the weekend carried a deeper note of remembrance as classmates honored Alex Lynch, who died May 8 after a long battle with cancer. The college presented Lynch’s framed diploma to his parents, Jeremy and Jana, while many graduates wore yellow ribbons in his memory. President Stephen D. Minnis welcomed the family on stage, including Lynch’s brother Connor, a seminarian studying at the North American College in Rome.

That mix of celebration and remembrance fit a college whose roots run deep in Atchison. Benedictine traces its history to two Benedictine monks who arrived in town in 1856 and opened a boarding school with six students in 1858. What began there grew into Benedictine College, and Saturday’s ceremony linked that history to a new class of graduates preparing for careers, further study, service and family life.

The keynote speaker was Peter Cancro, founder and chairman of Jersey Mike’s, who received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. Benedictine described Jersey Mike’s as a chain with more than 3,000 locations open and in development and more than $4 billion in systemwide sales, a scale that gave his message about taking chances, working hard and showing up another layer of weight for graduates preparing to enter the workforce. The college also conferred honorary degrees on Mary Ann Carney Skolaut and Marcie Stokman.

The weekend itself stretched beyond the main ceremony and showed how much of Atchison’s spring calendar still turns around Benedictine. Events included a Senior Champagne Brunch on Friday, May 15, a Nursing Pinning Ceremony, a class photo around the Benedictine “B,” the March of Light to the grotto and baccalaureate Mass, and a president’s reception. The college also set up a livestream of commencement to begin at 9:30 a.m. Central Time on Saturday, May 16.

For Atchison, the college’s commencement is more than an academic milestone. It is a public gathering that brings families, mentors, alumni and neighbors onto the hilltop and underscores how much the town has invested in the next generation, and how much of that generation now leaves carrying Benedictine, and Atchison, with it.