Thomas College graduates

WATERVILLE — Thomas College hosted Class of 2023 graduates and their guests on Saturday, May 13 in the Alfond Athletic Center at Thomas College in Waterville. One hundred and eighty-five total graduates including from undergraduate and graduate programs processed at Thomas College’s 129th Commencement.  

Mathison Deering of Dexter received a bachelor’s degree Magna Cum Laude. Austin Lyle Bickmore of Dover-Foxcroft received a master’s of business administration.

Former Dexter Regional High School football coach and Senior Advisor to Seeds of Peace Timothy P. Wilson was one of Thomas College’s honorary degree recipients, 

recognized with an honorary doctor of humane letters.

Wilson has more than 50 years of experience in education, public service, and athletic coaching. Wilson serves as senior advisor to Seeds of Peace, an organization that he has been with since its founding in 1993, and director of its Maine Seeds Programs. Until 2006, he was the director of both the Seeds of Peace Camp in Maine and the Seeds of Peace Center for Coexistence in Jerusalem. 

Prior to and during the early years of his appointment with Seeds of Peace, Wilson was appointed by three Maine Governors to posts including chair of the Maine Human Rights Commission, state ombudsman, and associate commissioner of programming for the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation & Corrections. 

Wilson serves as chair of the Abyssinian Church Restoration Committee in Portland, on the Community Mediation Center Board of Directors, on the Maine Hospice Council Board of Directors, on the Kents Hill School Board of Directors, and as a trustee of Bridgton Academy. 

In 1997, the late King Hussein of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan presented Wilson with a Medal of Honor. The Maine Youth Camping Association has honored him with the Halsey Gulick Award, and Seeds of Peace has recognized his efforts with a Distinguished Leadership Award. In 2015, he was awarded the Gerda Haas Award for Excellence in Human Rights Education and Leadership from the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine.  

Wilson earned a bachelor of science in education from Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania and was certified to teach English as a second language by the University of Washington.  

Wilson has five children and eight grandchildren with his wife, Jacqueline (Jacquie).