Federal District Judge Karon O. Bowdre of the Northern District of Alabama will speak at Samford University's fall commencement Saturday, Dec. 15, at 10 a.m. in Wright Center. The Very Reverend Frank F. Limehouse III, dean of Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, will speak at the commencement and service of consecration for Samford's Beeson Divinity School Wednesday, Dec. 5, at 11 a.m. in Hodges Chapel.
Samford will confer degrees on about 269 graduates during fall commencement.
Judge Bowdre is a graduate of both Samford and its Cumberland School of Law, where she also taught. Born in Montgomery, Bowdre earned her undergraduate degree in 1977 and her law degree in 1981.
She practiced law with the Birmingham firm of Rives and Peterson from 1982 until 1990. She began teaching at Cumberland in 1989, and was a member of the faculty until her 2001 appointment by President George W. Bush to the federal bench.
Dean Limehouse was called to Cathedral Church of the Advent in 2005. Previously, he was rector of St. Helena's Episcopal Church in Beaufort, S.C., and of St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in Hartsville, S.C.
He holds degrees from Wofford College and Virginia Theological Seminary.