Retired congressman is Grove City commencement speaker

Staff report

GROVE CITY, PA.

Frank Wolf, a veteran lawmaker known as a champion of human rights and religious liberty, will speak at Grove City College’s 135th Commencement at 10 a.m. May 16, on the Quad between Harbison Chapel and Crawford Hall on campus.

Wolf represented northern Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years before retiring this year to pursue humanitarian work. During his decades in office, Wolf was a supporter of international human rights, traveling worldwide to witness the plight of the poor and oppressed and advocate for their causes in the halls of power.

“In my years in Washington, I never met a public figure with a greater commitment to human rights than Frank Wolf,” said Paul J. McNulty, Grove City College president. “He inspired countless public servants with his courage and passion for helping global victims of persecution, human trafficking and oppression.”

Wolf was recently awarded the first Jerry and Susie Wilson Chair in Religious Freedom at Baylor University, where he advances the study and protection of religious liberty with a focus on foreign policy and diplomacy. He also co-founded the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative, a group dedicated to defending and restoring religious freedom through “theologically-rooted activism.”

Most recently, Wolf has championed the cause of Christians in the Middle East, who he says face “genocide” at the hands of Islamic State militants.

World magazine selected him as the winner of its 2014 Daniel of the Year award, citing his “decades of courageous public service” and “commitment to Christ-centered compassion.”

In Congress, Wolf was the driving force behind legislation that created the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and the International Religious Freedom Office at the State Department. He founded and served as co-chairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, a bipartisan group of lawmakers dedicated to international human rights.

Kenneth W. Starr, president and chancellor of Baylor University, described Wolf as the “conscience of Congress.”