Two SUNY Oswego graduates with careers marked by innovation and service will each receive a State University of New York honorary doctorate degree and speak at the university’s December Commencement on Saturday, Dec. 16.

Attendees will hear words of wisdom and encouragement from 1975 graduate Dr. Peter L. Bocko, a longtime leader with Corning Incorporated, and 1988 graduate Virginia (Ginny) Donohue, founder of On Point for College, during the ceremony, which will begin at 10 a.m. in the Deborah F. Stanley Arena and Convocation Hall in Marano Campus Center.

High-tech glass expert

Through a 41-year career at Corning Incorporated and as an adjunct professor at Cornell University, Bocko is recognized as one of the foremost high-technology glass experts and educators.  

He received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1975 from SUNY Oswego and master’s and doctorate degrees in physical chemistry from Cornell University. At Oswego, he was an undergraduate research fellow under professor Ken Hyde, graduating with five publications on magnetic properties of copper complexes. His thesis work at Cornell, supervised by professor Ben Widom, was in fluid phase critical phenomena.

Bocko joined Corning Incorporated in 1979 and was a principal in Corning’s contribution to the flat panel display revolution. His research in this field started in 1982, later delivering the adoption of Corning glass for breakthrough first-generation LCD products in 1989. In a variety of technical and commercial positions at Corning, he employed collaborative glass design processes with consumer electronics innovators that enabled the scaling and advancement of LCD and OLED technology to its hegemony in information display. Glass products developed under his leadership have exceeded $50 billion in revenue for Corning Incorporated.

Bocko retired from Corning in 2014 as chief technology officer for Corning Glass Technologies, responsible for new product innovation with a particular focus on emerging high-technology applications in Asia, including the introduction of Corning Gorilla Glass for smartphone touch screens.

After retirement from Corning, Bocko created a popular graduate-level course for Cornell’s Materials Science and Engineering Department, introducing the mysteries and beauty of glass to hundreds of student engineers. He holds 13 patents spanning diverse fields of optical fiber, flexible glass, novel materials and display technology. He has received a Special Recognition Award from the Society for Information Display recognizing his central role in display glass innovation. Bocko appeared in a “NOVA” episode on PBS and also was technical adviser for Corning’s acclaimed “A Day Made of Glass” series with over 20 million views on YouTube and is credited as the visionary behind this depiction of today’s display-centric interconnected ecosystem. 

College access advocate and change agent

Donohue left a corporate career and founded On Point for College in April 1999 after eight years of helping students from a local homeless shelter to enroll in college. 

She launched the program out of the trunk of her car. Going to schools, community centers, libraries and homeless shelters, Donohue helped students who had fallen through the cracks enroll in college or university, graduate and transition to a career. Staff and volunteers provided rides, bedding, paperwork, textbooks, clothes, summer housing and even dentistry.  

She retired in 2016 and passed the torch to Samuel Rowser, who leads this organization with vision and compassion to this day. Today On Point for College services all of Cayuga, Cortland, Herkimer, Madison, Onondaga, Oneida and Oswego counties. To date, On Point for College has helped over 10,000 students to enroll in college, and of those, over 4,000 have graduated with 5,000 degrees.

In Donohue’s retirement she supports Fidele Dhan, a “Lost Boy” from South Sudan and founder of South Sudan Villages Clinic, as the board chair. Since opening in April 2019, the seven-room clinic has provided medical care over 56,000 times.

Donohue was recognized in 2015 by the Association of Advance Collegiate Schools of Business as an Influential Leader who “embodies how one person can help change the world.” She was nominated by SUNY Oswego. On Point for College and SUNY Oswego collaborated to secure federal funding as partners in a 2015 $2.8 million First in the World Grant to improve college attainment in Central New York.

She has received awards such as Syracuse University’s Martin Luther King Unsung Hero Award, Purpose Prize Fellow, Daily Point of Light from George H. W. Bush, Traditional Woman “Classic Woman Award,” Post-Standard Achievement Award, and Ben and Jerry’s “Citizen Cool” Award.

A 1988 SUNY Oswego graduate with a bachelor’s in accounting, Donohue believes that talent is distributed among all, but opportunity is not. She wants to help people to have a voice and reach their dreams – as the world needs them.

About SUNY Oswego’s Commencement

SUNY Oswego's December 2023 Commencement ceremony will honor hundreds of undergraduates and graduate students in front of family, friends and supporters in the Deborah F. Stanley Arena and Convocation Hall in Marano Campus Center. For more information, visit oswego.edu/commencement.

The ceremony also will stream live on the university's YouTube channel, youtube.com/sunyoswegovideo.