ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y., March 11, 2025 — Sr. Margaret Carney, O.S.F., the 20th president of St. Bonaventure, and Seneca artist Carson Waterman will receive honorary doctorates at the university’s 165th Commencement Exercises May 18 in Reilly Center Arena.
Waterman has been a cultural icon in the Seneca Nation since 1975 when he joined the staff at the newly opened Seneca Iroquois National Museum on the Allegany Reservation in Salamanca. He served as exhibit designer, illustrator and artist.
A member of the Snipe Clan and a graduate of Gowanda High School, Waterman studied at Cooper School of Art in Cleveland. Upon graduation, he was drafted by the U.S. Army to serve with the 4th Infantry in Vietnam. He spent seven months on the battlefields before being reassigned to the division’s Public Information Office to create illustrations for the division’s newspapers.
Upon returning from the war in 1970, Waterman spent four years teaching art at the Cleveland Museum of Art before returning to Salamanca. Since 1988, he has been self-employed as an artist at his gallery on the Allegany Reservation.
“Carson is one of the most significant artists Western New York has ever produced, and I’ve come to appreciate over the last two years how revered he is in the Seneca Nation,” Gingerich said. “His life has been committed to keeping alive, forever, the beauty and legacy of the Seneca and Haudenosaunee people though his art.”
Waterman’s work can be found throughout the region, with notable installations at the Delavan-Canisius College subway station and Erie Basin Marina in Buffalo, Seneca Allegany Resort and Casino, the Allegheny River and Chautauqua Lake rest areas on Interstate 86, as well as in community centers, nursing homes and fire halls.
Waterman’s exhibition at the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, titled “Art Saved My Life,” is on display through June 1. SBU’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts will host an exhibition featuring Waterman’s work this fall.
On Thursday, May 15, the ROTC Commissioning Ceremony will be held at 4 p.m. in the Quick Center. The annual Candlelight Induction Ceremony will be held in the Plassmann/Swan quad at 8:45 p.m. Friday, May 16, to formally welcome students into the alumni family.
Activities on Saturday, May 17, include the Multicultural Stole Ceremony at 11 a.m. in Reilly Center Arena and Baccalaureate Mass at 4 p.m. in the arena. Commencement exercises begin at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, May 18.
For more information about Commencement, including the dates for each academic school’s awards ceremony, go to www.sbu.edu/Commencement. Many of the events will be livestreamed.
