Martin J. Walsh, executive director of the National Hockey League Players Association, former US labor secretary and Boston mayor, was the keynote speaker at Suffolk University’s commencement last Sunday (May 21).

“No matter how uncertain the world is right now, or your life is right now, don’t limit yourself in what comes next. Go for that next dream, and get ready to dream even bigger,” Walsh told members of the Class of 2023.

The Lower Mills resident received an honorary Doctor of Public Service degree during the celebration at Boston’s Leader Bank Pavilion. 

Walsh, who briefly enrolled at Suffolk as a young man, opened by quipping, “It only took me 33 years to get a degree from Suffolk University.” 

He praised Suffolk for its integral role in protecting the city’s most vulnerable during Covid by “turning one of their dorms over to the city of Boston to allow us to house homeless people who had no one to take care of them so they could have social distancing and be safe.”

Suffolk’s College of Arts & Sciences Class of 2023 is made up of 693 new alumni, with 574 undergraduate and 119 graduate degrees awarded.  Overall, during three ceremonies on May 21, the university conferred 1,969 undergraduate and advanced degrees to new alumni/ae from 37 states and the US Virgin Islands, and from 74 countries.