MONMOUTH, ILLINOIS (May 9, 2025) — Featuring an address by one of the most recognizable non-singing voices in country music, Monmouth College will hold its 168th Annual Commencement Exercises on Sunday, May 18.
Lon Helton, a 1972 Monmouth graduate and the longtime and award-winning host of Westwood One's Country Countdown USA, will deliver the Commencement address to about 140 members of the Class of 2025 at noon on the Wallace Hall Plaza, weather permitting. The rain site will be the Huff Athletic Center.
At 2PM, Saturday, May 17, Monmouth's chaplain, the Rev Dr John Huxtable, will present the Baccalaureate sermon in Dahl Chapel and Auditorium.
A living legend in radio
The professional start of Helton's 53-year career in the radio industry came at Monmouth's downtown station. He kept moving up the charts, first to Galesburg, then taking on-air and program management posts in Denver, Chicago, and Los Angeles. In 1983, Helton joined Radio and Records as its country editor, and he became its Nashville bureau chief in 1986. When Billboard Magazine bought R&R in 2006, Helton launched a new publication, Country Aircheck.
Helton has hosted a variety of nationally-syndicated country radio shows since 1984, including the current Country's Inside Trak, plus Country Close-up, Nashville Live, Country Star Traks, and Listen In, providing a forum for more than 100 world premieres of new albums by country artists.
A 2022 National Radio Hall of Fame and 2006 Country Radio Hall of Fame inductee, he has hosted Country Countdown USA since its inception in 1992. Helton has received the Country Music Association National Broadcast Personality of the Year an unequalled twelve times and been named the Academy of Country Music National Broadcast Personality of the Year an unprecedented five times.
He and Monmouth graduate Anne Buckhouse Helton ('73) have been married for 52 years.
Other speakers and events
In addition to Helton, Lea Selquist ('25) of Peru, Illinois, will address the graduating class. Last fall, Selquist was named Monmouth's recipient of the Abraham Lincoln Civic Engagement Award, thereby becoming a Student Laureate of the Lincoln Academy of Illinois. The accounting and Spanish double major has accepted a full-time position with RSM as an assurance associate and plans to sit for the certified public accountant examination this summer.
A 2004 graduate of Monmouth, Huxtable returned to his alma mater in 2023 to assume the chaplain's role. The title of his Baccalaureate sermon is "Being the Change You Wish to See!" The message will center on moving from college to the real world with a willingness and openness to creating a better world for all.
Other events on Saturday, May 17, include the Honor Walk, 3:30PM, and the Senior Send-Off, 8PM. For the latter event, the graduates will gather at April Zorn Memorial Stadium, where the Alumni and Development Office will welcome them into the Monmouth Alumni Association. The Senior Send-Off will include a congratulatory toast and conclude with fireworks.
The Commencement and Baccalaureate ceremonies will be streamed on the college's Facebook page: facebook.com/monmouthcollege.
Founded in 1853 and affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA), Monmouth College offers 44 majors, 41 minors, and fourteen pre-professional programs. A residential liberal-arts college that is the birthplace of the women's-fraternity movement, Monmouth empowers students to realize their full potential, live meaningful lives, pursue successful careers, and shape their communities and the world through service and leadership.
