This Saturday, May 3, McAfee will deliver the keynote address at his alma mater to approximately 429 degree recipients and their friends, family, and professors. The commencement ceremony begins at 10 a.m. on the front lawn of the college and will be moved inside, to the Bast Gym, in case of inclement weather.

Roanoke College’s baccalaureate service will be held at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, May 2 in the Bast Center. Rev. Paul Henrickson, Timothy L. Pickle Dean of the Chapel at Roanoke, will be the featured speaker.

McAfee graduated from RC in 1967 with a mathematics degree. On his way to becoming a prominent leader in the field of technology, he founded Interpath Inc. in 1981 (developing the world’s first commercial voice recognition system), McAfee Inc. in 1989 (developing the world’s first virus scanner), and Tribal Voice Inc. in 1996 (developing the world’s first instant messaging program).

He also worked with a number of technology companies, including General Electric, Univac, Lockheed Martin, Xerox, Siemens and IBM in computer technology and management capacities. In between companies he traveled the world and lived for extended periods in Brazil, Germany, England, Mexico, India and Hong Kong. McAfee currently lives in New Mexico and Belize and is developing technology programs for third world countries.

McAfee’s name graced the news last year with an auction on his vacation home in Colorado.