Libby Little, wife of late husband, Dr. Tom Little, will be Biola University’s class of 2011 Commencement speaker. 

LibbyLittle and her husband, optometrist Tom, served on a medical team in Afghanistan for over 30 years. In August 2010 Tom and his medical team of ten were ambushed and killed on their journey back to Kabul, Afghanistan. Libby briefly shared the story of her husband’s murder at the 2010 Lausanne Congress Conference in Cape Town, South Africa this past year.

The unarmed team had been given permission to travel through this part of the country and been repeatedly invited by leaders from the region to conduct a mobile clinic in this valley. Along with a general surgeon, a dentist, an ophthalmic technician, a nurse and Tom, the team had successfully completed a two-week medical outreach program to this much neglected part of the country, and were on their return to the capitol.

On February 15, 2011, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Little with the 2010 Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor, which Libby accepted on his behalf. In the ceremony, President Obama said that Tom was, “… a humanitarian in the truest sense of the word; a man who not only dedicated his life to others, but who lived that lesson of Scripture: ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’”

Libbywill deliver the Commencement address at Biola University’s graduate ceremony on Friday, May 27, 2011 at 6:00 p.m. and at the undergraduate ceremony on Saturday, May 28, 2011 at 9:00 a.m.