King’s Board Member and Local Physician Known for International Humanitarian Work to Receive Honorary Degree at Spring Commencement

Richard Abbas Alley, M.D.—a physician who volunteered with several Northeastern Pennsylvania community organizations and humanitarian projects in Africa, South America, and Asia—will receive an honorary Doctor of Humanities at the King’s College Spring Commencement on May 16, 2025.

Alley served as a lieutenant in the Medical Corps of the U.S. Navy in the 1960s. He then spent decades as a physician at hospitals in Philadelphia and nearby Wilkes-Barre, Kingston, and Nanticoke before going into private practice until he retired in 2014.

Throughout that time, Alley volunteered at nearly a dozen community organizations in Northeastern Pennsylvania, including the Interfaith Council of Wyoming Valley, the Luzerne County Community College (LCCC) Cares Campaign for Children, the NEPA Boy Scouts Council, the Penn’s Woods Girl Scouts Council, the Rotary Club of Wilkes-Barre, the Salvation Army Advisory Board, St. Joseph’s Center Foundation, the St. Vincent DePaul Soup Kitchen, and the Wilkes-Barre YMCA.

In addition to lending his medical expertise to a Rotary International humanitarian mission in Nigeria, Alley directed two other Rotary projects in Uganda and Guyana. He also served as a volunteer physician in Brazil, India, and the Philippines, among other locations.

Alley has been recognized for his humanitarian work since 1976. He received the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation’s First Annual Humanitarian Award, the Rotary International Humanitarian Services Award, the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce Achievement Award, the Times Leader Humanitarian of the Year Award, the Wyoming Valley Interfaith Council’s Award for Work in the Third World, and the NEPA Council Boy Scouts of America Distinguished Citizens Award.

A member of the King’s College board of directors since 2006, Alley also established the Brother Harold Rogan, C.S.C., Memorial Scholarship in 2010 and made a transformational donation in 2019 that led the College to rename its facility on Public Square in Wilkes-Barre to the Richard Abbas Alley Center for Health Sciences. Alley also donated his personal collection of art and artifacts from countries where he volunteered, which are now on display on the first floor of that building.

“Dr. Alley is a first generation American whose parents traveled from Syria for a better life for their family, a life that he has dedicated utterly to the service of others, including patients and those in need both here in Northeastern Pennsylvania and around the world.,” said King’s College president Rev. Thomas P. Looney, C.S.C., Ph.D. “His unparalleled generosity and humanitarian spirit continue to inspire the hundreds of physician assistant, athletic training, nursing, and exercise science students who use the facility that bears his name each year.”

The commencement procession begins at 12:30 p.m. with the ceremony following at 1 p.m. A complete commencement schedule is available at https://www.kings.edu/commencement.