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| Posted 05.27.07 |
8 Recipients of Honorary Degrees, Baldwin Medal, Alumnus Award
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Wesleyan’s 175th Commencement Ceremonies were
held on Sunday, May 27.
Wesleyan conferred: 731 bachelor degrees, 25 master of arts degrees, 58
master of arts in liberal studies degrees and 14 Ph.D. degrees.
During that ceremony, the following people received honorary degrees:
Jewel Plummer Cobb is renowned as a teacher, a research biologist,
and an advocate for the participation of women and members of minority
groups in the sciences. A graduate of Talladega College, she earned her
Ph.D. in cell physiology at New York University. Her scientific research has
centered on factors influencing the growth, morphology, and genetic
expression of normal and neoplastic pigment cells and on the changes
produced in vitro by chemotherapeutic agents, by hormones, and by other
agents known to disrupt cell division. She taught at NYU, Sarah Lawrence
College, and Connecticut College before becoming dean of the college at
Connecticut, then dean of Douglass College, and finally president of
California State University at Fullerton. Currently president and professor
of biological science, emerita, at Fullerton, Dr. Cobb continues to be
active in promoting science education programs for minority youth and in
promoting the greater representation of women in science. In 1993 the
National Science Foundation honored her with a Lifetime Achievement Award
for Contributions to the Advancement of Women and Underrepresented
Minorities.
Alan M. Dachs ’70, P’98 served 14 years as a member of the Wesleyan
University Board of Trustees and eight years as Board chair. In his role as
chair of the Board, he led the fundraising for the Wesleyan Campaign,
helping the institution to raise a record-breaking $281 million for academic
programs and new faculty positions, financial aid, and an ambitious program
of campus renewal. Through his close partnership with President Douglas J.
Bennet, he helped to guide Wesleyan in its strategic planning and in
promoting Wesleyan’s reputation for academic excellence. Mr. Dachs is a
staunch advocate for the value of liberal arts education and a tireless
proponent of Wesleyan. He was elected trustee emeritus and chair emeritus in
2005 upon his retirement from the Board. Mr. Dachs is a member of the boards
of directors of the Bechtel Group and the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation. He
currently serves on the boards of The Brookings Institution and The
Conference Board and on the Corporation Visiting Committee for the
Engineering Systems Division of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He recently was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences. Mr. Dachs also serves as chair of the University’s Development
Committee. He is president and chief executive officer of the Fremont Group,
a private investment company based in San Francisco. Mr. Dachs and his wife,
Laurie, have four children and two grandchildren. Their son, Eric, is a
member of Wesleyan’s Class of 1998.
Rosa DeLauro was elected to Congress from Connecticut's Third
District in 1990 and is currently serving her ninth term. She sits on the
House Appropriations and Budget committees. In addition to her work on the
full committees, Representative DeLauro chairs the House Appropriations
Subcommittee on Agriculture, which is responsible for funding the Food and
Drug Administration and the Food Stamps program. She also sits on the Labor
- Health, Human Services - Education and Commerce - Justice - Science
Subcommittees. DeLauro has built a reputation as an advocate for economic
development, healthcare and education. She has been a strong proponent for
student aid, advocating such measures as increasing the size of Pell Grants
in order to restore their purchasing power, allowing the consolidation of
student loan debt and cutting interest rates to make student borrowing more
affordable, and defending against cuts in programs that help to increase
students' access to college , such as Upward Bound and TRIO. A frequent
visitor to Wesleyan's campus and to Middletown, DeLauro has shown herself
eager to meet and talk with faculty and students. She has strongly supported
Wesleyan's efforts to establish and fund the Green Street Arts Center. Since
she first came to Congress in 1990, DeLauro has put every pay raise she has
received toward a scholarship program she founded in memory of her late
father. To date, her scholarships have helped 420 students further their
educations.
Jim Lehrer (who also gave the principal address at commencement) has
anchored The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on the Public Broadcasting
Service (PBS) since 1995. Lehrer joined PBS in 1972, teaming with Robert
MacNeil in 1973 to cover the Senate Watergate hearings. They began in 1975
what became The MacNeil/Lehrer Report, and, in 1983, The MacNeil/Lehrer
NewsHour, the first 60-minute evening news program on television. Lehrer has
been honored with numerous awards for journalism, including a presidential
National Humanities Medal in 1999. In the last five presidential elections,
he moderated 10 of the nationally televised candidate debates. Lehrer has
written 15 novels, his latest, The Franklin Affair, published in
April 2005. He also has written two memoirs and three plays. His daughter,
Lucy Lehrer, is a member of Wesleyan's Class of 1985.
Nobutaka Machimura, former Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs,
currently serves as a member of the Japanese House of Representatives
representing Hokkaido 5th District. As foreign minister of Japan from
September 2004 to October 2005, his efforts were directed toward signing a
treaty with Russia resolving a border dispute and toward investigating the
whereabouts of Japanese hostages who had been kidnapped by North Korean
agents during the 1970s and 1980s. Educated in economics at the University
of Tokyo, he attended Wesleyan for one year as an exchange student. His
career in public service has included appointments to the Japanese Ministry
of International Trade and Industry, the National Land Agency, the Japan
External Trade Organization, and the Agency of Natural Resources and Energy
(from which he retired as director of the planning division for petroleum).
He also served as minister of Education, Science, Sports and Culture and
director of the National Defense Division of the Policy Research Council. He
has been elected to seven terms in the Japanese House of Representatives.
Thomas F. Malone, an environmentalist and expert on sustainability,
is University Distinguished Scholar Emeritus at North Carolina State
University. He has held a tenured faculty appointment at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, has been a senior vice president and director of
research for the Travelers Insurances Companies, and has been dean of the
Graduate School at the University of Connecticut. A past president of Sigma
Xi, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Meteorological Society,
he has also been foreign secretary of the National Academy of Sciences and a
vice president of the International Council for Science (ICSU). Recent
publications have included “Toward a Knowledge Society in the Americas,” “A
New Agenda for Science and Technology for the Twenty-First Century,”
“Reflections on the Human Prospect,” “Global Change, Science and the Human
Prospect,” and, with Gary Yohe, “Knowledge Partnership for a Sustainable,
Equitable, and Stable Society.” Professor Malone has long been active in
issues that combine economic development and environmental quality. He has
participated in two environmental conferences at Wesleyan.
In addition:
Robert G. McKelvey, Wesleyan Class of 1959, and a Rhodes Scholar,
received the Raymond E. Baldwin Medal. President of the George McKelvey
Company, Inc., an investment and advisory firm, McKelvey also serves as a
trustee or director for a number of philanthropic organizations, with his
commitment to these organizations, ranging from 10 to 35 years.
McKelvey has a long history of dedicated service to Wesleyan. He has served
as an alumni-elected trustee, as a Wesleyan charter trustee, and as
vice-chairman of the Board of Trustees. During his tenure he chaired the
Development Committee and served on the Facilities and Finance Committees,
as well as on the Budget and Portfolio Subcommittees. In 1983, at the
request of the Board, he became a director of Zygo Corp., a struggling high
tech company in which Wesleyan had a small investment. In 1995, Wesleyan
sold that holding as one of the university’s most successful investments
ever. In 1996 he was elected trustee emeritus. He continued to serve as a
member of the Board’s Portfolio Subcommittee until 2005. From 2000-2004, he
was also a member of the Development Committee. He continues to be an active
leader of Alpha Delta Phi. Throughout the 1970s, he headed the fraternity’s
alumni organization as the chapter converted to coeducational membership. In
the 1990s, when the Alpha Delt coed chapters broke with the national to form
a coeducational Alpha Delt national, he returned to lead the national
organization for its first decade.
Taft Armandroff, Wesleyan Class of 1982, received Wesleyan's
prestigious Distinguished Alumnus Award on May 26. Armandroff is the
Director of the W. M. Keck Observatory, leading the organization that
operates the world's two largest optical/infrared telescopes, which are
located on the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Armandroff is a noted research
astronomer with a specialty in deciphering the past history of nearby
galaxies based on the stars that they contain today and an understanding of
how stars evolve. His research has contributed to the recognition that
galaxies like the Milky Way have been strongly influenced by past mergers
with dwarf galaxies. He is also an expert in astronomical instrumentation,
the complex technology that enables astronomers to analyze the faint light
from distant stars and galaxies.
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To view photos of the recipients, go to :http://www.wesleyan.edu/newsletter/campus/2007/0507commencementphotos.htt.
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