The University Record, April 23, 1996
Cole will give commencement address May 4; U-M awards honorary degrees to six
Johnnetta B. Cole, president of Spelman College, and U-M President James J. Duderstadt will deliver commencement addresses at the U-M graduation ceremonies May 34.
Honorary degrees will be awarded to Cole; Henryk Mikolaj Górecki, composer; Jesse Hill Jr., retired chairman of Atlanta Life Insurance Company; Mstislav Rostropovich, cellist, conductor and pianist; Nafis Sadik, executive director of the Un ited Nations Population Fund; and Stephen Smale, professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley.
Cole will give the main speech at the Spring Commencement on May 4 in Michigan Stadium. Honorary degrees will be conferred at this event. Marion Fiona Bouch will make remarks on behalf of the graduating students.
Duderstadt will be the main speaker at the University Graduate Exercises in Hill Auditorium on May 3. Doctoral candidates and Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies master’s degree candidates will be honored at the ceremony.
Schools and colleges also will hold their own recognition ceremonies for their graduating students. Altogether, some 5,500 students on the Ann Arbor campus expect their degrees this spring.
Those receiving honorary degrees:
Cole, wh o will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree, is the first African American woman to head Spelman College. In 1992, Spelman became the first historically Black college to receive a number one rating in U.S. News and World Report’s annual college issue of “Best College Buys.” Spelman was named the number one regional, liberal arts college in the South. During her career as an anthropologist, professor, administrator, author and researcher, Cole has been a n advocate for people of color and women everywhere.
Górecki, regarded as one of the most talented classical composers of the 20th century, was born in Poland. His music has in the past several years traveled more widely and attracted new p erformers and audiences in the West. As a young composer, he was the foremost experimentalist in the Polish avant-garde in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Górecki will receive an honorary doctor of music degree.
Hill, who will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree, served as chairman, president and chief executive officer of Atlanta Life from 19731992. He was the company’s vice president and chief actuary before becoming president and chief executive. In 1977, he was elected chairman of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, the first Black to hold such a position in a maj or American city.
Rostropovich, who will receive an honorary doctor of music degree, is recognized internationally as a musician and a defender of human rights and artistic freedom. Widely considered to be the world’s greatest living cellist, he has recorded virtually the entire cello repertoire. Music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., for 17 seasons, Rostropovich now holds the title Music Director Laureate.
Sadik, as executive director of the U.N. Population Fund, holds the rank of Under-Secretary-General. On her appointment in 1987, she became the first woman to head one of the United Nations’ major voluntarily-funded programs. A national of Pakistan, Sadik has consistently called attention to the importance of addressing the needs of women, and of involving them in making and carrying out development policy. She will receive an honorary doctor of science degree.
Smale, who also will receive an honorary doctor of science degree, is a leading mathematician who has made important contributions in differential topology, dynamical systems, many aspects of non-linear analysis and geometry, and in applied mathematics. He won the Field Medal from the International Mathematical Union in 1966 and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1970, among other honors.
Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. will address the U-M-Flint graduates at their ceremony April 28.
The son of civil rights activist Jesse L. Jackson, he was a crusader against apartheid and spent his 21st birthday in a jail cell as a result of protests against apartheid. He is currently a member of the United States House of Representatives.
Jackson holds a bachelor of science degree in business management from North Carolina A&T University, a master’s degree in theology from the Chicago Theological Seminary and a J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law.
He will speak to a class of 538 undergraduate students and 80 master’s students who expect their degrees this spring.
The commencement ceremony begins at 2:30 p.m. Sun. (April 28) in the IMA Sports Arena.
Richard P. Kughn, a real estate entrepreneur who has been instrumental in many landmark civic projects and business interests in the Detroit area, will be the main speaker at the U-M-Dearborn winter commencement ceremony April 21.
Kughn was president and chief operating officer of the Taubman Company in 19691979, and vice chairman of the board from 1979 until his retirement in 1983. Since that time, he has been chairman and president of Kughn Enterprises, an asset management company.
One of Kughn’s most notable enterprises has been Lionel, L.L.C., the nation’s largest manufacturer of electric toy trains, where he is now chairman emeritus. In addition, Kughn is the principal owner of the Whitney restaurant in Detroit, chairman of Longbow Productions and board member of the Upper Deck Company.
“We are very pleased that Richard Kughn will speak to our graduates and their families as they go through this important transition in their lives,” U-M-Dearborn Chancellor James C. Renick said. “Through his distinguished career th at has combined pragmatic business sense with the highest levels of civic and social involvement, Mr. Kughn has set an example that enriches the entire community.”
Approximately 800 students expect bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the U-M-Dearborn this term.
