01
June
1998
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18:00 PM
America/New_York
Commencement Honors for Six - 06/02/98
SIX RECEIVE SPECIAL COMMENCEMENT HONORS AT OHIO STATE
COLUMBUS -- Six professionals in the fields of journalism,
science, business and law will be recognized with special honors
during The Ohio State University's spring quarter commencement June
12 in Ohio Stadium.
Honorary doctorates will be presented to journalist Bob Greene,
scientist Mildred S. Dresselhaus, scientist George R. St.Pierre and
businessman K. Wayne Smith.
The Distinguished Service Award will be presented to businessman
Frank Wobst and posthumously to Joanne Wharton Murphy.
Bob Greene, Doctor of Journalism
A native of Bexley, Bob Greene is a syndicated columnist for the
Chicago Tribune and the author of the national best-selling book Hang
Time: Days and Dreams with Michael Jordan and his latest, Chevrolet
Summers, Dairy Queen Nights.
Greene was scheduled to receive an honorary doctorate during the
1997 spring quarter commencement that was canceled because of heavy
rainfall. He accepted an invitation to return and receive his
doctorate during this spring's ceremony.
A veteran reporter, columnist and broadcast journalist, Greene
has been called a "virtuoso of the things that bring journalism
alive." He has reported on topics ranging from presidential election
campaigns and nationwide rock-and-roll tours to cattle drives in New
Mexico and murder cases on the streets of Chicago. Greene conducted
headline-making interviews with Patricia Hearst while she was in
prison, Richard Nixon after he resigned the presidency, and mass
murderer Richard Speck.
After earning a journalism degree from Northwestern University
in 1969, Greene began his career with the Chicago Sun-Times as a
reporter from 1969 to 1971. He began writing his columns in 1971,
and was syndicated by the Tribune Co. in 1978. His column now
appears in more than 200 newspapers in the United States, Canada and
Japan. For nine years, his "American Beat" column in Esquire
magazine was the magazine's lead column. In 1981 he began his career
as a broadcast journalist as a contributing correspondent for "ABC
News Nightline."
Greene won the National Headliner Award for the best newspaper
column in the United States in 1977 and the Peter Lisagor Award for
Public Service Journalism in 1981. He was named Illinois Journalist
of the Year in 1995.
Mildred S. Dresselhaus, Doctor of Science
Mildred S. Dresselhaus, professor of physics and electrical
engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, is internationally known for her research on solid-state
physics and materials science.
A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Dresselhaus earned her bachelor's
degree from Hunter College and studied at Cambridge University as a
Fulbright Fellow. She received her master's degree from Radcliffe
College and her doctorate from the University of Chicago. She
conducted postdoctoral work as a National Science Foundation Fellow
at Cornell University before joining the staff of MIT's Lincoln
Laboratory. In 1967, she was named to the Abby Rockefeller Mauze
Chair as visiting professor in MIT's Department of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science. She became permanent holder of the
chair in 1973 until she was named Institute Professor in 1985, a
designation that recognizes distinguished accomplishments in
scholarship, education, service and leadership.
The author and editor of some 600 scholarly articles and seven
books, her books Graphite Fibers and Filaments and Ion Implantation
in Diamond, Graphite and Related Materials are standard references in
her field.
Long committed to developing wider opportunities for women in
science and engineering, Dresselhaus organized the first Women's
Forum at MIT in 1971, and has chaired the American Physical Society's
Committee on the Status of Women in Physics and the National Research
Council's Committee on Women in Science and Engineering. She was
awarded the Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award in 1977.
George R. St.Pierre, Doctor of Science
George R. St.Pierre, Distinguished University Professor and
chair emeritus of Ohio State's Department of Materials Science and
Engineering, is acknowledged as one of the university's most
respected and beloved professors.
A native of Massachusetts, St.Pierre earned his bachelor's and
doctoral degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Following graduation, he worked briefly as a research scientist at
the Inland Steel Co. and as a U.S. Air Force officer at Wright
Patterson Air Force Base before joining the Ohio State faculty in
1957 as assistant professor of metallurgical engineering. He became
a full professor in 1964 and served as associate dean of the Graduate
School from 1964 to 1966. He served as chair of the Department of
Metallurgical Engineering from 1984 to 1988 and as the first chair of
the newly reconfigured Department of Materials Science and
Engineering from 1988 until his 1992 retirement. After his
retirement, he served a year as chief scientist, materials
directorate at Wright Patterson AFB.
St.Pierre's research on applications of physical chemistry in
metallurgical and materials processing has brought him international
recognition and numerous awards. He has published some 150 scholarly
works in the scientific literature as well as numerous technical
reports for government and industry.
His teaching skill and commitment to students has been honored
throughout his career. He is a four-time recipient of Ohio State's
student-driven Mars G. Fontana Teaching Award and has received both
the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching and Distinguished Scholar
Award. The American Society for Metals gave him its Bradley
Stoughton Outstanding Young Teacher award in 1961 and the Albert
Easton White Distinguished Teacher Award in 1997. In 1988, he
received the university's Presidential Professor Award.
K. Wayne Smith, Doctor of Humane Letters
K. Wayne Smith has been president and chief executive officer of
Online Computer Library Center Inc. (OCLC) in Dublin since 1989. He
will step down from that position on June 30.
During his tenure at OCLC -- founded at Ohio State's Main
Library in 1967 -- it has become a global force for research,
scholarship and education. OCLC has extended computer services from
10,000 libraries to 26,000 and has pioneered the development of
electronic scholarly journals. The OCLC bibliographic database is
the most consulted database in higher education and is used daily by
university students and faculty in 65 countries.
A native of North Carolina, Smith earned his bachelor's degree
from Wake Forest and his master's degree from Princeton University,
where he was a Danforth and Woodrow Wilson Fellow. From 1963 to
1966, he served as a captain in the U.S. Army and was an assistant
professor of social sciences at the U.S. Military Academy, West
Point. He served as special assistant to the assistant secretary of
defense from 1966 to 1969 and as director of program analysis for the
National Security Council under Henry Kissinger from 1970 to 1972,
where he participated in the Salt I treaty and Vietnam cease-fire
talks.
In 1973, Smith was named president and CEO of Dart Properties
Group. From 1977 to 1983, he was group managing partner and senior
partner of Coopers & Lybrand's Washington, D.C., operations. In
1983, he became chair and CEO of World Books Inc. Immediately prior
to his OCLC appointment, he served as president and CEO of K. Wayne
Smith and Associates, a North Carolina-based family holding company.
Joanne Wharton Murphy, Distinguished Service Award
In her nearly 40-year affiliation with Ohio State, Joanne
Wharton Murphy touched the lives of countless students and alumni.
At the time of her death last October, she was assistant dean
emeritus for alumni and external relations in the university's
College of Law.
A native of Coshocton, Murphy earned her bachelor's degree from
Miami University and her Juris Doctorate from Ohio State. After
beginning her legal career in Chicago, she returned to Columbus as an
assistant Ohio attorney general in 1963, and served as an assistant
dean in Ohio State's College of Law from 1965 to 1971. In 1971, she
was named associate dean and associate professor of law at Case
Western Reserve University School of Law. She returned to Ohio State
in 1973 to serve as university ombudsman, negotiating and resolving a
variety of conflicts involving faculty, staff and students.
From 1975 to 1977, she chaired Ohio State's Commission on Women
and Minorities, which produced a comprehensive three-volume study
with far-reaching recommendations for inclusiveness at the
university. She was named assistant dean in 1980, retiring in 1995.
From 1973 until her death, she also served as an adjunct professor in
the College of Law, teaching a yearly seminar and a course in banking
law.
She received the Ohio State Law Alumni Association's Alumna of
the Year Award in 1997, honoring her for her teaching, administrative
accomplishments and leadership in the Ohio legal community. Her
service as a role model for women in the legal profession was
recognized in 1995 with the Ohio State Bar Association's first Nettie
Cronise Lutes Award.
Frank Wobst, Distinguished Service Award
Frank Wobst is chairman and chief executive officer of Columbus-
based Huntington Bancshares Inc., a bank holding company with
approximately $30 billion in assets, operating in 13 states.
A native of Dresden, Germany, Wobst attended college in Erlangen
and Gottingen in Germany, studying economics and law. He came to the
United States in 1958 and is also a graduate of Rutgers University's
Stonier Graduate School of Banking. He began his banking career in
Lynchburg, Va., before moving to Columbus in 1974 to become president
of Huntington National Bank.
Long active in Columbus' civic and cultural affairs, Wobst has
been instrumental in securing the Huntington's support for a wide
variety of projects both at Ohio State and in the Columbus community.
Programs in the Fisher College of Business, the College of
Humanities, the Department of Athletics and WOSU have benefited from
the Huntington's generosity. Gifts from Huntington National Bank
also enabled the Wexner Center for the Arts to present a
retrospective of pop artist Roy Lichtenstein's works and helped
sponsor the appearance of tap star Savion Glover.
Wobst is an active member of The Ohio State University
Foundation Board and serves on the Dean's Advisory Council and
campaign committee of the Fisher College of Business.
In 1987, he was named Honorary Consul for the Federal Republic
of Germany. He received the Order of Merit, 1st Class, from the
Federal Republic of Germany in 1996.
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Contact: Tracy Turner, University Communications, (614)688-3682
