Commencement Honors

  COLUMBUS -- Five individuals will be honored at The Ohio State University's spring commencement for their contributions to cancer research, physics, academia and devotion to the university. Ceremonies begin at 9:30 a.m. June 9 on the Oval.

Honorary doctorates will be presented to Robert C. Richardson, professor of physics and vice provost for research at Cornell University; Richard J. Solove, real estate developer and founding member of the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Research Institute Foundation; and William Julius Wilson, one of America's leading scholars on urban poverty.

The Distinguished Service Award will be presented to Ben M. Jones III, friend to the Ohio State University Libraries and College of Humanities; and Nancy Wilson Patterson, an advocate for Ohio agriculture and supporter of OSU Extension activities.

Robert C. Richardson, Doctor of Science

Robert C. Richardson, the F.R. Newman Professor of Physics and vice provost for research at Cornell University, is internationally known for his research in low-temperature physics.

Born in Washington, D.C., Richardson received his bachelor's and master's degrees in physics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1958 and 1960 respectively and his doctorate in physics from Duke University in 1966. He joined the Cornell faculty in 1967, working in the laboratory of David Lee, professor of physics and senior researcher. In collaboration with Douglas Osherhoff, they worked on cooling techniques and NMR instrumentation for studying low-temperature helium liquids and solids. In 1971, they made the accidental discovery that liquid helium-3 undergoes a pairing transition similar to that of superconductors -- a discovery that led to a shared Nobel Prize in physics in 1996.

During his tenure at Cornell, he has remained active in teaching introductory physics and has prepared a series of video-taped lectures for undergraduate students. He and his wife, Betty, a lecturer in physics at Cornell, are currently writing an introductory college physics textbook with companion CD-ROM, to be published by McGraw Hill. His book, Experimental Techniques in Condensed Matter Physics at Low Temperatures, with Eric N. Smith and 21 Cornell graduate students, was published in 1988.

Richardson was elected to the National Academy of Science in 1986 and served as chair of its physics section from 1989 to 1992. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships. His honors include the British Physical Society's Eighth Simon Memorial Prize in 1976 and the American Physical Society's Buckley Prize in 1981, both shared with Lee and Osheroff.

Richard J. Solove, Doctor of Science

Richard J. Solove is a partner with Columbus Realty Investments Ltd., a real estate development firm formed in 1999 from the merger of his company, R.J. Solove & Associates, and the Don M. Casto Organization. Columbus Realty Investments focuses on shopping center, apartment and office building development and management.

A native of Columbus, Solove received his B.S. degree in pharmacy from Ohio State in 1948, and is a member of Rho Chi, the pharmacy national honorary society, and Phi Rho Alpha, the College of Pharmacy honorary. He eventually owned three Columbus drugstores before he sold them in 1963 to devote himself full time to real-estate development.

Long an active supporter of his community and his alma mater, Solove was involved in the original discussions leading to the establishment of a state-of-the-art cancer hospital in Columbus. He was a founding member of the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Research Institute Foundation, serving as president from 1989 to 1994, and is currently a member of the hospital's governing board of directors. His many years of dedication to and support of cancer research were recognized in 1999 with the naming of the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute.

Solove served as finance chairman for U.S. Representative John R. Kasich's early campaigns in Ohio's 12th District. He is a member of the Columbus Freedom Board and a past member of the board of directors of the Heritage House. In 1998, he received a Distinguished Service Award from Ohio State and was recently inducted into the Columbus Board of Education Hall of Fame.

William Julius Wilson, Doctor of Humane Letters

William Julius Wilson, one of America's leading scholars of urban poverty, is Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard University. Only 17 of Harvard's 2,200 professors currently hold University Professorships, Harvard's highest professional distinction.

Professor Wilson received his bachelor's degree and master's degree from Wilberforce University and Bowling Green State University respectively. After receiving his doctorate in sociology and anthropology from Washington State University in 1966, he taught sociology at the University of Massachusettes at Amherst, before joining the University of Chicago faculty in 1972. In 1990, he was appointed the Lucy Flower University Professor and director of the University of Chicago's Center for the Study of Urban Inequality. He joined the Harvard University faculty in 1996.

Named as one of Time magazine's "America's 25 Most Influential People" in June 1996, Wilson is the author of several controversial works. The Declining Significance of Race, published in 1978, advanced the theory that class and economics play a more prevalent role than race in the plight of the black urban poor. He further explored the effects of the lack of blue-collar jobs on urban neighborhoods in The Truly Disadvantaged, selected as one of the 16 best books of 1987 by the New York Times Book Review. The book also received The Washington Monthly Annual Book Award and the Society for the Study of Social Problems' C. Wright Mills Award. His latest book, When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor, was selected as one of the most notable books of 1996 by the editors of the New York Times Book Review and received the Sidney Hillman Foundation Award.

A MacArthur Prize fellow from 1987 to 1992, Wilson has been elected to the National Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Education, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. In 1998 he was a recipient of the National Medal of Science, the highest scientific honor in the nation. He is a member of the President's Commission on White House Fellowships; the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, which he currently chairs; and The Century Foundation.

Ben M. Jones III, Distinguished Service Award

Retired investor Ben M. Jones has been an invaluable friend to the Ohio State University Libraries and the College of Humanities.

Now living in Florida, Jones spent most of his career in the Columbus area where he began as an insurance executive. He retired from the insurance business at the age of 34 to become a private investor. Although he received his bachelor's degree in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he formed many ties with Ohio State over the years, never missing a Buckeye football game.

His lifetime passion for collecting books is reflected in his support of the University Libraries, especially in the areas of special purchases and preservation. His personal library includes important collections on the Civil War, American history, North Carolina history and literature, and baseball.

He is a strong advocate for undergraduate studies and has established an award for excellence in undergraduate teaching in the College of Humanities -- the largest prize at Ohio State for outstanding service in the undergraduate classroom. He has long supported the College of Humanities annual autumn auction and, in 1998, his winning bid allowed him to ring Ohio Stadium's Victory Bell after the Buckeyes' win over Michigan.

Nancy Wilson Patterson, Distinguished Service Award

Nancy Patterson has been involved with Ohio State since she joined 4-H as a young girl. That early experience has led to a lifetime of dedication and support of the university, especially through OSU Extension activities.

A 1963 graduate of Ohio State with a bachelor's degree in education, Patterson taught elementary and nursery school for several years before retiring to spend more time with her family and the family's 350-acre fruit farm in Ohio's Geauga County.

Over her five decades of service to the university, Patterson has served at every level within the OSU Extension system as a 4-H volunteer, county advisory board member, state advisory board member, state development committee member, and president of the Ohio 4-H Foundation. As president of the foundation, she increased funds raised from $250,000 to more than $1 million and encouraged Ohio counties to establish 4-H endowment funds. She also provided leadership in building political support for Ohio State through her advocacy of 4-H, Extension, and the university at large with government officials.

During his tenure as Ohio governor, George Voinovich appointed Patterson to the Preservation of Farmland Task Force, where she served as an influential ambassador for Ohio State, highlighting the capacity of the university to respond to critical issues in Ohio.

Long active in Geauga County affairs, Patterson has served on the Geauga County Park District Foundation board of directors, the West Geauga Parent-Teacher Organization Board, the West Geauga Education Foundation board of trustees, the Geauga Hospital Benefit Steering Committee, and the Geauga County Farm Bureau Board. She has served as board member and president of the Ohio Fruit Growers' Society Women's Auxiliary and as chair of the society's Scholarship Committee. She also is active in state and national Republican politics.

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