Six to Receive Commencement Honors

SIX RECEIVE SPECIAL COMMENCEMENT HONORS AT OHIO STATE

     COLUMBUS -- A journalist, a scientist, a sociologist and two 
businessmen will be recognized with special honors during The 
Ohio State University's summer quarter commencement ceremonies 
Aug. 29 in St. John Arena.

     Honorary doctorates will be presented to journalist Barbara 
Reynolds who will give the commencement address, entrepreneur 
George H. Alber, and research scientist Robert F. Furchgott.

     The Distinguished Service Award will be presented to retired 
executive Richard J. Denman and to Simon Dinitz, professor 
emeritus of sociology.

Barbara A. Reynolds, Doctor Of Humane Letters

     Barbara Reynolds of Camp Springs, Md., nationally known 
journalist and commentator, is president of Reynolds News 
Services, which supplies columns and commentaries to news 
organizations, including National Public Radio, Pacific News 
Service and various national newspapers.

     A native of Columbus, Reynolds was a start-up editor of USA 
Today's Op-Ed page and a columnist for eight years.  She is a 
1967 graduate of Ohio State with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 
journalism.

     Reynolds worked briefly for the Columbus Call and Post 
before becoming a police reporter for the now-defunct Cleveland 
Press in 1968.  She became an assistant editor at Ebony magazine 
later that year.  She joined the staff of the Chicago Tribune in 
1969, becoming an urban affairs reporter and later the 
newspaper's Washington correspondent, covering the Carter 
Administration's urban policies.

     While at the Tribune, Reynolds began airing regular radio 
commentaries for WBBM-Radio and freelance writing for such 
magazines as Essence, Playboy, The New Republic, and Black 
Family.  She cofounded Dollars and Sense, a magazine for African 
American professionals.  As the magazine's international editor, 
Reynolds covered the drought and famine in Ethiopia, the rise of 
the Japanese business class in Tokyo, and the women's liberation 
movement in Italy.

     Four months after the founding of USA Today in 1983, 
Reynolds joined its editorial board and helped launch the Inquiry 
Page, of which she was the editor.  She became a columnist for 
the paper in 1988, writing some 450 columns on subjects including 
the Gulf War, affirmative action, pay equity for women, school 
prayer, and the Supreme Court's decision to knock down majority-
black voting districts.  She left the paper in July.

     As the second black woman to receive a Nieman Foundation 
Fellowship, Reynolds studied constitutional law at Harvard 
University in 1976.  She graduated from Howard University's 
School of Divinity in 1991 and is an ordained minister.  She is 
currently working on her doctorate at the United Theological 
Seminary in Dayton.

George H. Alber, Doctor of Business Administration

     George H. Alber of Marion, entrepreneur, community leader 
and philanthropist, is the founder of Marion Plant Life Services, 
which, when he sold it in 1971, was the largest privately owned 
fertilizer company in the country.

     A 1929 graduate of Ohio State with a degree in business 
administration, Alber began his fertilizer business in 1937, 
eventually expanding it into five subsidiaries throughout Ohio.

     A native of Toledo, Alber established the Dorothy and George 
H. Alber Endowed Scholarship Fund to aid students at The Ohio 
State University's Marion campus, and has provided for the 
construction of the campus Alber Bell Tower.  Alber serves as a 
member of the Ohio State-Marion Volunteer Committee for the 
university's current fund-raising campaign.

     The first campus-based economic development resource center 
in Ohio has been named the George H. Alber Enterprise Center.  A 
joint venture of the state of Ohio and The Ohio State University 
Extension, the center will be a catalyst for economic development 
in Ohio's seven-county North Central region.

Robert F. Furchgott, Doctor of Science

     Robert F. Furchgott of Brooklyn, N.Y., a pioneer research 
scientist and academician, has made notable contributions to the 
fields of biology, physiology and pharmacology. 

     A native of Charleston, S.C., Furchgott is a distinguished 
professor at the State University of New York Health Science 
Center at Brooklyn and adjunct professor in the University of 
Miami School of Medicine's Department of Pharmacology.

     He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University 
of North Carolina in 1937 and a doctorate in biochemistry from 
Northwestern University in 1940.  He was on the medical faculty 
of Cornell University Medical College from 1943-49 before joining 
the pharmacology department at Washington University School of 
Medicine.

     Furchgott is internationally known for his research in 
cardiovascular pharmacology, vascular pharmacology and 
physiology.  His work on vascular relaxation and drug receptor 
theory has been vital in the development of new drugs to prevent 
sudden coronary-related death.

Richard J. Denman, Distinguished Service Award

     Richard J. Denman of Palm Desert, Calif., an Ohio State 
alumnus, is the retired president of Symedix, a Johnson and 
Johnson subsidiary formed in 1982 to collaborate with 
Philadelphia's Thomas Jefferson University on a new method for 
treatment of stroke.

     A loyal supporter of the university since his graduation in 
1957 with a degree in business administration, Denman and his 
wife established the Richard J. and Martha D. Denman 
Professorship for Clinical Research in Epilepsy, to provide 
support for an eminent scholar in neurological research.

     Denman also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the 
University of Toledo and a Master of Business Administration from 
Long Beach State University.  He founded Kyle-Richard Medical 
Inc., an artificial kidney supply distributor and provider of 
patient services, in 1975.  He sold the company in 1982 to 
Johnson and Johnson Cardiovascular and assumed the position of 
vice president for business development.

     Denman has served the university as a volunteer leader in 
development activities in the health sciences and in California.     
He is a charter member of the National Campaign Committee and the 
Ohio State University Foundation.  He is a member of The 
Presidents Club, a life member of the College of Medicine's Order 
of Hippocrates, and a life member of The Ohio State University 
Alumni Association.

Simon Dinitz, Distinguished Service Award

     Simon Dinitz of Bexley, emeritus professor of sociology, 
served on The Ohio State University faculty from 1951 to 1991, 
gaining an international reputation for distinguished scholarship 
in criminology, corrections and mental health.

     In his 40-year tenure at Ohio State, Dinitz taught thousands 
of undergraduates and guided numerous graduate students towards 
their degrees.  He was the first faculty member to receive both  
of the university's top faculty awards: the Alumni Award for 
Distinguished Teaching and the Distinguished Scholar Award.  He 
was chosen as one of the Big Ten's 10 most exciting teachers by 
the Chicago Tribune in 1969.  He was chosen as one of six 
Teachers of the Year in 1981 and as one of the 25 outstanding 
U.S. professors in 1982 by the Council for the Advancement and 
Support of Education.

     Dinitz joined the Ohio State sociology faculty as an 
instructor, rising through the ranks to full professor in 1963.  
He also held the posts of senior fellow in the university's 
Academy for Contemporary Problems from 1975 to 1982 and research 
associate in psychiatry from 1957 to 1974.  He earned his 
Bachelor of Arts degree from Vanderbilt University in 1947 and 
his master's and doctoral degrees in sociology from the 
University of Wisconsin in 1949 and 1951.

                             #

Contact:  Tracy Turner, University Communications, (614)688-3682.


[Submitted by: Von Reid-Vargas (ereid@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu)
               
Wed, 21 Aug 1996 10:15:19 -0400]
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