University Trustee is Humanities Baccalaureate speaker

COLUMBUS – Douglas Borror (DUBLIN 43017), a member of Ohio State’s Board of Trustees, will speak on The Ohio State University campus on Thursday, June 12. An OSU alumnus, Borror is the featured speaker at the College of Humanities Baccalaureate, an annual celebration of the achievements of graduating students and alumni, which begins at 3:30 p.m. in the Fawcett Center. The event is free and open to the public (RSVP 292-1882).

Borror is chairman and CEO of Dominion Homes, Inc., a Columbus based homebuilder and developer of single-family communities in Ohio and Kentucky. In 2001, Dominion Homes completed and sold over 2,050 homes and currently ranks in the top 40 homebuilders in the United States. Dominion Homes was named to the Forbes 200 Best Small Companies list for the second year in a row in 2001.

Borror has led the growth of the business from sales of $30 million in 1987 to over $400 million in 2001. As C.E.O., Borror oversees the strategic direction of the company. His responsibilities include land acquisition, product development and design, and brand management.

Borror is very active in the business and charitable arenas of the Columbus community. He serves on the board of directors of the Huntington National Bank, Columbia Gas of Ohio and Command Alkon Corp. He is currently a board member of Capital South Redevelopment Corp. and is on the board of directors for The Wellington School, Recreation Unlimited, and the advisory board of Goodwill Industries. He is chairman of the East Central Region of the Young Presidents' Organization and on its international board of directors. Additionally, he is a licensed real estate broker and a member of the Columbus Board of Realtors.

A lifelong central Ohio resident, Borror graduated from Upper Arlington High School in 1973 and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history.

During the Baccalaureate ceremony, Humanities alumnus Wayne P. Lawson (COLUMBUS 43206) (B.A. 1963, Spanish; M.A. 1966 English; and Ph.D. 1973 Theatre) will receive the Humanities Alumni Society (HUMAS) Alumni Award of Distinction. Lawson is the executive director of the Ohio Arts Council (OAC). Under his direction the OAC has become one of the foremost state arts agencies in the nation in terms of funding, long-range planning and evaluation, support for individual artists and innovative services to constituents in all arts disciplines.

Lawson has served on many program panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and has been chairman of the NEA State Programs Advisory Panel. He served a three-year term as chairman of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies and completed three terms as chairman of Arts Midwest.

He serves on the evaluation team of Young Audiences, New York City, and was a member of the National Advisory Committee for the Mandel Center, a collaborative program for nonprofit organizations sponsored by the Schools of Applied Social Science, Law and Management at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

Lawson has served as chair of the Arts in Underserved Communities Panel of the NEA’s State and Regional Programs and coordinated private fund-raising efforts for the NEA’s Challenge III program, which provided funding to individual artists in seven states. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Mass., teaches graduate courses in public policy and the arts at The Ohio State University, sits on the board of the Columbus AIDS Task Force, and is a member of the Ohio Arts and Sports Facilities Commission.

Lawson studied Romance languages at The Ohio State University, did his master’s degree in European literature and earned his doctorate in theatre and comparative literature. He holds a certificate in Spanish literature from the University of Madrid and an honorary doctorate from Rio Grande College in Ohio. He spent several years traveling through Europe, working on a kibbutz in Israel, directing OSU’s Study Abroad Program in comparative literature, teaching English to businessmen in European corporations and completing two U.S. Department of Education fellowships in England and Scandinavia.

HUMAS also will present an Outstanding Student Award to Craig Evers, a major in English and Economics. Evers’ achievements have been recognized with numerous awards and scholarships, including the Bronze and Silver Congressional Awards, Emerging Leaders Citation, Outstanding Senior Award, President’s Salute to Undergraduate Academic Achievement, Procter & Gamble Leadership Advantage Camp, and selection as a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship in Ohio. He also has received a Mortar Board Scholarship, the Alumni Scholar Award, Presidential Scholarship and National Merit Scholarships, and a Phi Beta Kappa Scholarship. Evers has been active in Ohio State’s class honorary system, having been inducted into Alpha Lambda Delta/Phi Eta Sigma Freshman Academic Honorary, Romophos Sophomore Class Honorary, Bucket & Dipper Junior Class Honorary, and Mortar Board National Senior Honor Society, of which he was president and is now alumni liaison. He was secretary/treasurer of the Association of Ohio State Class Honoraries and served the National Society of Collegiate Scholars at Ohio State as charter officer, vice president for community service, and webmaster. He was inducted into Phi Kappa Phi and was one of only six juniors elected at Ohio State to Phi Beta Kappa in 2001. An Honors Ambassador for four years, Craig helped to organize volunteers for Ohio State Honors Day and the University Scholar Maximus Competition. Evers plans to delay graduate school for two years to work as a Research Assistant at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, D.C.