April 27, 2004
SIUC to honor Boydston, Peters at commencement
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Some 3,600 professional, graduate and undergraduate students are candidates for degrees during next month's Southern Illinois University Carbondale's spring commencement exercises.
Commencement speakers include the vice president and chief financial officer of Caterpillar Inc., the director of the Navy Medical Service Corps and the retired vice president for student affairs at Howard University.
Jo Ann Boydston, retired director of the Center for Dewey Studies, will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree during the College of Liberal Arts' ceremony. Howard A. Peters III will receive the University's Distinguished Service Award during the graduate school's ceremony.
Nine alumni will receive Alumni Achievement Awards as part of individual college and school ceremonies. These awards represent the highest honor the SIU Alumni Association can bestow.
Achieving excellence in undergraduate, graduate and professional programs is among the goals of Southern@150, the blueprint for the University's development by the time it celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2019.
Individual commencement schedules are as follows:
- Agricultural Sciences: 11 a.m., Saturday, May 8, Shryock Auditorium.
- Applied Sciences and Arts: 11 a.m., Saturday, May 8, SIU Arena.
- Business and Administration: 4 p.m., Saturday, May 8, SIU Arena.
- Education and Human Services: 8:30 a.m., Saturday, May 8, SIU Arena.
- Engineering: 1:30 p.m., Saturday, May 8, SIU Arena.
- Graduate School: 7 p.m., Saturday, May 8, SIU Arena.
- School of Law: 4 p.m., Saturday, May 8, Shryock Auditorium.
- Liberal Arts: 5 p.m., Friday, May 7, SIU Arena.
- Mass Communication and Media Arts: 1:30 p.m., Saturday, May 8, Shryock Auditorium.
- Science: 8:30 a.m., Saturday, May 8, Shryock Auditorium.
- School of Medicine: Noon, Saturday, May 22, Sangamon Auditorium, University of Illinois-Springfield.
Details of each commencement:
Agricultural Sciences: 11 a.m., Saturday, May 8, Shryock Auditorium.
Applied Sciences and Arts: 11 a.m., Saturday, May 8, SIU Arena.Robert Godke, Boyd Professor of Reproductive Physiology in Louisiana State University's Department of Animal Science, will give the address and receive the Alumni Achievement Award. An award-winning teacher and researcher, Godke earned a bachelor's degree in animal science from SIUC in 1966 and his master's degree in animal physiology, also from the University, in 1968. He earned a doctorate in reproductive physiology at the University of Missouri in 1974. Godke, who lives in Baton Rouge, began his academic career at Louisiana State in 1974. In addition to serving as Boyd Professor -- the highest honor awarded by the university -- he holds positions as professor of veterinary physiology in the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine and is the director of the LSU Embryo Engineering Lab. His primary teaching responsibilities include reproductive physiology, reproductive management of zoo, laboratory and companion animals, animal biotechnology and gamete and embryo physiology.
Business and Administration: 4 p.m., Saturday, May 8, SIU Arena.Brian G. Brannman, rear admiral, Medical Service Corps, U.S. Navy, will give the address and receive the Alumni Achievement Award. A native of National City, Calif., Brannman enlisted in the Navy as a hospital corpsman after graduating from high school in Manhattan, Mont. He earned his bachelor's degree in health services administration from SIUC in 1979. He then earned a master's degree in management from Webster College, and received a direct appointment into the Medical Service Corps. In 1985, he earned a master's degree in administrative science (financial management) at the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, Calif. His duties in the Navy included serving as director of programs on the staff of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (health budgets and programs). Beginning in July 1996, Brannman was executive officer at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Bremerton, Wash., and concurrently served as commanding officer, Fleet Hospital, FIVE. He deployed with Fleet Hospital, FIVE to Haiti from February to August 1997 in support of Operation Restore Democracy/Exercise Fairwinds. In 1998, he assumed command of the U.S. Naval Hospital in Okinawa, Japan. In January, Brannman, who lives in Alexandria, Va., became the 14th director of the Navy Medial Service Corps. His awards include the Legion of Merit, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal (four awards), the Navy Commendation Medal (two awards), the Navy Achievement Medal, the Armed Forces Service Medal and various service and unit awards.
McPheeters, who lives in Peoria, started with Caterpillar in 1964 as part of the company's College Graduate Trainee program after receiving a bachelor's degree in accounting from SIUC. In 1973, he moved to the Caterpillar subsidiary in Geneva, Switzerland, as an assistant finance manager. He became manager of distribution finance for Shin Caterpillar Mitsubishi Ltd. in 1975 before returning to Geneva as manager of finance services in 1978. In 1983, McPheeters became secretary-treasurer of Caterpillar Far East Ltd. and vice president of Caterpillar Financial Services Corp. in 1987.F. Lynn McPheeters, vice president and chief financial officer for Caterpillar Inc., in Peoria, will give the address and receive the Alumni Achievement Award.
In 1990, he became executive vice president of Caterpillar Financial Services Corp., a position he held until 1996, when he became corporate treasurer of Caterpillar Inc. In 1998, he was elected a company vice president.
In his current role, McPheeters is responsible for the corporate services division, which includes accounting, tax, treasury, investor relations functions and Carter Machinery Co. Inc. Memberships include the business college's external advisory board and the SIU Foundation board.
Education and Human Services: 8:30 a.m., Saturday, May 8, SIU Arena.
Carl E. Anderson, retired vice president for student affairs at Howard University, will give the address. Jackie L. Cox, University supervisor/clinical instructor and adjunct instructor in the college, will receive the Alumni Achievement Award.
Anderson, who lives in Washington, D.C., served as vice president for student affairs at Howard University from 1969 to 1990. From 1984 to 1990, he was vice president for student affairs for the Howard University Foundation. Other positions at Howard included associate dean of students for administration and student life from 1964 to 1969 and director of student activities from 1960 to 1964.
Anderson earned a bachelor's degree in government in 1956 and a master's degree in college student personnel administration in 1958, both from SIUC. He earned a doctorate in student personnel administration in higher education from the University of Maryland in 1969.
Following his retirement from Howard, Anderson was a member of the professional staff of the Post Office and Civil Service Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1992 to 1995.
For the past 10 years, Anderson has been president of the Kappa Scholarship Endowment Fund, Inc. a charitable scholarship foundation he helped found. The organization raises funds to provide scholarships to talented District of Columbia high school graduates who need assistance in order to attend college.
She spent 26 years teaching in the Carbondale Elementary School District and has been teaching in the college since 1995. Cox has made dozens of presentations at national, state and regional meetings and conferences, many focusing on classroom management, teaching math and science and teaching gifted students.Cox, of Murphysboro, holds three bachelor's degrees -- elementary education, special education-learning disabilities and special education-educable mentally handicapped. She earned a master's in curriculum and instruction, specializing in mathematics education, and a doctorate in curriculum and instruction, specializing in teacher education and supervision. All of her degrees are from SIUC.
Engineering: 1:30 p.m., Saturday, May 8, SIU Arena.
Norem, who lives in Austin, Texas, earned his bachelor's degree in electrical sciences and systems engineering from SIUC in 1978. He holds a master's of business administration from the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business.Glenn A. Norem, chairman and chief executive officer of eeParts Inc., will give the address and receive the Alumni Achievement Award.
Norem founded eeParts Inc., a leading supply-chain systems and services provider for the electronic component spot market, in April 1999 in Carrollton, Texas. The firm became profitable in December 2001 and achieved more than 200 percent growth in revenues last year.
Norem serves on the board of directors of American Electronics Association Texas Council and is co-chairman of the association's Texas Economic Development Committee. He served on the national board of directors of the association -- the nation's largest high-tech trade association with more than 3,200 members -- from October 2000 to September 2003.
He also is chairman and chief executive officer of Catalyst Financial Corp., an investment and business advisory firm to emerging-growth companies in the electronics, software and communications industries. Norem founded Catalyst in 1990.
Norem is a member of the College of Engineering's Electrical Engineering Industrial Advisory Board and the board of advisors for the Texas Department of Information Technology. He also is a member of the Association for University Technology Managers, which promotes the commercialization of university research and technology.
Graduate School: 7 p.m., Saturday, May 8, SIU Arena.
In addition, long-time public servant Howard A. Peters III will receive the Distinguished Service Award.Traditionally there is no guest speaker for this program. The Alumni Association will present its Outstanding Thesis Award to Haagen D. Klaus, anthropology department, and recognize English Professor Charles Fanning, the University's Outstanding Scholar.
The SIU Board of Trustees approved the honor in February.
Peters, who earned his master's degree in guidance and educational psychology from SIUC in 1971, has a long history of public service that includes two Cabinet positions under former Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar. In 1991, he became the first African American to head the state's Department of Corrections. From 1995 through June 1997, Peters served as deputy chief of staff to Gov. Edgar. In 1997, Edgar selected Peters as the first director of the Department of Human Services. A massive reorganization consolidated programs previously administered by a half-dozen agencies with about 20,000 employees under single management.
School of Law: 4 p.m., Saturday, May 8, Shryock Auditorium.
Madigan won election as the state's first female attorney general in 2002. A former state senator from Chicago, Madigan received her bachelor's degree from Georgetown University in 1988. She then moved to Africa at the height of apartheid and served as a volunteer school teacher to young Zulu women in KwaZulu, South Africa.Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan will give the address and the law school's Mary C. Rudasill will receive the Alumni Achievement Award. Attorney Sevil Dalkilic, imprisoned in Kirsehir, Turkey, from March 1994 until 2002, will receive the Rule of Law Citation.
Upon returning to Chicago, Madigan took a job with Wright College and began working on Chicago's west side, partnering with police in the Austin community to develop the Positive Alternatives Project, an after-school and weekend program designed to keep kids away from drugs and gangs.
She became assistant dean for adult and continuing education at Wright College, directing the Senior Academy for Lifelong Learning and Wright's Family College.
She then attended Loyola University Law School, and after earning her law degree, went to work as a litigator for the Chicago law firm of Sachnoff & Weaver, specializing in employment law.
She received a bachelor's degree from Illinois State University in 1971, and her master's four years later from the University of Illinois. She received her law degree, magna cum laude, in 1980 from SIUC.Rudasill is an associate professor, associate dean for academic affairs and director of the law school's clinical program.
Rudasill was in private practice in Carbondale from 1981 until 1988. She began her professional association with the law school in 1985 as a part-time staff attorney. In 1988, she became a staff attorney for the clinical program and in 1990-91, served as an adjunct law professor. She became acting clinical director in 1991 and clinical director and associate law professor in 1992.
Liberal Arts: 5 p.m., Friday, May 7, SIU Arena.
The SIU Board of Trustees approved the award, which honors outstanding scholarship or accomplishments benefiting society, during its February meeting.Howard Spiegel, account manager for Arrow Electronics in Itasca, will give the address and receive the Alumni Achievement Award. JoAnn Boydston, retired director of SIUC's Center for Dewey Studies, will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.
Boydston, who lives in Naples, Fla., earned both her bachelor's and master's degrees from Oklahoma State University. She received her doctorate from Columbia University in 1950.
Over the course of her 33-year association with the center, Boydston oversaw the publication of a major critical work, 37 volumes containing all of Dewey's major philosophical pieces and an index.After six years on the faculty of the University of Mississippi, Boydston came to SIUC in 1955 as executive director of the Educational Council of 100 and assistant director of teacher training. In 1961, she became director of SIUC's new Dewey research project. Five years later, she became director of the fledgling Center for Dewey Studies and helped turn it into the world's top repository of books, articles and other source materials for the study of America's best-known philosopher.
Boydston retired in 1990.
Spiegel, who lives in Buffalo Grove, received his bachelor's degree in administration of justice from the University in 1975, graduating with honors. While on campus, he was a New Student Week leader, vice president of Pierce Hall, vice president of Thompson Point and a member of the University Honors Program. He is a member of the Alumni Association's board of directors, where he serves on the executive committee.
Spiegel is a 29-year veteran of the electronics distributing industry. He is a member of the select Arrow Pacesetter Team, an honor given to less than 1 percent of all Arrow employees worldwide. In his spare time, Spiegel is a beer vendor at Wrigley Field, which he has been doing for the last 34 years.
Mass Communication and Media Arts: 1:30 p.m., Saturday, May 8, Shryock Auditorium.
Charles Ramirez Berg, the University of Texas at Austin's Distinguished Teaching Professor, will give the address. Donald A. Stork, president of PHD St. Louis, will receive the Alumni Achievement Award.
Berg, a professor of radio, television and film, teaches film history and criticism, screenwriting, narration on film and alternative poetics. He is the author of "Latino Imagines in Film: Stereotypes, Subversion, and Resistance," as well as numerous articles on Latinos in U.S. and Mexican films. He also is the author of articles for the World Film Encyclopedia and the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers. Berg also is co-author, with Chicana poet Pat Mora, of a children's book, "The Gift of the Poinsettia."
Stork became president of PHD (Pattison, Horswell, Durden) St. Louis in 2002. The New York-based company is an independent strategic media planning and buying unit within Omnicom, the world's largest advertising holding company. PHD serves some 40 clients, including Daimler-Chrysler, GAP, Nestle Purina, Energizer, Walgreen's and Enterprise Rent-A-Car. PHD ranks among the top 10 media services companies worldwide.Stork received his bachelor's degree in journalism/advertising from SIUC in 1961. He was a media executive with Gardner Advertising from 1964 to 1972, moving to general manager of Advanswers upon its creation as a Gardner subsidiary in 1970. He served as Advanswers' senior vice president of marketing from 1975 to 1979, when he became president of Advanswers, a division of Wells Rich Greene. He served in that capacity until he joined PHD St. Louis in 2002.
Stork lives in Belleville.
Duy H. Hua, professor of chemistry at Kansas State University, will give the address and receive the Alumni Achievement Award.Science: 8:30 a.m., Saturday, May 8, Shryock Auditorium.
A native of Vietnam, Hua received his undergraduate degree from Kyoto University in Japan in 1976. He came to SIUC, completing his doctorate in chemistry and biochemistry in two years, 11 months. He then moved to Harvard University to conduct his postdoctoral research.
He joined the faculty of Kansas State University as an assistant professor in 1982. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, the Research Corporation Research Opportunity Award and the Segebrecht Award for Excellence in Instruction, Research and Publications from Kansas State University.
Hua, who lives in Manhattan, Kan., is the recipient of nearly 50 research grants and four patents, and is the author of more than 100 papers in professional journals.
School of Medicine: Noon, Saturday, May 22, Sangamon Auditorium, University of Illinois-Springfield.
The commencement speaker is Dr. Thomas Inui, professor of medicine and associate dean for health care research at the Indiana University School of Medicine.