Hamilton College has announced the names of six people who will be awarded honorary degrees at the College's 191st commencement on Sunday, May 25.
They are the Rt. Rev. G.P. Mellick Belshaw, retired Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey; Hamilton graduate David Grubin '65, producer, director, writer and cinematographer; Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Jim Lehrer, Public Broadcasting System news anchor; John "Bucky" Pizzarelli, jazz guitarist; and Roger W. Straus, founder of Farrar, Straus & Giroux publishers.
The honorary degrees will be presented during Hamilton's commencement exercises on Sunday, May 25, beginning at 10:30 a.m. on the Main Quadrangle. Lehrer will deliver the commencement address.
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The Rev. G.P. Mellick Belshaw |
The Rev. Belshaw is retired Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey and was chairman of the board of trustees of the General Theological Seminary from 1992 to 2000, as well as acting dean and president from 1997-98. Belshaw is currently a trustee of The General Theological Seminary and chairman of the Coalition for Peace Action in Princeton. He is also on the boards of The Anglican Theological Review and The American Teilhard Association. He is former president of the Episcopal Urban Caucus; a member of the Commission on Peace, Episcopal Church, and president of the Coalition of Religious Leaders of New Jersey. Belshaw served as editor of Lent with Evelyn Underhill and Lent With William Temple, and is the author of articles in The Anglican Theological Review, Teilhard Perspective and St. Luke's Journal. More ... |
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David Grubin '65 |
David Grubin, a 1965 Hamilton College graduate, is a producer, writer and cinematographer who has produced more than 100 films on subjects ranging from history to art, poetry to science. He has won three George Foster Peabody Awards, two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University awards and eight Emmys. Among his recent productions are The Secret Life of the Brain for PBS; Napoleon; and Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided. Grubin's biographies of American presidents for "The American Experience" on PBS have been widely acclaimed. His five-part series for PBS, Healing and the Mind, with Bill Moyers has won many awards and the companion book, for which he was executive editor, rose to number one of The New York Times best seller list, remaining on the list for 32 weeks. |
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Grubin's film about Secretary General of the United nations, Kofi Annan: Center of the Storm, aired recently on PBS. Grubin is currently producing two new films for PBS: a biography of Robert Kennedy and a biography of Marie Antoinette. Grubin is a recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and has been a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College. He is a fellow of the American Society of Historians, a member of the Directors Guild and the Writers Guild, and serves on the board of directors of The Film Forum. More ... | |
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Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson |
Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, a theoretical physicist, became the 18th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) on July 1, 1999. She holds a Ph.D. in theoretical elementary particle physics from M.I.T. and a S.B. in physics from M.I.T. Before assuming the presidency at RPI, Jackson was chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 1995-1999. While there she spearheaded the formation of the International Nuclear Regulators Association and was elected as the group's first chairman. From 1991 to 1995 Jackson was professor of physics at Rutgers University, where she taught undergraduate and graduate students, conducted research on the electronic and optical properties of two-dimensional systems and supervised Ph.D candidates. From 1976 to 1991 Jackson conducted research in theoretical physics, solid state and quantum physics and optical physics at AT&T Bell Laboratories. |
| Jackson will become president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in February, 2004. The AAAS is the world's largest general scientific society. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Physical Society, and is a trustee of the Brookings Institution. In 2002 Jackson was named one of the top 50 Women in Science by Discover Magazine and was recognized in a published book by Essence magazine titled 50 of the Most Inspiring African-Americans. More ... | |
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After 10 years in Dallas as a newspaperman and then as the host of a local experimental news program on public television, Jim Lehrer came to Washington with Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in 1972, teaming with Robert MacNeil in 1973 to cover the Senate Watergate hearings. They began, in 1975, what became the MacNeil/Lehrer Report, which won more than 30 awards for journalistic excellence. In 1983, they launched the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, the first 60-minute evening news program in television. When MacNeil retired in 1995, the program was renamed The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. |
| Lehrer has been honored with numerous awards for journalism, including a presidential National Humanities Medal in 1999. In the last four presidential elections, he moderated nine of the nationally televised candidate debates. In 1999 Lehrer was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame with MacNeil, and into the Silver Circle of the Washington, DC, chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He has won two Emmys, the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award, the George Foster Peabody Broadcast Award, the William Allen White Foundation Award for Journalistic Merit and the University of Missouri School of Journalism's Medal of Honor. In 1991 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. More ... | |
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John "Bucky" Pizzarelli |
Jazz guitarist John "Bucky" Pizzarelli began his professional career in 1943 at the age of 17, playing in the Vaughn Monroe Dance band. He toured and recorded with Monroe through 1951, and in 1952 he joined NBC as a staff musician. At NBC for many years, he played in the Doc Severinson Band on The Tonight Show. He also toured and recorded with Benny Goodman into the 1980s. In New York, Pizzarelli worked mainly as a freelance musician in the studios and he has appeared on many recordings as part of the rhythm section. |
| Pizzarelli's recordings as lead artist began to appear in the 1970s with "Green Guitar Blues", his first album of historic guitar compositions from the 19830s. Later albums included "Guitar Quintet LP" and "April Kisses." Like George Van Eps, Pizzarelli adopted the seven string electric guitar exclusively. Along with being a dedicated conservateur of the old guitar music and the early styles of playing, Pizzarelli has also developed a very personal style that sets him apart. He served on the faculty of William Paterson University from 1971 to 1988 and played jazz festivals all over the world. Recently he appeared with Rosemary Clooney, Michael Finestein and on the soundtrack of Woody Allen's movie, "Sweet and Lowdown." More ... | |
Roger W. Straus '39
A 1939 graduate of Hamilton College, Straus founded Farrar, Straus and Company (now Farrar, Straus and Giroux) publishers in 1946 and has been president and chief executive officer since then. Prior to founding his company, Straus was a reporter and feature writer of the White Plains Daily Reporter; an editorial writer and reporter for the Columbia Missourian; the editor and publisher of Asterisk; associate editor of Current History; associate editor of Forum, and president of Book Ideas.
Straus has served as chairman of the advisory board of Partisan Review, of the publications board of American Judaism, of the book committee of People-to-People, and was a director of the University of Missouri Press. He served on the board of directors of Manhattanville College from 1970 to 1976 and currently sits on the board of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and is a fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities. He served on the advisory panel, literature program of the National Endowment for the Arts in 1983 and is a member and former vice president of P.E.N. Straus was recently appointed a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. He is the author of War Letters from Britain; The New Order; and co-editor of The Sixth Column. More ...