The University of Southern Maine is proud to recognize individuals for their accomplishments, advancements, and impact on the State of Maine by awarding Honorary Degree’s at the spring Commencement Ceremony.
If you would like to submit an individual for nomination please complete this University of Southern Maine Nomination Form. A separate nomination form should be used for each nominee and be accompanied by a nomination letter.
USM Honorary Degrees – Historical Record
ALBION, Robert Greenhalgh LittD June 1971
BAKER, Carlos H. LHD May 1975
BENOIT, Arthur H. LHD June 1972
BERNSTEIN, Rosalyne LHD May 2002
BLEWETT, Edward York PED June 1969
BONAUTO, Mary L. LHD May 2017
BRANCACCIO, David LHD May 2017
BRYAN, Ashley LHD May 2013
CHAPPELL, Kate Cheney LHD May 2012
CHAPPELL, Tom LHD May 2012
CHISHOLM, Shirley LLD June 1971
CHOUINARD, Yvon LLD May 2021
COFFIN, Frank Morey LLD May 1967
COLLINS, Michael LHD May 2019
CREWE, Daniel LHD May 2022
CREWE, Stanley Robert LHD May 2015
ELLIS, Corson “Corky” LHD May 2018
FIEDLER, Arthur MusD May 1974
FIRTH, Vic LHD May 2013
FROST, Frederick Hazard ScD June 1969
GIGNOUX, Edward Thaxter LLD June 1966
GLICKMAN, Albert LHD May 2014
GLICKMAN, Judith LHD May 2014
GODFREY, Edward S. LHD May 1995
GOODLAD, John LHD May 2001
GOODMAN, Ellen LHD May 2009
GORMAN, Leon LHD May 2007
GORMAN, Lisa LHD May 2007
GREENLAW, Linda LLD May 2011
HAGGE, Cyrus LHD May 2018
HILL, Warren, Dr. LLD May 1977
HOOSE, Philip LLD May 2010
HOWES, David LHD May 2020
IWATA, Brian LHD May 2009
JONES, Meredith LLD May 2016
KASELL, Carl LLD May 2011
KERR, Iain LHD May 2009
LACOMBE, Michael LHD May 2012
LANE, Carleton Gardner LLD June 1965
LARRABEE, Donald R. LHD May 1974
LAWLESS, Gary LHD May 2008
LIU, Ed LHD May 2020
LOWELL, Robert LittD June 1971
LOWRY, Lois LHD May 1996
LUDWIG, Bob LHD May 2006
MACKAY, Colin B. LLD June 1968
MCGEACHEY, Edward J. ScD May 1974
MCKUSICK, Victor LLD May 1978
MCKUSICK, Vincent LHD May 1978
MUSKIE, Edmund Sixtus LHD May 1992
NELSON, Lester W. ScDEd June 1964
OSHER, Barbro LHD May 2005
OSHER, Barney LHD May 2005
OSHER, Harold L. LHD May 1994
OSHER, Peggy L. LHD May 1994
PAYSON, Margaret LLD June 1968
PLOWMAN, E. Grosvenor ScD June 1971
POND, Kirk LHD May 2005
ROLLINS, Tim LLD May 2010
ROWAN, Carl Thomas LHD June 1971
ROWELL, Victoria LHD May 2005
SALTONSTALL, Leverett LLD June 1969
SAUNDERS, Hugh C. LLD May 1975
SCHWARTZ, Elliott LLD May 2010
SHAH, Nirav ScD May 2022
SHAW, David LHD May 2015
SHOLL, Betsy LHD May 2022
SKY, Harry LHD May 1999
SMITH, Halsey LLD June 1962
SNOWE, Olympia J. LHD May 2012
STEVENS, Ray LHD May 2008
TALBOT, Gerald E. LHD May 1995
VAUGHN, Dona D. LHD May 2011
WALLACH, John LHD May 2000
WEICKER, Lowell Palmer, Jr. LLD May 1975
WILKINS, Roger LHD May 2008
WILSON, Harold LLD Sep 1978
WILSON, Tim LLD May 2021
WISHCAMPER, Carol LHD May 2014
WORTHINGTON, Beverly LLD May 2021
WORTHINGTON, David LLD May 2021
Halsey Smith – LLD – President of the Northeast Bankshare Association, and former president of the Casco Band and Trust Company. Mr. Smith had served since 1972 as director of public service at the University of Maine Portland-Gorham Center for Research and Advanced Study. He was born in South Orange, N.J., and was graduated from the Lawrenceville School. He received his bachelor’s degree at Princeton in 1943.
Lester W. Nelson – Lester W. ‘Rusty’ Nelson Jr., Rusty was born in Philadelphia, Pa., the son of Lester W. and Margaret Cutler Nelson Sr. He was educated in the New York Schools and was a graduate of Scarsdale High School in 1946. From 1946 to 1948 he served in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Osaka and Yokohama, Japan. He then attended the University of Pennsylvania. Returning to New York, he started his career in the publishing business in 1952 at McGraw-Hill. He later worked at Dun-Donnelley and Travel Weekly before returning to McGraw-Hill in the 1970s as Promotion Manager for ‘Aviation Week and Space Technology.’ He left in 1976 to free lance, forming Russnell Communications in 1985. While preparing brochures for The Hertz Corporation he discovered a love of map making and later did some cartographic work for Globe Pequot Publishing. In 1995 he retired to South Portland. He was very active in the community and especially the Spring Point Museum and was on the Board of Trustees. It is now called the Portland Harbor Museum. He was the moving force behind transferring ownership of the Spring Point Ledge Light to the museum in 1997. He was the chairman of the Spring Point Ledge Light Board of Trustees from 1997-2003. He was also active in the U.S. Light House Society, traveling and giving much of his time in voluntary work.
Carleton Gardner Lane – President, Union Mutual Life Insurance Company
Edward Thaxter Gignoux – Born in Portland, Maine, Gignoux received an Artium Baccalaureus degree from Harvard University in 1937 and a Bachelor of Laws from Harvard Law School in 1940. He was in private practice in Buffalo, New York from 1940 to 1941, then in Washington, D.C. from 1941 to 1942. He was in the United States Army during World War II, from 1942 to 1946, returning to private practice in Portland from 1946 to 1957. On August 9, 1957, Gignoux was nominated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Maine vacated by Judge John David Clifford Jr. Gignoux was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 22, 1957, and received his commission on August 26, 1957. He was a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 1967 to 1973. In 1970, following the rejection of Clement Haynsworth and George Harrold Carswell by the Senate, Gignoux was the runner-up to Harry Blackmun in Richard Nixon‘s quest to fill Abe Fortas’ seat on the Supreme Court. He served as Chief Judge from 1978 to 1983. He was a Judge of the Temporary Emergency Court of Appeals from 1980 to 1987. He assumed senior status on June 1, 1983, serving in that capacity until his death on November 4, 1988, in Portland.
Frank Morey Coffin – Born on July 11, 1919, in Lewiston, Maine, Coffin received an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1940 from Bates College. He completed graduate instruction in Industrial Administration in 1943 from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Laws in 1947 from Harvard Law School. He was a lieutenant in the United States Navy from 1943 to 1946. He was a law clerk for Judge John David Clifford Jr. of the United States District Court for the District of Maine from 1947 to 1949. He was corporation counsel for Lewiston from 1949 to 1952. He was in private practice in Lewiston from 1946 to 1953. He was in private practice in Portland, Maine from 1953 to 1956. He was a United States Representative from Maine from 1957 to 1961. He was the Managing Director of the Development Loan Fund in 1961. He was the Deputy Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development from 1961 to 1964. He was United States Representative to the development assistance committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development from 1964 to 1965.
Colin B. MacKay – Colin Bridges Mackay, OC QC (July 26, 1920 – November 27, 2003) was president of the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada from 1953 to 1969. Mackay oversaw the expansion of the university from a small college to a regional institution, including a fivefold increase in enrollment, and major construction of residences, academic and multipurpose buildings. In 1970, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada “for his services to education”.
Margaret Payson – Biography to be added.
Edward York Blewett – Dr. Edward York Blewett served as President of Westbrook Junior College from 1956-1970. He was born March 22, 1905 in Yonkers, New York before moving to and attending public school in Braintree, Mass. He graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1926 and married a fellow classmate, Marion Elizabeth Arthur in 1928. In 1926 he was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Officers Reserve Corps in which he would serve until volunteering for active duty as a Major in 1941 and promoted to Colonel in 1943. Throughout this time he held several administrative positions at the UNH, Alumni Secretary, 1927-1929; Executive Secretary, 1929-37; Assistant to the President, 1937-39; and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, 1939-1958. He was elected President of Westbrook Junior College June 9, 1958.
Frederick Hazard Frost – Frederick Hazard Frost was born on 11 January 1902, in Hanover, Grafton, New Hampshire. He married Helen Chapman on 24 June 1924, in Lake Geneva, Walworth, Wisconsin. He lived in Westbrook, Cumberland, Maine, United States in 1930. He died in August 1973, in Portland, Cumberland, Maine, United States, at the age of 71.
Leverett Saltonstall – American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts. He served three two-year terms as the 55th Governor of Massachusetts, and for more than twenty years as a United States Senator (1945–1967). Saltonstall was internationalist in foreign policy and moderate on domestic policy, serving as a well-liked mediating force in the Republican Party. Saltonstall was a longtime summer resident of Vinalhaven, Maine.
Robert Greenhalgh Albion – Leading authority on American maritime history, a former professor at Princeton and Harvard and a Government adviser, lived in South Portland, later in life taught at UMO
Shirley Chisholm – American politician, educator, and author. In 1968, she became the first black woman elected to the United States Congress, representing New York’s 12th congressional district, a district centered on Bedford–Stuyvesant, for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In the 1972 United States presidential election, she became the first black candidate to run for a major party’s nomination for President of the United States, and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.
Robert Lowell – American poet, resided in Castine, Maine
Grosvenor Plowman – Born in Brookline, Massachusetts and educated at Dartmouth and the University of Chicago. He became a teacher, author, and practicing economist. He specialized in railroad transportation.
Carl Thomas Rowan – Prominent American journalist, author and government official who published columns syndicated across the U.S. and was at one point the highest ranking African American in the United States government.
Arthur H. Benoit – UMS Trustee 1957-1971
Arthur Fielder – American conductor known for his association with both the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops orchestras. With a combination of musicianship and showmanship, he made the Boston Pops one of the best-known orchestras in the United States. Fiedler was sometimes criticized for over-popularizing music, particularly when adapting popular songs or editing portions of the classical repertoire, but he kept performances informal and sometimes self-mocking to attract a bigger audience.
Donald R. Larrabee – Founding member of the National Press Foundation board of directors, born in Portland, Maine, was the owner and operator of the Griffin-Larrabee News Service on Capitol Hill, which served newspapers in New England. He retired in 1978 after 30 years covering Congress and the government. Along the way, he served as secretary of the Standing Committee of Correspondents, the governing body for the congressional Daily Press Gallery. After retirement, he became the director of the Washington office of the State of Maine in the National Press Building. Larrabee was elected in 1980 to the Hall of Fame of the Washington Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Edward J. McGeachey – Born in Portland and graduated from Cheverus High School. After graduating from The College of the Holy Cross in 1970, Ed pursued a master in social work from Boston University. He then began a 42-year career dedicated to the health and well-being of his community when he joined Webber Hospital in 1976, an organization he led as CEO for more than 30 years.
Carlos H. Baker – American writer, biographer and former Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature at Princeton University. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College and his M.A. from Harvard University. He then received his Ph.D. in English from Princeton University in 1940 after completing a doctoral dissertation titled “The influence of Spencer on Shelley’s major poetry.” Baker’s published works included several novels and books of poetry and various literary criticisms and essays. Born in Biddeford, Maine
Hugh C. Saunders – Graduated from Falmouth High School, Shaw’s Business College (1941) and Harvard University cum laude (1947). He received an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Southern Maine (1975). Hugh served in the U.S. Navy during World War II (1942-1946) in both the Atlantic and Pacific theatres. Hugh had a successful career in business. He served for many years as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Saunders Brothers, a family business until his retirement in 1985. He also served on numerous corporate boards, including NYNEX Corp., New England Telephone, Blue Alliance Insurance Company, Shaw’s Supermarkets, Inc., Lumber Mutual Insurance Company of Massachusetts, Key Corp., Key Bank of So. Maine, Canal National Bank (Chm. 1979-1983), Coca Cola Bottling, Inc., Gannet Broadcasting Co., and Associated Industries of Maine. Hugh served his community in many ways, including as the Chairman and President of the Maine Medical Center, a board member of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Maine, Vice Chairman of Medical Care Development, Inc. (where he was instrumental in developing a state-wide rescue and emergency care system), the Chairman of the Board of Westbrook College, the first Chairman of the New England Higher Education Assistance Foundation, Vice Chairman of the Governor’s Advisory Committee on Education, the first Chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Advisory Committee for Maine, President of the Portland Society of Art, and a fellow of the Portland Museum of Art, a member of State Planning Economic Advisory Group, and President of the Westbrook City Council.
Lowell Palmer Weicker – American politician who served as a U.S. Representative, U.S. senator, and the 85th Governor of Connecticut.
Warren Hill – Maine State Commissioner of Education, served during the implementation of the Sinclair Bill, a district reorganization act. A revised state foundation program to equalize opportunity and guarantee a minimum program of education was adopted. Dr. Hill was recognized outside the state as a leader and impressive speaker, and through his efforts Maine became more and more involved with regional and national educational affairs. He resigned from the Education Commission in 1963 to become president of Trenton State College in New Jersey.
Victor McKusick – Born in Parkman, ME, American internist and medical geneticist, and Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. He was a proponent of the mapping of the human genome due to its use for studying congenital diseases.
Vincent McKusick – Born in Parkman, ME, he earned a bachelor of arts degree from Bates College, a master of science degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a JD from Harvard Law School in 1950. He loved the law and excelled in multiple roles: He was president of the Harvard Law Review and clerked for Justice Learned Hand and Justice Felix Frankfurter before beginning his illustrious career with the law firm that became Pierce Atwood in Portland. In 1977, Gov. James Longley appointed him to the position of Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. In 1991, Judge McKusick became “of counsel” to Pierce Atwood, where he enjoyed an extended career until age 90 as Special Master on U.S. Supreme Court cases, as counsel on legal matters to members of the firm and as an arbitrator.
Harold Wilson – Biography to be added.
Edmund Sixtus Muskie – A native of Rumford, Maine, Edmund S. Muskie is a graduate of Bates Colleges and Cornell University Law School. His distinguished career in public service began with a term in the Maine House of Representatives in 1948. He was elected governor of Maine in 1954 and served two terms. Following his service as governor, he was elected to the United States Senate, in which he served from 1959 to 1980. In the Senate, Muskie chaired the Budget committee and Subcommittees on Intergovernmental Relations, Environment and Public Works, and Arms Conrol. He was the Democratic Party’s nominee for Vice President in 1968m and ran for the Presidency in 1972. He resigned from the Senate in 1980 to become Secretary of State in the administration of President Jimmy Carter. He is the recipient of both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Distinguished Service Award. Edmund Muskie’s contributions to the state of Maine and nation and his sercice in both the executive and legilsative branches set a standard of excellence rarely achieved in public life Citing that standard of excellence, USM in 1990 named its graduate program in public policy and associated research centers the Edmund S. Muskie Institute of Public Affairs.
Harold L. Osher & Peggy L. Osher – “As citizens we can all aspire to challenge, educate, and share with others. There are moments when we are touched deeply by selfless acts of individuals that truly benefit the community as a whole. Harold and Peggy Osher, through their many contributions and selfless acts, benefit our state and embody the finest ideals of the true spirit of community.
Their partnership in this endeavor, enduring in its nature and powerful in its impact, is beautiful to observe. Peggy and Harold complement one another. Their union is reflected in their relationships with their family and friends, with the community, and with this University. Our state is indeed enriched by their presence.
Harold L. Osher was born in Portland and grew up in Biddeford. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Bowdoin, and continued his studies at Boston University where, as a member of the Begg Honor Society, he earned his M.D. Dr. Osher completed his residency at Boston City Hospital. While in his residency, he met Peggy Ann Liberman, a native of St. Louis, Missouri, who was then a sophomore at Wellesley. They were married in Peggy’s junior year. Harold then took a cardiology fellowship at Beth Israel Hospital as Peggy completed her degree in English literature at Wellesley. They settled in Portland, where Harold served for many years as head of cardiology at the Maine Medical Center.
For nearly thirty-five years, Harold and Peggy have provided an inspirational record of commitment and support to this community. Harold Osher has been a president and Maine director of the American Heart Association, a Fellow and Governor of the American College of Cardiology, and recipient of the Outstanding Service Award from the Maine Heart Association and the New England Regional Heart Committee for his work in pioneering cardiac services in Maine. He has served on the USM Quincentennial and Convocation Committees, established the Osher Lecture Series and the Osher Acquisitions Fund at the Portland Museum of Art, and volunteered his service as Research Fellow in Historical Geography at the University of Southern Maine.
Peggy has served as a director of United Way, the Maine Medical Center, and Key Bank. For the past 29 years she has served as a trustee of the Portland Museum of Art and currently holds the positions of co-chair for the Friends Group and chair of the Education Committee there. She has been an active and positive force in the development of United Way, Maine Medical Center, Wellesley College, the United Jewish Appeal, and other nonprofits across the region.
Their civic responsibility is matched by their generosity. They have made two extraordinary gifts to this state-the Winslow Homer Graphics Collection at the Portland Museum of Art and the outstanding Osher Cartographic Collection of rare, antique maps to the University of Southern Maine.
What moves a community forward? What differentiates one community from another in terms of quality? What is at the heart of democracy? It is the dedication of citizens to a greater good, the commitment of individuals to acts beyond themselves to benefit all, with a view to the growth and advantage of others. Harold and Peggy exemplify these ideals. With these Doctor of Humane Letters degrees, we signify to all the esteem, pride, and gratitude we feel for Harold and Peggy Osher. In a selfless and striking way they embody the true spirit of community and exemplify the true meaning of citizenship.
Edward S. Godfrey – “For over 30 years, Dean Ed Godfrey has been an esteemed colleague, teacher, dean, judge, advisor, and confidante. Equally important, he is beloved and honored by leaders and citizens throughout Maine and a valued friend to a generation of Jaw students, many of whom are now practicing lawyers, judges, elected officials, and business leaders.
Edward S. Godfrey is the founding dean of the University of Maine School of Law. In the School’s first decade, Dean Godfrey hired outstanding faculty and staff, built a first class law library, secured national accreditation, opened the state and regional job markets to its graduates, and established the School’s record of service to the state of Maine. With these accomplishments, he certainly is one of the important architects of public higher education in Maine and of the University of Southern Maine in particular. The immense respect in which Dean Godfrey is held by the legal and governmental communities in Maine was demonstrated by his appointment as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, where he served from 1976 to 1983. His accomplishments on the Court are the subject of a symposium issue of the Spring 1995 Maine Law Review.
Upon his retirement from the Court, Dean Godfrey returned to the academy. A graduate of Harvard College and Columbia Law School, he had previously held faculty appointments at Albany Law School Union University and as the Carl Hatch Professor of Law and Public Administration at the University of New Mexico. Since 1984, Ed Godfrey has graced the University of Southern Maine and the Law School with his presence as dean emeritus, maintaining an active teaching schedule, pursuing scholarly and community projects including service as chair of the Maine Labor Relations Board, and, most important, serving as an invaluable member of the faculty.”
Gerald E. Talbot – “For more than 30 years, Gerald E. Talbot has been a persistent advocate of civil and human rights and an outspoken opponent of racism, discrimination, and hate. Working with a broad spectrum of community leaders, he was instrumental in reviving the NAACP in Portland during the 1960s and served as the new group’s first president in 1964. Gerry Talbot reminded us all that discrimination and racism were problems everywhere, and that they needed to be recognized and addressed. He has been Maine’s conscience in the fight for civil rights and dignity for all Maine citizens.
Gerry Talbot was elected to the Maine House of Representatives in 1972 where he served three terms. He was the first African American to serve as legislator in the state of Maine; he has also served on the Maine State Board of Education (1979-84), the Governor’s Task Force on Human Rights (1968), the U.S. Commis sion on Civil Rights, Maine (1972-76, 1992-present), and the Portland Community Task Force on Bias Crime. He is currently a member of the Board of Visitors of the Muskie Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Southern Maine and the Academic Affairs Committee on Minority Retention of the Faculty, Staff, and Students at the University of Maine.
Gerry Talbot has built a unique collection of books, papers, artifacts, and documents pertaining to the African American experience and to his own family history, whose roots in Maine go back to the 1700s. On February 28, 1995, Gerry Talbot donated this collection to the University of Southern Maine, thereby initiating the new African American Archives of Maine. Thanks to his generosity, the story of the African Americans who settled in Maine will be preserved and celebrated as part of the fabric of our shared American heritage.
As a critic, Gerry Talbot has shown us the evils of discrimination and hate wherever he found them; as an activist, Gerry Talbot has worked tirelessly to make our society more just and humane; as an educator, he has brought the experience of African Americans directly to children and adults across the state. Moved by his conviction to make our society better, Gerry Talbot is an example for us all of the enduring power of each citizen. The fabric that is America is immeasurably stronger and more beautiful because of Gerry Talbot.”
Lois Lowry – “As a critically acclaimed writer of more than 20 children’s books, Lois Lowry presents serious issues in ways that have delighted, entertained, provoked, challenged, and, in tum, earned the devotion of young adult readers around the world. Lois Lowry has a special gift that allows her to see the world through a young person’s eyes. She uses this gift to create stories that engage her readers in thoughtful exploration of important concerns, to look beyond what is familiar and comfortable.
The feelings, questions, and conflicts faced by Anastasia Krupnik, the most famous character in ten of Lois Lowry’s books, have struck a particularly responsive chord in thousands of young readers. Teachers who use her books report that The Giver, which in 1994 earned Lowry her second Newbery Award, the most prestigious honor in children’s literature, provokes more class discussion than any other book they have come across in recent years. Reviewers of The Giver observed that this richly provocative novel of “”a chilling, tightly controlled future society … will haunt readers long after they turn the final page.”” Number of Stars, for which Lowry received her first Newbery Award in 1990, also is a favorite of teachers because it focuses on the Holocaust and the efforts of the Danish people to protect their Jewish citizens during the Nazi occupation in World War II. Lois Lowry also is recipient of the Boston Globe-Hom Book Award, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award, the California Young Reader’s Medal, and the Mark Twain Award.
For the many University of Southern Maine graduates who pursued their degrees as nontraditional students and for whom literature and the humanities have enriched their lives, Lois Lowry provides an especially compelling example. She started college at Brown University but left before completing her studies to marry and raise a family. When her youngest child began school while living in Falmouth, Lowry decided to continue her own education. She enrolled at USM and graduated with a degree in literature in 1973. Before beginning her career as an author, Lowry worked as a freelance writer and photographer for the Maine Times and the Portland Press Herald. Soon her articles and photographs appeared in Down East and Yankee magazines, the New York Times and the Boston Globe. Lowry returned to campus most recently in the summer of 1994 as the keynote speaker at USM’s popular Children’s Literature Conference.
A passion for writing, the unique ability to communicate with young readers, and numerous prestigious awards from critics and colleagues in her professional field are evidence of a career of exceptional excellence and accomplishment. We are doubly blessed that Lois Lowry also is an alumna of the University of Southern Maine. For her contributions to the literacy and awareness of young people, her ability to bring light into the dark corners of human experience, we award her this Doctor of Humane Letters.”
Harry Sky – “When Harry Z. Sky retired in l 989 after 27 years as Rabbi of Temple Beth El in Portland, those who know him well understood that the event was more a transition or commencement exercise than the conclusion of a career. Much like the proverbial Eveready Bunny, Harry Sky just keeps going, and going, and going …. How fortunate we are that he continues to be an active teacher, scholar, and citizen. Harry Sky is a model of lifetime commitment to intellectual vitality and service to the community. Indeed, he demonstrates to all of us how to pursue each stage of our lives with purpose and vigor.
A graduate of Yeshiva University and the Jewish Theological Seminary, and a student at the Carl Jung Institute in Switzerland, Harry Sky has held adjunct teaching appointments at USM, the University of New England, Bangor Theological Seminary, and Nasson College, and he has lectured at Bates, Bowdoin, and Colby colleges. He is the author of Meditations for the School System and Discoveries from lnner Journeys, and his sermons have appeared in Best Jewish Sermons, a collection of inspirational readings for American public schools. Harry Sky was instrumental in organizing the Portland Chapter of the NAACP, and he participated in the 1963 March on Washington and the 1965 March on Selma, Alabama. He also has served as president of lnterfaith Clergy and as a board member of the General Theological Library of Portland.
Over just the past few years, Harry Sky has been the visionary advocate for and leader of USM’s Senior College, which designs programs and courses to provide the “”intellectual stimulation necessary to the vital trilogy of mind, body, and spirit.”” Because of Harry Sky, Senior College has become a very important ingredient in the lives of over 400 “”students”” in southern Maine.
Harry Sky’s outlook on life is summed up in the maxim of the great rabbinic sage, Hillel, that is quoted above. Because he continues to be a valued resource for both the University community and our broader Portland community, the University of Southern Maine is pleased to award Harry Z. Sky the Doctor of Humane Letters degree.”
John Wallach – “In 1993 John Wallach founded Seeds of Peace. This unique conflict resolution program brings together Arab and Israeli teenagers, along with other young people from war-torn regions, to the Seeds of Peace International Camp in Otisfield, Maine. At this camp, called ‘The Miracle in the Maine Woods,”” more than 1,000 teens nominated by their governments have worked together in an environment free from prejudice, anger, and fear. Here, Israeli and Palestinian flags fly proudly beside the flags of Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, Tunisia, Morocco-flags from throughout the Middle East.
Through the International Camp and follow-up programs, Seeds of Peace is educating a new generation of Middle East leaders, leaders who can work toward a future of mutual understanding. In the words of Yassir Arafat, on the opening of Jerusalem’s Seeds of Peace regional center, “”The Center is for the future of the children of Palestine and the children of Israel. We should protect and preserve it. We have to continue the peace of the brave.””
John Wallach, who left a twenty-five year career as the Hearst Newspapers’ foreign editor to create Seeds of Peace, has attained many prestigious honors. He received two Overseas Press Club awards, The Edward Weintal Prize, and the Edwin Hood Award-the highest honor presented by the National Press Club-for his work in uncovering the Iran-Contra affair. In 1979, President Carter presented him with the Congressional Committee of Correspondents Award for his coverage of the Egyptian-Israeli Camp David Summit.
As a journalist, John Wallace built bridges of understanding that won him widespread recognition. In 1991 President Mikhail Gorbachev awarded him the highest civilian honor, the Medal of Friendship, for founding the Chautauqua Conference. In 1997, he received the Jordanian Legion of Honor from His Majesty King Hussein.
With his wife, Janet, he also co-authored three books about the ArabIsraeli conflict: Still Small Voices, The New Palestinians, and Arafat: In the Eyes of the Beholder, published in Hebrew, French, Geiman, Chinese, Swedish, Dutch, and Japanese. His new book, Rehumanizing the Enemy, which is the first study of the methodology of Seeds of Peace, is being published by the United States Institute of Peace.
In recognition of his distinguished career as a journalist and his passionate commitment to world peace, the University of Southern Maine is proud to present the Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters tc John Wallach, president of Seeds of Peace. “
John Goodlad – Educational researcher and theorist who published influential models for renewing schools and teacher education. Goodlad’s book, In Praise of Education (1997), defined education as a fundamental right in democratic societies, essential to developing individual and collective democratic intelligence. Goodlad designed and promoted several educational reform programs, and conducted major studies of educational change. Books he authored or co-authored include The Moral Dimensions of Teaching, Places Where Teachers Are Taught, Teachers for Our Nation’s Schools, and Educational Renewal: Better Teachers, Better Schools. Goodlad published over 30 books, 80 book chapters, and more than 200 journal articles. His best known book, A Place Called School (1984), received the Outstanding Book of the Year Award from the American Educational Research Association and the Distinguished Book of the Year Award from Kappa Delta Pi. He was a past president of the American Educational Research Association and, in 1993, received that organization’s Award for Distinguished Contributions to Educational Research.
Rosalyne Bernstein – Rosalyne (Spindel) Bernstein (b. 1928) grew up in the Bronx, N.Y. and Fall River, MA, the daughter of Jewish immigrants from Poland, and attended Radcliffe College as an economics major. She and her husband, Sumner Thurman Bernstein (a Portland native), moved to Portland in 1949. There, she played an active role in the community and was involved with numerous organizations, such as: National Council of Jewish Women (president); Head Start program in Portland (founder); Bowdoin College; University of Southern Maine (Chair of the Board of Visitors); Maine Health Care Finance Commission; Maine Medical Center; American- Israeli Public Affairs Committee; New England Board of Higher Education; Maine Community Foundation; and Portland Museum of Art. She earned her law degree in 1986 from University of Maine School of Law.
Barbro Osher – Biography to be added.
Barney Osher – Biography to be added.
Kirk Pond – KIRK P. POND is President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, of Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. Mr. Pond has worked in the semiconductor industry for more than 34 years, initially serving in various management positions for Texas Instruments and Timex Corporation before joining Fairchild Semiconductor as Vice President of the Logic business in 1984. Four years after the acquisition of Fairchild by National Semiconductor in 1987, he was named President of the Standard Products Group representing 75% of National’s operations. In 1994 he was named Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and a member of the Office of the President. In 1996, National chose to sell its standard product businesses. Mr. Pond recognized an opportunity to re-launch Fairchild in the pursuit of the underserved multi-market segment. A year later he executed the first management-led buyout in the history of the semiconductor industry. Mr. Pond has set the tone for high growth through new product innovation and strategic acquisitions. Under his leadership, more than 450 new products are launched each year and the company has completed seven major acquisitions of international companies. In August 1999, Fairchild was launched as a public company on the New York Stock Exchange. He is recognized industry-wide for his development of the innovative multi-market business model. Mr. Pond holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Arkansas and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has served as Chairman of the Maine Science and Technology Foundation and on the boards of the National
Association of Manufacturers, Sybron Chemicals and Sematech, an international semiconductor consortium.”
Victoria Rowell – Victoria Rowell is an award-winning actress, international lecturer, holds two ‘honorary’ doctorates – a teacher, advocate, mother, and former foster youth. She has been recognized by 193 members of Congress for advocacy work on behalf of education, arts, foster and adoptive youth and parents as well as diversity issues. Her New York Times bestseller, The Women Who Raised Me, published by HarperCollins Publishers, received literary acclaim. Rowell also enjoys a literary book deal with Simon & Schuster for her popular soap opera novel series. Rowell is an Emmy-nominated, NAACP-winning actress, who co-starred with Dick Van Dyke in the prime time television series Diagnosis Murder (1993) for VIACOM for eight seasons, as well as starring in Daytime television. Rowell was submitted for a Golden Globe Award, starring opposite Samuel L. Jackson in Home of the Brave (2006). Other credits include Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999) and other series. She stars in the movie, Marry Me For Christmas and an upcoming feature, What Love Will Make You Do. She has been in multiple films, starring opposite Jim Carrey, Eddie Murphy, Will Smith, Jeff Bridges, Samuel L. Jackson, Beau Bridges, Forest Whitaker and more. Victoria is currently filming opposite The Blacklist/Man of Steel star, Harry Lennix. Born in Maine, Rowell was raised on a 60 acre working farm and learned classical ballet from a book. She eventually turned professional and performed with American Ballet Theater (ABT) II and other professional ballet companies.
Bob Ludwig – “Bob Ludwig is a 12x Grammy, 2x Latin Grammy, Les Paul Award and 18x TEC Award winner. As an 8-year-old child in South Salem, New York, Ludwig was so fascinated with his first tape recorder he used to make recordings of whatever was on the radio. Ludwig is a classical musician by training, having obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester, New York, where he was also involved in the sound department and played Principal Trumpet with the Utica Symphony Orchestra. Inspired by Phil Ramone when he came to the school to teach a summer recording workshop, he ended up working as his assistant for the course. Phil asked him if he would like to work at A&R Recording. Together, they did sessions on projects with The Band, Peter, Paul & Mary, Neil Diamond, Burt Bacharach etc. After a few years at A&R, Ludwig received an offer from Sterling Sound becoming their first employee, where he eventually rose to become a Vice-President. After seven years at Sterling, he moved to Masterdisk, (the 2 companies were once owned by the same public company), where he was Vice President and Chief Engineer. In 1992, Ludwig decided to take control over his career by starting his own record-mastering facility in Portland, Maine named Gateway Mastering. His mastering credits are extensive, and include albums for many major classic artists, such as the Kronos Quartet, Steve Reich and rock acts, including Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Phish, Megadeth, Metallica, Gloria Estefan, Nirvana, The Strokes, Queen, U2, Guns N’ Roses, Tool, Simple Minds, Bryan Ferry, Tori Amos, Bonnie Raitt, Beck, David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, the Bee Gees, Madonna, Supertramp, Will Ackerman, Pet Shop Boys, Radiohead, Elton John, Disney’s “Frozen” soundtrack and Daft Punk to name a few. Bob was a former co-chair of the Steering Committee and currently a member of the Advisory Council of the Producers and Engineer’s Wing of The Recording Academy. Ludwig holds an APRS Sound Fellowship and as well as being a Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society. He was awarded the AES Gold Medal at the last convention.”
Leon Gorman – Gorman was born in Nashua, New Hampshire in 1934. A graduate of Bowdoin College, Gorman began working at the company after three years of Navy destroyer service and a trainee job at Filene’s department store. Gorman became president in 1967, after his grandfather Leon Leonwood Bean died. From that time until his presidency ended in 2001, Gorman helped pioneer the company’s mail order business and saw an average annual 20% growth rate for the company. In 2001, Gorman decided to take the position of chairman of the board, leaving the position of CEO to Christopher McCormick, the first non-family member to assume the title, and in 2013, he became Chairman Emeritus when his nephew, Shawn Gorman, succeeded him as chairman.
Lisa Gorman – Biography to be added.
Gary Lawless – The author of 21 poetry collections, Gary Lawless has often pursued and expressed the development of his own ideas, but he also works to encourage others to find their voices. He and Beth Leonard opened Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick 38 years age as a community hub. “We saw the bookstore as central to a community of ideas,” Lawless says, in reference to the shop’s support of local and small presses, as well as the diversity of perspectives and opportunities for conversation that it offers. Books are “tools and resources,” and to author one can be empowering. Through working with various communities in Maine for decades, he has encouraged and published the work of combat veterans, prison inmates, immigrants, and refugees. At Spindleworks Art Center in Brunswick, he has helped adults with disabilities produce three anthologies of poetry and is in the process of contributing his talents to a film about their dreams; as an artist-in-residence at Preble Street Resource Center in Portland, he has produced an anthology of poems written by homeless and low-income authors. In honor of his community work, the Maine Humanities Council awarded Lawless the 2017 Constance H. Carlson Public Humanities Prize, and the Emily Harvey Foundation offered him a residency grant to spend one month in Venice this upcoming autumn. “The books I publish, the books we sell at the store, and the conversations we have all move us toward a wider, more informed, and more loving community,” he says.
Ray Stevens – Dr. Ray Stevens is a biomedical researcher, professor, serial entrepreneur, and mountaineer. Ray is Provost Professor of Biological Sciences and Chemistry and Director of the Stevens Center for Innovation and The USC Bridge, a research center that unites eminent professors across disciplines to achieve radical progress in improving the human condition. Ray has also started four biotech companies: Syrrx, MemRx, Receptors, and RuiYi. Ray credits Dr. John Ricci of USM with his motivation, success and stellar career, and in 2006, established The Professor Emeritus John Ricci Undergraduate Fellowship between The Stevens Laboratory and USM. At USC, in 2008, Ray and a colleague, Dr. Charles McKenna, established The Robert Bau Endowed Graduate Fellowship. Ray is currently training to climb Mount Everest in 2021.
Roger Wilkins – African-American civil rights leader, professor of history, and journalist. Wilkins worked as a welfare lawyer in Ohio before becoming an Assistant Attorney General in President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration at age 33, one of the highest-ranking Black-Americans ever to serve in the executive branch up to that time. Roger Wilkins was sworn in as Director of the federal Community Relations Service on Friday, February 4, 1966, in a ceremony at The White House. Leaving government in 1969 at the end of the Johnson administration, he worked briefly for the Ford Foundation before joining the editorial staff of The Washington Post. Along with Carl Bernstein, Herbert Block (“Herblock”), and Bob Woodward, Wilkins earned a Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for exposing the Watergate scandal that eventually forced President Richard Nixon’s resignation from office. He left the Post in 1974 to work for The New York Times, followed five years later by a brief stay at the now-defunct Washington Star. In 1980, he became a radio news commentator, working for National Public Radio (NPR). Wilkins was the Robinson Professor of History and American Culture at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia until his retirement in 2007. During his tenure at George Mason, Wilkins was, arguably, one of the most preeminent professors in residence at that time. Wilkins was also the publisher of the NAACP’s journal, The Crisis, and was the nephew of Roy Wilkins, a past executive director of the NAACP.
Ellen Goodman – Ellen Goodman has spent most of her life chronicling social change and its impact on American life. She was one of the first women to write for the oped pages where she became, according to Media Watch, the most widely syndicated progressive columnist in the country. After Ellen began her career as a researcher for Newsweek magazine, she was a reporter for The Detroit Free Press in 1965 and two years later came to The Boston Globe where she began writing her column in 1974. In 1980, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary. She won many other awards including the Ernie Pyle Award for Lifetime Achievement from the National Society of Newspaper columnists. She is the author of seven books.
Brian Iwata – Biography to be added.
Iain Kerr – Dr. Iain Kerr has a Bachelor of Education Degree from the University of London and a D.H.L. from the University of Southern Maine. Iain began his career at Ocean Alliance as a volunteer and has grown with the organization over the last 30 years. He is listed as author on over 35 scientific papers and has ensured that Ocean Alliance messages reach the general public through international television and films. Iain has led international conservation research efforts across the globe. As a result of exposing illegal sea cucumber fishing in the Galapagos, Iain received the SOS Grand Blue award in 1994. Iain was awarded the Chevron Conservation Award in 2006 and in 2014 the Annenberg Foundation listed Iain as one of 25 visionary leaders. In 2013, Iain recognized that drones could be the future of whale research and conservation.
Philip Hoose – American writer of books, essays, stories, songs, and articles. His first published works were written for adults but he turned his attention to children and young adults, in part to keep up with his daughters. His work has been well received and honored more than once by the children’s literature community. He won the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, Nonfiction, for The Race to Save the Lord God Bird (2004) and the National Book Award, Young People’s Literature, for Claudette Colvin (2009). He lives in Portland, Maine, with his wife, the artist Sandbi Ste. George.
Tim Rollins – Rollins grew up in Pittsfield, Maine and studied fine art at the University of Maine in Augusta before earning his bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. In 1981, at the age of 26, he began teaching special education in the South Bronx. His students were classified as being academically or emotionally at risk. In 1984, he established an after-school program that became known as the Art and Knowledge Workshop, which led to the formation of K.O.S., or Kids of Survival, an artist collective that runs workshops for children.
Elliott Schwartz – American composer, studied composition with Otto Luening and Jack Beeson at Columbia University (AB 1957, MA ’58, Ed.D ’62). He has served as President of the College Music Society, National Chair of the American Society of University Composers (now renamed the Society of Composers, Inc.), Vice-President of the American Music Center, President of the Maine Composers Forum, and music panelist for the Maine Arts Council.
Linda Greenlaw – Best-selling author of books with maritime themes and the only female swordfishing boat captain on the East Coast of the United States. She was featured in the 1997 book The Perfect Storm and the film The Perfect Storm. Greenlaw wrote three best-selling books about life as a commercial fisher: The Hungry Ocean in 1999, The Lobster Chronicles in 2002 and All Fishermen Are Liars in 2002. Her books have climbed as high as No. 2 on the New York Times bestseller list, with The Hungry Ocean remaining on the list for three months. Greenlaw lives on Isle au Haut, Maine.
Carl Kasell – A native of Goldsboro, North Carolina, Carl Ray Kasell was a student of drama in high school, where one of his mentors was Andy Griffith, then a high school drama instructor. Although Griffith urged Kasell to pursue a career in theatre, Kasell preferred radio. Kasell began practicing his newscaster voice as a child and got his first on-air job at 16. After leaving North Carolina, Kasell advanced to the position of news director at WAVA in Arlington, Virginia. As news director in Virginia, he hired Katie Couric, then a student at the University of Virginia, as an intern one summer, thus starting her career in news broadcasting. Kasell joined National Public Radio’s staff as a news announcer for Weekend All Things Considered in 1975. He was also the news announcer for NPR’s Morning Edition from its inception in 1979 through 2009.
Dona D. Vaughn – “Dona D. Vaughn is Artistic Director of Opera Maine. From 1998 to 2010, she was Stage Director/Acting Coach for The Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. From 2008 – 2020 she served as Artistic Director of Opera Programs at Manhattan School of Music. She began her career as a performer in the original Broadway productions of Company, Jesus Christ Superstar and Seesaw. She was Assistant to Producer Kermit Bloomgarden for the Broadway productions of Equus and Hot l Baltimore, and Associate Producer for Pavel Kohout’s Poor Murderer, as well as ABC’s daytime drama All My Children. Directing credits include New York City Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Wolf Trap Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Opera Birmingham, Lincoln Center Playwrights’ Festival, Kennedy Center, and DiVivreVoix (Vivonne, France). Among the operas she has directed at Manhattan School of Music are Susa’s The Dangerous Liaisons, Transformations, Bloch’s Macbeth, The Mother of Us All, Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Summer and Smoke, Così fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro, Die Fledermaus, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Formerly a member of the voice faculty at SUNY Plattsburgh and Marymount Manhattan College, Ms. Vaughn often conducts master classes across the U.S., Europe and China, and serves as an adjudicator for vocal competitions, including The Metropolitan Opera National Council, The Richard Tucker Foundation, Denver Lyric Opera, The Jenson Foundation, The Opera Theatre of Saint Louis Artist in Training Program, and Premio Spiros Argiris International Competition (Italy). A graduate of Brevard College, where she currently serves on the board of trustees, she earned a B.A. in vocal performance from Wesleyan, and has received that institution’s Outstanding Alumni Award. She holds an M.A. in theater directing from Hunter College, and an Honorary Doctorate of Music from the University of Southern Maine. She studied acting with Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagen, and dance with Martha Graham. Ms. Vaughn has written for Opera Newsand Italy’s Musical!”
Kate Cheney Chappell – Katherine Pope Cheney was born in 1942 in Hartford, Connecticut. Her parents were George Wells Cheney, Jr., an insurance executive, and Mary Frances Pope, a trained artist. She is descended from the founders of Manchester’s Cheney Brothers Silk Company, brothers Ward, Rush, and Frank. It became the largest silk mill in the country at the time, and the family opened other textile mills including one for velvet. Chappell is a 1963 graduate of Oxford School in West Hartford, Connecticut. She attended Chatham College and Sarah Lawrence College before she and her husband, Tom Chappell, moved to Kennebunk, Maine in 1968 to raise their family. As of 2010, Kate and Tom share a summer home on Monhegan, Maine. Chappell became the Vice President of Tom’s of Maine, starting the business jointly with her husband after they developed a saccharine-free, natural toothpaste for their children. It was the first natural toothpaste to receive the American Dental Association’s seal of acceptance. Her artistic skills were used in overseeing the packaging, advertising and media for the company. She also attended the Sorbonne and the University of Southern Maine, where she graduated summa cum laude in 1983 with an A.B. degree in Communications after an 18-year hiatus from college. Chappell founded the Kate Cheney Chappell ’83 Center for Book Arts at the University of Southern Maine, which was launched in 2008, and serves as Chairwoman on the Advisory Board. Her teacher, professional book artist and USM faculty member Rebecca Goodale, was chosen to be the program coordinator. The Center provides an area for workshops, exhibits, and discussions by artists from across the United States regarding artwork pertaining to the illustration of books.
Tom Chappell – American businessman and manufacturer who co-founded Tom’s of Maine in 1970, and Ramblers Way, a wool clothing company, with his wife, artist Kate Chappell. Chappell graduated from the Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island in 1961, and from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut with a B.A. in English in 1966. Chappell and his wife, cofounder Kate Chappell, moved to Kennebunk, Maine in 1968 to raise their family. Tom and Kate now share a summer home on Monhegan, Maine. Chappell earned a Masters in Theology at Harvard Divinity School in 1991. He is active in the Episcopal Church of Maine, was a deputy to the 1991 and 1994 Triennial General Conference of the Episcopal Church, and was a member of the Environmental Stewardship Team of the national Episcopal Church. He is active in many cultural and philanthropic organizations, among them the Dean’s Council for Harvard Divinity School, the Advisory Council for the Center for the Study of Values in Public Life at Harvard Divinity School, and the Board of Fellows for Harvard’s School of Dental Medicine.
Michael Lacombe – Michael A. LaCombe, MD is a graduate of Harvard Medical School. For eighteen years he practiced general medicine in western Maine and for the past twelve years has practiced cardiology at MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta, Maine. The first author to write fiction for medical journals, he has published over one hundred short stories and other literary pieces.
Olympia J. Snowe – “Olympia J. Snowe has been in politics since she was in her early twenties. When she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives at the age of 31, Snowe became the youngest Republican woman, and the first Greek-American woman ever elected to Congress. She was also the first woman in American history to serve in both houses of State Legislature and both houses of Congress. Her work as a leader and advocate continues to inspire generations of young women.
Olympia Jean Bouchles was born on February 21, 1947 in Augusta, Maine. One of two children, her mother passed away from breast cancer. Less than a year later, her father died of heart disease. At the age of nine, Bouchles became an orphan. She moved to Auburn, Maine to be raised by her aunt and uncle in the area. From third to ninth grade, Bouchles attended St. Basil Academy, a Greek Orthodox school in Garrison, New York. However, she finished her grade school career at Edward Little High School in Auburn, Maine. After graduating from high school, Bouchles attended the University of Maine and earned a degree in political science in 1969. On December 29, 1969, she married Republican state legislator Peter T. Snowe and became Olympia J. Snowe.
Shortly after graduation, Snowe entered politics and began working with Congressman William Cohen on the Board of Voter Registration. However, in 1973 Snowe’s husband was tragically killed in a car accident. At age 26, Snowe ran for his seat in the Maine House of Representatives and won. She was re-elected in 1974, before being elected to the Maine Senate in 1976. While working in the Senate, Snowe was also selected as a delegate to both the State and National Republican Conventions. Before her election to the U.S. Senate, Snowe represented Maine’s Second Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives for sixteen years. She was the first woman in American history to serve in both houses of a state legislature and both houses of Congress. When first elected in 1978 at the age of 31, Snowe was the youngest Republican woman, and the first Greek-American woman ever elected to Congress. She has won more federal elections in Maine than any other person since World War II, and is the third longest serving woman in the history of the Congress. During this time, she also co-chaired the Congressional Caucus on Women’s issues for ten years.
In 1994, Snowe was elected to the U.S. Senate. She served in the Senate until January 2, 2013, after being re-elected in 2006 to her third and final six-year term. During her career she served as Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship; became the first Republican woman ever to secure a full-term seat on the Senate Finance Committee; and the first woman Senator to chair the Subcommittee on Seapower of the Senate Armed Services Committee. She was also a member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, the Budget Committee, the Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee. Snowe’s political beliefs lead her to co-chair the Senate Centrist Coalition from 1999-2006. In 2005 she was named the 54th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine, and in 2006 Time Magazine named her one of the top ten U.S. Senators.
Detailing her years of experience, Snow published a book entitled Fighting for Common Ground: How We Can Fix the Stalemate in Congress in May of 2013. In 2014, Snowe founded the Olympia Snowe Women’s Leadership Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging high school girls to be leaders. Today, the charity serves 465 students at 36 public high schools, pairing them with more than 200 trained advisors. Snowe currently serves as a member of the Institute’s Board and is the Honorary Chair. Recognized for her leadership, Snowe was acknowledged as one of the “NACD Directorship 100,” an annual list developed by the National Association of Corporate Directors. She is also the member of the Board of Directors of various organizations, and is a Senior Fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C.”
Ashley Bryan – Dr. Ashley F. Bryan, Emeritus Professor of Art and Design at Dartmouth College, is a distinguished artist and renowned children’s book author and illustrator, residing now on Islesford, Maine, where he continues his work as an artist and author. Although his career as a published author did not begin until he turned 40, Dr. Bryan is the author of more than 30 illustrated children’s books, including his 2009 autobiography, Words to My Life’s Song, winner of the 2010 Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction. In 1962, he became the first African-American children’s book author and illustrator to be published. Born in Harlem and raised in the Bronx, Dr. Bryan attended Cooper Union Art School until being drafted by the Army during World War II. During his service, which included the invasion of Normandy at Omaha Beach, he continued to draw. Upon his return to New York, he enrolled in Columbia University where he studied philosophy, trying to understand the causes of war. Returning to Europe, Dr. Bryan spent a year in Aix-en-Provence under the GI Bill and then in Freiburg, Germany, with a Fulbright Scholarship. Dr. Bryan taught art at Queen’s College-CUNY, Lafayette College, Pennsylvania, and finally Dartmouth College, where he chaired the Art Department. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including two American Library Association career literary awards, the 2009 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, nine Coretta Scott King Awards and the 2012 Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement. He is one of the New York Public Library’s “Literary Lions” and a Boston Public Library “Literary Light.” He also received the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award from Pennsylvania State University, and the Maine Library Association Lupine Award. After first experiencing Maine in 1946 as a scholarship student at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, he is now a yearlong resident of the Cranberry Isles where he is known as the “Island Treasure” for his gift of sharing his creations and inspiring others to create. His work was featured in the 2011 University of Southern Maine Lewiston-Auburn College exhibition, Tell Me a Story: Folktales and World Cultures. The University of Southern Maine is pleased to confer this honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree, honoris causa, upon Dr. Ashley F. Bryan, for his contributions to the fields of art, education, the African-American cultural experience, and his enrichment of Ameri-can culture by inspiring our children and us through his art and books.
Vic Firth – “Everett J. “”Vic”” Firth, Principal Timpanist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 50 seasons, is an icon of the music industry as a world-class performer, educator and musical product innovator. At the New England Conservatory, Berkshire Music Center, and Tanglewood Music Center, Mr. Firth oversaw the percussion departments. His students can now be found worldwide, performing with leading orchestras and on university faculties, including the School of Music at the University of Southern Maine. Born in Winchester, Massachusetts, and raised in Maine, Mr. Firth graduated from Sanford High School. He went on to the New England Conservatory, becoming department head soon after graduating with honors in 1952 . He was the youngest member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops
Orchestra at the age of 21. Feeling the need for a better quality drumstick and mallet, Mr. Firth whittled the prototypes for the first sticks manufactured by Vic Firth, Inc., the world ‘s largest and leading manufacturer of drumsticks. The company, now in its 50th year, manufactures approximately 500 products, including 12 million sticks a year. Mr. Firth ‘s commitment to music education is exemplary, with many of his 17 compositions and eight percussion method books now the standard in high school and collegiate band and percussion repertory curricula. In 1997, he founded the Vic Firth Education Team, which is the industry’s leading innovative force in providing resources to percussion education. He is a Hall of Fame member in both the Percussive Arts Society and Music for All organizations. He also holds the Modern Drummer Editor’s Achievement Award and the Music & Sound Retailer Lifetime Achievement Award. Mr. Firth still maintains a home in York, Maine. The manufacturing facility for Vic Firth, Inc., located Newport, Maine, employs nearly 150 Maine residents. Vic Firth, Inc. maintains high standards of environmental responsibility, packaging paired sticks in recyclable paper, recycling water and collecting sawdust to use as fuel to heat the factory. The University of Southern Maine is pleased to confer chis honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree, honoris causa, upon Everett J. “”Vic”” Firth, for his contributions to the fields of music performance, music education, and musical product innovation”
Albert Glickman – “Albert Brenner Glickman was a Portland native who had assumed a leadership volunteer role in numerous charitable, community and business organizations. Upon his death in 2013, friend and actor Michael J. Fox said, “”He prided himself on being a catalyst and leading by example. He challenged ochers to do more bur never before challenging himself first.””
The University of Southern Maine Portland campus library was named the Albert Brenner Glickman Family Library in 1997, commemorating a gift he and his wife, photographer Judy Ellis Glickman, made to the University. At the Library’s opening ceremony, he said, “”Judy and I are both products of public education. There’s no way that I could have gone to college if I had to pay the tuitions char private schools were asking. So, we’ve always had a keen interest in higher education.””
Mr. Glickman was an attorney who preferred the role of real estate developer and investor. He was involved in the development of more than 100 commercial properties and founded Albert B. Glickman and Associates.
He was appointed by President George W. Bush as a trustee for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and he served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Board in Boston. He was a Trustee Emeritus of the Aspen Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum.
Mr. Glickman was chairman of the Board of Governors for Cedars Sinai Medical Center, and on the Board of Councilors for the UCLA Foundation. He was a co-founder and board member of the Aspen Center for New Medicine and also served on the board of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. Mr. Glickman suffered from Parkinson’s disease for 20 years before his death.
Among his numerous charitable boards in Maine, he served on the University of Maine System Board of Trustees and the Spurwink School Foundation. He served on the Board of Directors of the Portland Museum of Art and the Portland Symphony Orchestra, and on the board of Maine Public Broadcasting Network.
He and his wife maintained homes in Los Angeles, California, Cape Elizabeth, Maine, and on Great Diamond Island in Casco Bay where his family continues to reunite every summer.
The University of Southern Maine is pleased to confer this honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree, honoris causa, upon Albert Brenner Glickman, for his contributions to business and dedication to philanthropy, the arts, public higher education and health.”
Judith Glickman – “Judy Ellis Glickman is an internationally recognized photographer who, with her husband, the late Albert Brenner Glickman, was a generous benefactor of the University of Southern Maine as well as numerous visual and performing arts, health and educational organizations in the Greater Portland community, throughout Maine, and the nation.
Ms. Glickman received her Bachelor of Arts degree and Adult Counseling Certification from UCLA. She studied photography at UCLA, the Maine Photographic Workshops and the Maine College of Art.
She is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain. Her photographs have been exhibited worldwide and are represented in two traveling exhibitions, Holocaust,
The Presence of the Past and Resistance and Rescue: Denmark s Response to the Holocaust. Her work is represented in over 300 private collections nationally and internationally, including the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York; The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C.; and the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine. She was featured in the exhibit Women in Photography International that included showings at the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain and the Los Angeles Center of Photography.
She has published numerous books, most recently, Upon Reflection: Photographs by Judy Ellis Glickman; Both Sides of the Camera: Photographs from the Collection of Judy Ellis Glickman; and For the Love of It: the Photography of Irving Bennett Ellis.
She has lectured on the Holocaust, a frequent subject of her photography. She is an active supporter of Humanity in Action, providing her poignant photographs to their publication of essays in Reflections on the Holocaust.
Ms. Glickman is the recipient of the 1995 Russian Gold Medal Award Archangelsk, Russia; the 1996 Deborah Morton Award from the University of New England; and
the 1996 Maine College of Art Honors Award. She has served as a trustee of the Maine College of Art and the Samantha Smith Foundation. She served on the Board of Trustees of Aperture Foundation.
Presently, she serves on the Board of Trustees of the Portland Museum of Art, and is a member of the Getty Museum Photographs Council in Los Angeles, California.
The University of Southern Maine Portland Library was named the Albert Brenner Glickman Family Library in 1997 to commemorate a gift from Ms. Glickman and her husband, the late Albert Brenner Glickman, to the University.
They maintained homes in California and Great Diamond Island in Casco Bay, eventually returning to Cape Elizabeth to live.
The University of Southern Maine is pleased to confer this honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree, honoris causa, upon Judy Ellis Glickman, for her dedication to philanthropy and higher education, her commitment to the memory of the Holocaust and her inspirational contributions to the field of photography.”
Carol Wishcamper – “Carol Wishcamper is an organizational development consultant whose consulting practice focuses on providing capacity-building services to a wide range of organizations with a particular emphasis on the non-profit sector. An expert in the fields of organizational systems development, group dynamics, team building, strategic planning and leadership development, she serves the community in a way that utilizes her prior experience and challenges her to learn additional skills and approaches.
Ms. Wishcamper served as co-chair of Transforming USM: The Capital Campaign that allowed the University to redevelop the Portland campus with the construction of the Wishcamper Center, home to the Muskie School of Public Service and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, as well as a newly expanded Osher Map Library, and the Dorothy Suzi Osher Promenade. She also cochaired the historic St. John River Capital Campaign for the Maine Chapter of the Nature Conservancy.
Among her extensive public service, Ms. Wishcamper has been the chairperson of the Maine State Board of Education, the Northeast representative to the National Association of State Boards of Education, and an executive committee member of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. She also has been chairperson of the Maine Center of Educational Services, chairperson and member of the Freeport School Committee, trustee of the College of the Atlantic, and of Waynflete School. Other educational service includes serving as chairperson of the Bates College Teacher Education Advisory Panel and acting as a consultant to the Maine Coalition for Excellence in Education.
She received the Deborah Morton Award from the University of New England in 2007 and the Spurwink Institute Humanitarian of the Year award in 2004. In 1999, Rotary International named her a Paul Harris Fellow, and for her dedication to environmental preservation, Ms. Wishcamper was awarded the Nature Conservancy’s National Oakleaf Award in 1994.
In 2013, Ms. Wishcamper was sworn in as one of five members of the Maine Wabanaki State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was formed to investigate the forced assimilation of Wabanaki children.
The University of Southern Maine is pleased to confer this honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree, honoris causa, upon Carol Wishcamper, for her contributions in the field of leadership and organizational development, her commitment to social justice and her support of education in the state of Maine.”
Stanley Robert Crewe – “A legend in the music industry, Stanley Robert “Bob” Crewe achieved enormous success in all aspects of the business – writing, producing, and performing. Best known as a songwriter and producer for many of the Four Seasons’ #1 hits such as “Sherry” and “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” Bob also recorded with and co-wrote songs for other famous music icons such as Patti LaBelle, Michael Jackson, Roberta Flack, and Lesley Gore. Bob was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1930. Although he lacked formal musical training, he was a gifted musician. His initial plans to become an architect were shelved after an overseas trip as a USO entertainer inspired him to embark on a wide-ranging career in the music industry spanning the last half of the 20’h century. He wrote songs, collaborated with other well-known songwriters, recorded two albums, formed his own record label, Crewe Records, performed on stage and appeared in ads and a television series. Bob’s lasting impact on the world of Rock and Roll was acknowledged with his 1995 induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is acknowledged as a gifted artist as well, exhibiting several one-man gallery shows including at the Earl McGrath Gallery and Thomas Solomon’s Garage in Los Angeles.
In the past decade, Bob’s talents and legacy have been spotlighted through the Tony Award-winning musical (featuring his lyrics) and subsequent smash hit movie – jersey Boys, the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Reflecting on his many achievements in the music industry and the show’s triumph on Broadway and beyond, he decided to create the Bob Crewe Foundation to inspire youth to nurture their artistic and musical talents by pursuing their dreams. He said, ‘1 wanted to give back for the gifts life had given me.”” Bob died on September 11, 2014, and The Bob Crewe Foundation carries on his legacy, focusing on fine arts, music, and LGBT issues. The Foundation has shared its resources with several Maine organizations, further establishing Bob’s influence on the arts and music in the state, including providing financial assistance for a number of music students at USM through scholarship support. The University of Southern Maine, with its highly regarded School of Music and a rich history of nurturing diversity on its campuses, wishes to join the countless accolades from the music world to acknowledge and recognize Bob Crewe’s contributions to the performing and visual arts by posthumously awarding him an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.”
David Shaw – David Shaw’s career has encompassed entrepreneurial business leadership, public service, strategy consulting and investment management. After early years in Maine state government and management consulting, David founded IDEXX Laboratories in 1983 and served as its Chief Executive and board chair until 2002. He has subsequently served as director or founding investor in more than a dozen public and private companies in healthcare, energy, technology and e-commerce. He is a co- founder and director of Vet’s First Choice in Portland and served as founding executive chairman of lkaria Holdings, a leading critical care pharmaceutical company. He served as a partner with Venrock Associates and is currently managing partner of Black Point Group. Previous recognition of his work includes the induction of IDEXX Laboratories into the Life Sciences Foundation’s Biocech Hall of Fame in 2008. David has served as chair of The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine; as a senior Fellow with Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and on the advisory board of the Center for Public Leadership. He is the founding chair of the Sargasso Sea Alliance, and in September 2013, he and the A executive committee were named 2013 International SeaKeepers of the Year.” David currently serves as treasurer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and as a presidential appointee to the National Park Foundation. Ocher public service affiliations have included Maine Medical Center, Science China, Hurricane Island Outward Bound, the Council on Foreign Relations and the U.S. – Israel Science and Technology Committee. David received his B.A. in literature and political science from the University of New Hampshire in 1973 and his M.B.A. from the University of Southern Maine in 1976. He has been awarded honorary degrees by Colby College and Bates College, and the Leslie Cheek Medal at the College of William and Mary. He has lectured internationally on leadership topics, explored some of the world’s great mountains and seascapes and produced more than 50 short films. The University of Southern Maine, with its highly regarded School of Business and a rich history of community engagement, wishes to acknowledge and recognize David Shaw’s contributions to the business and philanthropic community, and to higher education, by awarding him an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.
Meredith Jones – Meredith H. Jones recently stepped down from her post as president and CEO of the Maine community Foundation, a statewide public foundation with approximately $430 million in assets. since its creation in 1983, the foundation has awarded more than $220 million in scholarships and grants to individuals and nonprofit organizations. Under her leadership, assets more than doubled, and the foundation engaged in a number of special initiatives focused on social capital, higher education attainment, civic engagement of baby boomers, and poverty. Before joining the foundation in 1999, Jones directed training programs for the Maine Health Care Association. She also worked for the Maine Development Foundation where she co-created Leadership Maine, the Maine Coalition for Excellence in Education, Educator-in-Residence program, and the Maine Policy Leaders Academy. Jones has worked as senior staff for a gubernatorial primary campaign, served on a gubernatorial transition team, and staffed the Maine legislature’s Committee on Public Utilities. Jones is a former VISTA Volunteer, has served on the Winthrop School Committee, and has held leadership positions at the United Way of Kennebec Valley, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Community Development Advisory Council, Maine Philanthropy Center, Educate Maine, and Maine Women’s Fund. Currently, Jones is a member of the editorial review committee for the Maine Policy Review, the advisory council of the Margaret Chase Smith Center, the International Women’s Forum – Maine Chapter, and the community advisory board of Northeast Bank. She chairs the board of directors of CFLeads, a national organization of community foundation CEOs engaged in community leadership work. In 2015, Jones received the Kenneth L. Curtis Leadership Award from Leadership Maine for her distinguished statewide leadership in philanthropy. She is the recipient of the Deborah Morton award and was recognized by the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center as a Distinguished Maine Policy Fellow. She is a graduate of Colby-Sawyer College and the University of Maine at Augusta and has completed postgraduate work at the University of Maine. In 2013, Jones received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of Maine at Augusta.
Mary L. Bonauto – Mary L. Bonauto has served as the Civil Rights Project Director at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders since 1990. She has litigated in the state and federal courts of New England on discrimination issues, parental rights, free speech and religious liberty, and relationship recognition. In 2015 she successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in the historic case Obergefell v. Hodges, establishing the freedom to marry for same-sex couples nationwide. Mary and two Vermont co-counsel won a 1999 ruling in Baker v. State of Vermont which led to the nation’s first civil union law. She was lead counsel in the groundbreaking case Goodridge v. Department ofPublic Health, which made Massachusetts the first state where same-sex couples could legally marry in 2004. Mary’s work has been recognized with numerous awards, including most recently the 2014 MacArthur Fellowship. She is the Shikes Fellow in Civil Liberties and Civil Rights and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, serves on an advisory board for the American Constitution Society, and has served as co-chair of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Committee of the American Bar Association’s Section on Individual Rights and Responsibilities. Mary graduated from Hamilton College and Northeastern University School of Law.
David Brancaccio – David Brancaccio is the host of American Public Media’s Marketplace Morning Report, now a regular segment on NPR’s Morning Edition. His reporting focuses on the future of the economy, financial and labor markets, technology, the environment and social enterprises. In the early 1990s, David was Marketplace’s European correspondent based in London, and he hosted Marketplace’s evening program from 1993 to 2003. From 2003 to 2005, he co-anchored the PBS television news magazine program NOW with journalist Bill Moyers, before taking over as the program’s solo anchor in 2005. His feature-length documentary film, Fixing the Future, appeared in theaters nationwide in 2012. Among his awards for broadcast journalism are the Peabody, the DuPont-Columbia, the Cronkite, and the Emmy. David has a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University and a master’s degree in journalism from Stanford University. He has appeared on CBS, CNBC, MSNBC, and BBC World Service Television; his newspaper work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, the Baltimore Sun, and Britain’s The Guardian. David is author of the book Squandering Aimlessly, an exploration of how Americans apply their personal values to their money.
Corson “Corky” Ellis – Corson Ellis, also known as Corky, moved to Maine with his family in 1994 and started an industrial software company called Kepware. By 2015, Kepware employed 130 professionals at its Portland headquarters, and was the leading worldwide provider of industrial communications software. In 2016, Kepware was sold to PTC, a Boston-based public software company. During that time, Corky served as the Board Chair of Maine Venture Fund, a state-sponsored Venture Capital group, and as Board Chair for the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. Corky is now Board Chair of NBT Solutions, a Portland-based telecommunications software company. With his wife Marion, he is involved in many local non-profits, with a strong focus on the development of Maine’s economy. He is now working on statewide public school software coding curriculum initiatives. Corky received a Bachelor’s degree from Amherst College and a Masters of Business Policy degree from Columbia University.
Cyrus Hagge – Cyrus Hagge ’83, ’85G is the president and founder of Project Management, Inc., a real estate development and construction management firm based in Portland. He currently serves as Chair of the USM Master Planning Committee and Chair of the USM Foundation Board, which he joined in 2010. Known as one of Portland’s most civic-minded and culturally active citizens, Cyrus has a long history of community service and philanthropic leadership. He currently serves as Vice-President of the Portland Museum of Art and Treasurer of Space Gallery; he is also a member of the board of Sail Maine. His previous board leadership includes Rippleffect (Chair), YMCA of Southern Maine (President), Casco Bay Island Transit District (President), Maine College of Art and Portland Planning Board. In 1997, Cyrus and his wife Patricia Hagge ’85, ’06G, established the White Pine Foundation and, in 2012, they created the Hagge Family Scholarship at USM. The scholarship provides financial support for incoming or current students majoring in STEM fields. Cyrus has a bachelor’s degree in business and an MBA from the University of Southern Maine.
Michael Collins – A graduate from the University of Southern Maine in 1991, Dr. Collins earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology and biology, and went on to earn master’s and doctoral degrees from Michigan State University. Dr. Collins serves as director and founding member of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Sports Medicine Concussion Program (SMCP). Established in 2000 as the first of its kind in the nation, the SMCP remains the largest research and clinical program focused on the assessment, treatment, rehabilitation, research and education of sports-related mild traumatic brain injury in athletes of all levels, from high school students to elite professional athletes. In addition to his extensive clinical experience, Dr. Collins has been a lead author on several major groundbreaking studies of high school and college athletes published in JAMA, Neurosurgery, American Journal of Sports Medicine, and Pediatrics, and has authored more than 70 peer-reviewed research articles in other prestigious medical journals. Dr. Collins is also one of the co-founders of the ImPACT (Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing) neurocognitive testing model now used with student-athletes in high schools throughout Maine and with athletes of all levels worldwide.
Ed Liu – Prior to leading The Jackson Laboratory, Dr. Liu was the founding executive director of the Genome Institute of Singapore, chair of the Health Sciences Authority of Singapore, and scientific director of the National Cancer Institute’s Division of Clinical Sciences. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dr. Liu was a professor of medicine, biochemistry, genetics, and epidemiology, and directed UNC’s Specialized Program of Research Excellence in Breast Cancer. His research focuses on the genomics of human breast cancer, uncovering new oncogenes, the dynamics of gene regulation in cancer biology, and understanding the systems logic of cancer using breast cancer as the model system. Dr. Liu is the recipient of the AACR Rosenthal Award and the Brinker International Award, both for breast cancer research; the Public Service Medal from the President of Singapore for his contributions to resolving the SARS crisis; and the Chen Award for Distinguished Academic Achievement in Human Genetics.
David Howes – Dr. David Howes began his medical career as a family physician, serving the small, rural fishing community of Stonington, Maine. The experience taught him the power of primary care in improving health outcomes and reducing the cost of care. He brought this philosophy to Martin’s Point Health Care in 1989 as a primary care physician and has served as President and CEO since 1996. Deeply committed to the Martin’s Point mission, he has dedicated his career to creating a healthier community. A member of the American College of Physician Executives and the American Academy of Family Practice, he serves as Board Chair for the Alliance of Community Health Plans and on the Boards of the US Family Health Plan Alliance and the Maine Guaranteed Access Reinsurance Association. In 2019, he was inducted into the Junior Achievement Maine Business Hall of Fame. Howes earned his M.D. at Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, New Hampshire, and served residencies at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Medical Center Hospital of Vermont in Burlington, and Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine.
Yvon Chouinard – “Yvon Chouinard is an itinerant adventurer, passionate activist and iconoclastic businessman. In 1973, he founded Patagonia, a mission-driven company known for its environmental and social initiatives. Chouinard is a surfer, mountain climber, gardener, falconer and is particularly fond of tenkara fly fishing.
Chouinard has written several books and his latest, Some Stories, is a selection of his favorite stories and memories—a fascinating chronicle that reveals the evolution of his thoughts and philosophies. Let My People Go Surfing, his business memoir, has been published in 16 languages and has sold more than 500,000 copies. His other books include The Responsible Company, Simple Fly Fishing and Climbing Ice. He was the executive producer of the 2019 investigative documentary Artifishal and the award-winning documentaries DamNation (2014) and Public Trust (2020).
Chouinard cofounded the Fair Labor Association, 1% for the Planet, the Textile Exchange, The Conservation Alliance and the Sustainable Apparel Coalition. On the first day he was legally able to do so, Yvon personally filed the paperwork in Sacramento, California, for the company to become a benefit corporation. “
Tim Wilson – Tim Wilson has held several roles at Seeds of Peace since its founding in 1993. Prior to serving as Senior Advisor and Director of the Maine Seeds Programs, he was the Director of the Seeds of Peace Camp in Maine and the Seeds of Peace Center for Coexistence in Jerusalem. Before and during the early years of his work with Seeds of Peace, he served as the Director of Multicultural Programs for Pierce Atwood Consulting in Portland. He has been appointed by three Maine governors to several posts including Chair of the Maine Human Rights Commission. He has been the Associate Headmaster of the Hyde School, Director of Admissions at Maine Central Institute, and a highly successful football coach at the University of Maine. His many awards include the Medal of Honor from the late King Hussein of Jordan, the Gerda Haas Award for Excellence in Human Rights Education and Leadership from the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine, and the Peace Corps’ Franklin H. Williams Award. A Maine Sports Hall of Fame inductee, he received the Distinguished American Award by the Maine Chapter of the National Football Foundation and the Howard Vandersea Maine Chapter of the National Football Foundation Award. He earned a B.S. in Education from Slippery Rock University and ESL certification from the University of Washington.
Beverly Worthington – As a first-generation-to-college graduate and co-founder of the Worthington Scholarship Foundation, Beverly Worthington has focused on implementing impactful scholarship and student success services for college students in Maine for more than a decade. Today, the Worthington Scholarship Foundation provides eligible graduates of high schools in Hancock, Knox, Lincoln, Waldo, and Washington counties with grants of up to $16,000 to support their education at select two- and four-year colleges in Maine, including the University of Southern Maine. Prior to launching the Worthington Scholarship Foundation with her husband, David, she was a corporate commercial pilot and owned and operated an aerial application service in Texas for many years. Her roles in agriculture and international trade included serving as a liaison between the Texas Department of Agriculture and the Texas State Legislature on agricultural issues, serving as a Board member of the Gulf Coast Agribusiness Council, and participating in the Uruguay Round, the eighth round of multilateral, international trade negotiations conducted within the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). A graduate of Lee College in Bayton, Texas, Worthington has served on many advisory committees at her alma mater that oversee the college’s Business, Career Pilot, Legal Assistant, and Technology programs.
David Worthington – Prior to co-founding the Worthington Scholarship Foundation with his wife, Beverly, David Worthington enjoyed a long and successful career in the oil industry. After serving Shell Oil Company as Exploration Manager for the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic, he assumed a majority ownership position and leadership of TGS Geophysical, which became the largest provider of modern, non-exclusive seismic data in the Gulf of Mexico to the energy industry. TGS Geophysical later merged with the Norwegian company NOPEC to become TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Co., one of the world’s largest geophysical consulting, contracting services, and marine seismic data companies. He retired from active management in 1996 and relinquished his board responsibilities in 2007. A Worcester, Mass., native, Worthington served three years with the U.S. Army’s XVIII Airborne Corps before earning a B.A. in Geology at Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio. He then continued his education under a Texaco Fellowship at the University of Utah and Virginia Tech University, receiving an M.S. in Geophysics in 1969. He has served as a Trustee of Marietta College, a Trustee of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Foundation, and a Patient Pal at Texas Children’s Hospital.
Nirav Shah – In June 2019, Dr. Nirav Shah, MD, JD, was appointed as the Director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC). Dr. Shah comes to Maine CDC with broad experience in public health, most recently as Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health.
As an attorney and public health economist, Dr. Shah previously advised professionals and governments around the nation and globe on improving the delivery of health care. Earlier in his career, he worked for the Ministry of Health in Cambodia, where his work included investigating and managing disease outbreaks as an epidemiologist.
Dr. Shah received both medical and law degrees from the University of Chicago. He also studied economics at Oxford University.
Betsy Sholl – Betsy Sholl’s tenth collection of poetry, As If a Song Could Save You, will be published by the University of Wisconsin Press in the fall of 2022. Her ninth collection of poetry is House of Sparrows: New and Selected Poems (University of Wisconsin Press, 2019), winner of the Four Lakes Prize. Her eighth collection, Otherwise Unseeable (University of Wisconsin Press, 2014), won the 2015 Maine Book Award for Poetry. Her previous volumes include Rough Cradle (Alice James Books, 2009) and Late Psalm (University of Wisconsin, 2004). Don’t Explain won the 1997 Felix Pollak Prize from the University of Wisconsin, and The Red Line (University of Pittsburgh Press) won the 1991 AWP Prize for Poetry. She is a founding member of Alice James Books and published three earlier collections with them. Among her other awards are a fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts, and two Maine Writer’s Fellowships, and the 2020 Maine Literary Award for Distinguished Achievement.
Daniel Crewe – Dan Crewe leads the Crewe Foundation, an organization that he co-founded with his late brother, Bob Crewe, to empower artists and underserved youth, and support the rights of the LGBTQ community. A passionate humanitarian and philanthropist, Dan is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and former Captain in the U.S. Air Force. He spent years as a leader in the music industry in partnership with his brother, Bob, a prolific songwriter and producer known for his work with Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.
Dan is the Chair of the USM Foundation board, a Trustee of the Portland Symphony Orchestra and has served as a Trustee at MECA, and President of the ACLU of Maine. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy.
Board of Trustees Policy Statement
Last Revised: 06/06/05:
Honorary degrees are subject to approval by the Board of Trustees. Honorary degrees may be conferred by any university of the University of Maine System to persons of notable achievement in an academic field, the arts and letters, the professions, or public service. All nominees will be expected to have some connection with the State of Maine, except in the case of certain internationally and nationally known persons.
Candidates for honorary degrees may be nominated by Trustees, Chancellor, Presidents, or private citizens. Approved nominations from an institution shall be awarded as a degree from that institution. There shall also be a University of Maine System degree. Nominations for the system degree may come from Trustees, Chancellor or Presidents with the Trustees designating the institution for conferring the degree.
In developing nominations it is understood that honorary degrees shall not be conferred on faculty or staff within the University of Maine System until their employment with the institution has ended or on Trustees until five years after their retirement from the Board; nor awarded to local or state government officials during their terms of office, nor awarded posthumously or in absentia. Normally, an individual shall not receive more than one honorary degree from the University of Maine System or its Universities in a five year period. And, lastly, commencement speakers shall not be automatically nominated to receive an honorary degree, nor should nominees be contacted prior to the Board’s consideration.
Action on honorary degree nominations shall be taken at the January Board meeting.