COLUMBUS -- Six individuals will be honored at The Ohio State University’s autumn commencement for their commitment to public service, higher education and community service. Ceremonies begin at 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 8 in St. John Arena, 410 Woody Hayes Drive.

Honorary doctorates will be presented to Jo Ann Davidson, speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives; William H. Form, professor emeritus of sociology at Ohio State; world-renowned organist Michael Murray; and Frank Wobst, chairman and chief executive officer of Huntington Bancshares Inc. in Columbus.

The Distinguished Service Awards will be presented to alumnus and friend of the university Everett B. Laybourne; and Theodore B. Myers, emeritus faculty and former assistant director of community relations and development for Ohio State’s Marion Campus.

Jo Ann Davidson, Doctor of Public Administration

Currently serving her 10th term in the House representing the state’s 24th District, Davidson holds the distinction of being the first woman to serve as speaker in Ohio. She has led the House to pass several major pieces of legislation in the areas of welfare reform, electric utility deregulation, criminal justice, education, economic development, campaign finance reform and government reorganization.

Davidson chairs the House Rules and Reference Committee, and serves on the Legislative Service Commission, the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, and the Ohio Bicentennial Commission. She also serves on the boards of trustees of the University of Findlay and Franklin University.

She began her public service career in 1967 as a member of the Reynoldsburg City Council, where she served for 10 years. She was inducted in the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame in 1991 and holds honorary degrees in law from Ohio University and Capital University and in Government Leadership from the University of Findlay.

William H. Form, Doctor of Sociology

William H. Form, professor emeritus of sociology at Ohio State, has had a long and distinguished career as one of the nation’s foremost sociologists.

He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Rochester in 1938 and 1940 and his doctorate from the University of Maryland in 1944. He taught at American University, Maryland, Stephens College, Kent State University, Michigan State University and the University of Illinois at Urbana, before joining Ohio State’s sociology faculty in 1984. Form was named professor emeritus in 1988.

Over the past half-century, Professor Form has authored a number of highly influential books as well as some 70 articles in scholarly journals and 20 book chapters. He has held numerous leadership positions in the American Sociological Association and served two terms as editor of the American Sociological Review.

Michael Murray, Doctor of Musical Arts

A world-renowned organist, Michael Murray has also earned a reputation as a scholar and author. His 38 recordings on the Telarc label are among the classical music industry’s worldwide bestsellers. He studied music as Butler University and the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music before moving to Paris to study with Marcel Dupre’.

Murray began his career in 1968 by performing the complete works of Bach in 12 recitals in Cleveland. He made his European debut in 1972 with an all-Bach recital at Leiden University. Since then, Murray has performed in the Near East, the Far East, in nearly every European capital and in most major cities in North America.

In addition to his concertizing, he has written numerous articles and has published three books. He has lectured and given master classes throughout the United States, and he is often heard on WOSU Radio and other National Public Radio stations as a recitalist, interviewer and lecturer. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Schweitzer Institute for the Humanities, a non-profit foundation affiliated with the United Nations. A resident of Columbus, he has been on the music staff at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church since 1994.

Frank Wobst, Doctor of Humane Letters

Frank Wobst is chairman and chief executive officer of Huntington Bancshares Inc., a Columbus-based bank holding company with more than $29 billion in assets, providing innovative products and services through more than 600 offices in eight states.

A native of Dresden, Germany, Wobst is a 1956 graduate of the University of Erlangen with a degree in economics. He also received a law degree in 1958 from the University of Goettingen and a degree in banking from the Stonier Graduate School of Banking at Rutgers University in 1964. His banking career started in 1958 at the Fidelity National Bank in Lynchburg, Va., where he remained until 1974. He moved that year to Columbus to become president of The Huntington National Bank. In 1981, he was elected chief executive officer of Huntington Bancshares Incorporated.

Wobst has been actively involved in the community by serving on the boards of a number of corporate, professional, and civic organizations.

Wobst is an honorary consul of the Federal Republic of Germany and is the driving force behind the Sister City International relationship between Dresden and Columbus.

Wobst also is a member of The Ohio State University Foundation Board, the Advisory Council to the Fisher School of Business, the Ohio State University Investment Committee and the Wexner Center for the Arts Board.

Everett B. Laybourne, Distinguished Service Award

Everett B. Laybourne was born into a family of Buckeyes. His father, a 1902 graduate, served on the university’s Board of Trustees and his brother, a 1932 graduate, later became president of the Alumni Association. He graduated from Ohio State in 1932 with a bachelor’s degree in English cum laude and received a juris doctor degree from Harvard University in 1935.

He began practicing business and corporate law in Los Angeles in 1936, founding his first of several law firms four years later. During the early ‘50s, the U.S. State Department asked Laybourne to negotiate the settlement of a major World War II Lend-Lease obligation with the former Soviet Union, requiring 18 separate meetings in the Soviet Union.

Laybourne, along with actress Jane Russell, is a co-founder of WAIF, an international organization working with adoption agencies and orphanages around the world.

He has taken leadership roles in the university’s two recent fund-raising campaigns and served on the “Affirm Thy Friendship” campaign’s National Major Gift Committee for the Southern California. His numerous awards and recognitions include the Ohio State Alumni Citizenship Award, the Ohio State Alumni Centennial Award and the Alumni Award of Distinction from the College of Humanities.

Theodore B. Myers, Distinguished Service Award

Ted Myers has a long record of exemplary service to his alma mater, beginning with his enrollment at the university in 1939. Following military service during World War II, the Marion native returned to Ohio State, earning his master’s degree in 1948 and his doctorate in 1958.

Myers served on the biology faculty at Capital University in Columbus for 22 years. In 1968, as Ohio State opened its regional campus in Marion, he returned to his hometown to teach biology and zoology, becoming the first regional faculty member to earn the rank of full professor.

While continuing to teach, he was named assistant director of community relations and development for the Marion Campus. As chief development office of the campus from 1973 to 1988, he raised more than $1 million for campus programs and student support.

Well known as a conservationist and a historian, he has left two important legacies to the Marion Campus: The Marion Campus Prairie and Nature Center and the Harding/Thomas Room in the campus library.

He is a member of the Ohio Academy of Sciences, the Entomological Society of America and the Ohio College of Biology Teachers. Myers received the Alumni Citizenship Award when he retired in 1988.

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