96-08-21 Six to Receive Commencement Honors SIX RECEIVE SPECIAL COMMENCEMENT HONORS AT OHIO STATE COLUMBUS -- A journalist, a scientist, a sociologist and two businessmen will be recognized with special honors during The Ohio State University's summer quarter commencement ceremonies Aug. 29 in St. John Arena. Honorary doctorates will be presented to journalist Barbara Reynolds who will give the commencement address, entrepreneur George H. Alber, and research scientist Robert F. Furchgott. The Distinguished Service Award will be presented to retired executive Richard J. Denman and to Simon Dinitz, professor emeritus of sociology. Barbara A. Reynolds, Doctor Of Humane Letters Barbara Reynolds of Camp Springs, Md., nationally known journalist and commentator, is president of Reynolds News Services, which supplies columns and commentaries to news organizations, including National Public Radio, Pacific News Service and various national newspapers. A native of Columbus, Reynolds was a start-up editor of USA Today's Op-Ed page and a columnist for eight years. She is a 1967 graduate of Ohio State with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism. Reynolds worked briefly for the Columbus Call and Post before becoming a police reporter for the now-defunct Cleveland Press in 1968. She became an assistant editor at Ebony magazine later that year. She joined the staff of the Chicago Tribune in 1969, becoming an urban affairs reporter and later the newspaper's Washington correspondent, covering the Carter Administration's urban policies. While at the Tribune, Reynolds began airing regular radio commentaries for WBBM-Radio and freelance writing for such magazines as Essence, Playboy, The New Republic, and Black Family. She cofounded Dollars and Sense, a magazine for African American professionals. As the magazine's international editor, Reynolds covered the drought and famine in Ethiopia, the rise of the Japanese business class in Tokyo, and the women's liberation movement in Italy. Four months after the founding of USA Today in 1983, Reynolds joined its editorial board and helped launch the Inquiry Page, of which she was the editor. She became a columnist for the paper in 1988, writing some 450 columns on subjects including the Gulf War, affirmative action, pay equity for women, school prayer, and the Supreme Court's decision to knock down majority- black voting districts. She left the paper in July. As the second black woman to receive a Nieman Foundation Fellowship, Reynolds studied constitutional law at Harvard University in 1976. She graduated from Howard University's School of Divinity in 1991 and is an ordained minister. She is currently working on her doctorate at the United Theological Seminary in Dayton. George H. Alber, Doctor of Business Administration George H. Alber of Marion, entrepreneur, community leader and philanthropist, is the founder of Marion Plant Life Services, which, when he sold it in 1971, was the largest privately owned fertilizer company in the country. A 1929 graduate of Ohio State with a degree in business administration, Alber began his fertilizer business in 1937, eventually expanding it into five subsidiaries throughout Ohio. A native of Toledo, Alber established the Dorothy and George H. Alber Endowed Scholarship Fund to aid students at The Ohio State University's Marion campus, and has provided for the construction of the campus Alber Bell Tower. Alber serves as a member of the Ohio State-Marion Volunteer Committee for the university's current fund-raising campaign. The first campus-based economic development resource center in Ohio has been named the George H. Alber Enterprise Center. A joint venture of the state of Ohio and The Ohio State University Extension, the center will be a catalyst for economic development in Ohio's seven-county North Central region. Robert F. Furchgott, Doctor of Science Robert F. Furchgott of Brooklyn, N.Y., a pioneer research scientist and academician, has made notable contributions to the fields of biology, physiology and pharmacology. A native of Charleston, S.C., Furchgott is a distinguished professor at the State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn and adjunct professor in the University of Miami School of Medicine's Department of Pharmacology. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of North Carolina in 1937 and a doctorate in biochemistry from Northwestern University in 1940. He was on the medical faculty of Cornell University Medical College from 1943-49 before joining the pharmacology department at Washington University School of Medicine. Furchgott is internationally known for his research in cardiovascular pharmacology, vascular pharmacology and physiology. His work on vascular relaxation and drug receptor theory has been vital in the development of new drugs to prevent sudden coronary-related death. Richard J. Denman, Distinguished Service Award Richard J. Denman of Palm Desert, Calif., an Ohio State alumnus, is the retired president of Symedix, a Johnson and Johnson subsidiary formed in 1982 to collaborate with Philadelphia's Thomas Jefferson University on a new method for treatment of stroke. A loyal supporter of the university since his graduation in 1957 with a degree in business administration, Denman and his wife established the Richard J. and Martha D. Denman Professorship for Clinical Research in Epilepsy, to provide support for an eminent scholar in neurological research. Denman also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toledo and a Master of Business Administration from Long Beach State University. He founded Kyle-Richard Medical Inc., an artificial kidney supply distributor and provider of patient services, in 1975. He sold the company in 1982 to Johnson and Johnson Cardiovascular and assumed the position of vice president for business development. Denman has served the university as a volunteer leader in development activities in the health sciences and in California. He is a charter member of the National Campaign Committee and the Ohio State University Foundation. He is a member of The Presidents Club, a life member of the College of Medicine's Order of Hippocrates, and a life member of The Ohio State University Alumni Association. Simon Dinitz, Distinguished Service Award Simon Dinitz of Bexley, emeritus professor of sociology, served on The Ohio State University faculty from 1951 to 1991, gaining an international reputation for distinguished scholarship in criminology, corrections and mental health. In his 40-year tenure at Ohio State, Dinitz taught thousands of undergraduates and guided numerous graduate students towards their degrees. He was the first faculty member to receive both of the university's top faculty awards: the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching and the Distinguished Scholar Award. He was chosen as one of the Big Ten's 10 most exciting teachers by the Chicago Tribune in 1969. He was chosen as one of six Teachers of the Year in 1981 and as one of the 25 outstanding U.S. professors in 1982 by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. Dinitz joined the Ohio State sociology faculty as an instructor, rising through the ranks to full professor in 1963. He also held the posts of senior fellow in the university's Academy for Contemporary Problems from 1975 to 1982 and research associate in psychiatry from 1957 to 1974. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Vanderbilt University in 1947 and his master's and doctoral degrees in sociology from the University of Wisconsin in 1949 and 1951. # Contact: Tracy Turner, University Communications, (614)688-3682. [Submitted by: Von Reid-Vargas (ereid@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu) Wed, 21 Aug 1996 10:15:19 -0400] All documents are the responsibility of their originator.