97-03-14 Innovators Honored at Commencement INNOVATORS RECEIVE SPECIAL COMMENCEMENT HONORS AT OHIO STATE COLUMBUS -- An educator, a political activist, a scientist, an attorney and a professor will be recognized for their achievements with special honors during The Ohio State University's winter quarter commencement March 21 in St. John Arena. Honorary doctorates will be presented to educator and businessman Clifford R. Wharton Jr., political activist Ada E. Deer, and scientist Daniel E. Koshland Jr. The Distinguished Service Award will be presented to educator Wilbur A. Gould and to attorney Susan J. Insley. Clifford R. Wharton Jr., Doctor of Humane Letters Clifford R. Wharton Jr. was the first African American to head a Fortune 100 service company. He served as chair and chief executive officer of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association and the College Retirement Equities Fund from 1987 to 1993. During his six years as chair, he oversaw a total reorganization of TIAA-CREF's corporate structure and management, doubling the corporation's assets. Wharton was president of Michigan State University for eight years, the first African American to head a major predominately white university in the United States, and for nine years chancellor of the State University of New York, the largest university system in the nation. He came to higher education after a 22-year career in foreign economic development in Latin America and Southeast Asia with the Rockefeller family's philanthropic interests. A native of Boston, Wharton entered Harvard University at the age of 16, earning his bachelor's degree in history in 1947. He was the first African American to be admitted to the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, receiving his Master of Arts degree in international affairs in 1948. He also holds a Master of Arts degree in economics and a doctoral degree from the University of Chicago. Long active in U.S. foreign policy, Wharton has held key appointments under five presidents. He was most recently President Clinton's Deputy Secretary of State in 1993. Wharton is a member of the National Academy of Education, the Committee for Economic Development and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, of which he was chair in 1981-82. Ada E. Deer, Doctor of Humanities Ada E. Deer, assistant secretary of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, is the first woman and sixth person to hold that office since its creation in 1997. As assistant secretary, Deer serves as policy maker for some 550 federally recognized tribes and nearly two million Native Americans served by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and is chief spokesperson for federal policy concerning Native Americans. A native of Wisconsin, Deer was the first member of the Menominee tribe to graduate from the University of Wisconsin and the first Native American to earn a master's degree from Columbia University. She led the Menominees' struggle to restore federal recognition of their tribal status after it had been terminated in the 1950s. The Menominee Restoration Act was signed into law in 1973 and has led the way for many other tribes to restore federal recognition. Founding director of Americans for Indian Opportunity and the American Indian Graduate Program, Deer was appointed by the U.S. Senate to the American Indian Policy Review Commission in 1974. She has served as chair of the National Support Committee of the Native American Rights Fund, and was appointed by both Presidents Carter and Reagan to the President's Commission on White House Fellowships. Daniel E. Koshland Jr., Doctor of Science Daniel E. Koshland, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of California at Berkeley where he has taught since 1965, is internationally known for his research on the catalytic molecular mechanisms of enzymes. A native of New York City, Koshland earned his undergraduate degree from Berkeley in 1941. He worked as a chemist for Shell Chemical Company and as a group leader for the Manhattan Project before entering the graduate program at the University of Chicago, where he earned his doctoral degree in 1949. He joined the staff of Brookhaven National Laboratory as a senior biochemist and later held joint appointments at Rockefeller University and Brookhaven. Koshland serves on numerous editorial boards including chairing the editorial board of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He helped establish and chaired the Academy Forum, a committee of the National Academy of Sciences that develops policies on issues affecting science and society. Wilbur A. Gould, Distinguished Service Award Wilbur A. Gould, professor emeritus of horticulture, spent nearly four decades as a teacher, researcher, and scholar at Ohio State. The founder and director emeritus of Ohio State's Food Industries Center, Gould is nationally recognized for providing a practical research base to improve the food industry's competitiveness. Gould received his master's and doctoral degrees from Ohio State, and joined the faculty in 1946 as an instructor in food processing and technology. He was named a full professor in 1958. He became director of the newly formed Food Industries Center in 1981, serving until 1985 when he retired from the university. Gould was instrumental in obtaining state funding for the construction of Howlett Hall, which houses the Food Industries Center. As chair of the center's Endowed Haas Chair committee, he has raised some $1 million to form one of the nation's first endowed chairs in food processing and technology. He serves as honorary chair of the New Food Science and Technology Building Fund Drive. Gould was inducted into the Ohio Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1989 and into the Ohio State Farm Science Review Hall of Fame in 1991. In 1995, he received the Distinguished Service Award from Ohio State's Department of Food Science and Technology. Susan J. Insley, Distinguished Service Award Susan J. Insley, a 1967 graduate of the College of Education, has long been a loyal and devoted friend of Ohio state. A member of The Presidents Club, she served on the University Hospitals Board from 1986 to 1993 and was its chair from 1990-92. Insley supported the creation of the medical center's regional hospital consortium, which now numbers 12. She was instrumental in enhancing the staff recognition programs and helped establish several outreach programs for the Columbus community. Insley is executive vice president and principal of Cochran Public Relations, a Columbus-based public relations and strategic communications firm. Prior to joining Cochran in 1996, she was senior vice president of Honda of America Manufacturing. She served as liaison with the Transportation Research Center Inc., managed by Ohio State's College of Engineering, and was director of the Honda of America Foundation. Insley earned her law degree from Ohio Northern University in 1976. She joined Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease as a practicing attorney, where she provided legal service for Honda of America. She joined Honda in 1985 as vice president for corporate planning and became senior vice president in 1990. Insley was named an honorary engineer in 1992 by Ohio State's College of Engineering. That same year, she was selected as a Woman of Achievement by the Columbus YWCA for her work with "I know I Can," a program to encourage students to aim for higher education. # Contact: Tracy Turner, University Communications, (614)688-3682. [Submitted by: Von Vargas (vargas.12@osu.edu) Fri, 14 Mar 1997 13:00:01 -0500 (EST)] All documents are the responsibility of their originator.