97-08-19 Seven to be honored at commencement SEVEN RECEIVE SPECIAL COMMENCEMENT HONORS AT OHIO STATE COLUMBUS -- Seven professionals in the fields of psychology, business, higher education, pharmacology and music will be recognized with special honors during The Ohio State University’s summer quarter commencement Aug. 29 in St. John Arena. Honorary doctorates will be presented to businessman Edward Hagenlocker, pharmacologist Sir James Black, psychologist Viktor Frankl, administrator Pancras J. M. Ssebuwufu and Wendy’s International chair and founder R. David Thomas. The Distinguished Service Award will be presented to Florence Zacks Melton and posthumously to David L. Meeker. Edward Hagenlocker, Doctor of Science Edward Hagenlocker is vice chair of Ford Motor Co. A native of Marysville, Hagenlocker earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering physics and physics from Ohio State. Formerly president of Ford Automotive Operations and chair of Ford of Europe, Hagenlocker joined Ford as a research scientist in 1964. He later held engineering management positions in a number of activities, including Product Development, Chassis Division, Body and Electrical Product Engineering and Climate Control Division. Hagenlocker became chief engineer - light truck of Truck Operations in 1978 and was named product development manager - light truck in 1980. He was appointed general manager of the Climate Control Division in 1982 and was named director - vice president of operations for Ford of Brazil in 1984. He became director - president of Ford of Brazil in 1985. In 1986, Hagenlocker was elected a company vice president and named general manager of Truck Operations. He was appointed vice president - general operations for North American Automotive Operations (NAAO) in July 1992, and was named executive vice president - NAAO in 1993. Sir James Black, Doctor of Science Sir James Black, professor emeritus of analytical chemistry and head of the James Black Foundation at Kings College, London, England, is an internationally renowned pharmacologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1988. Chancellor of the University of Dundee, Scotland, since 1992, Black is credited with the development of two of the most widely prescribed drugs in the world: propranolol, for the treatment of hypertension, and cimetidine, for peptic ulcers and gastric reflux disease. A 1946 graduate in medicine from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, Black spent 12 years in academic physiology successively at the Universities of St. Andrews, Malaya and Glasgow. In 1958, he began working as a researcher for Imperial Chemical Industries, where his special interest in cardiac physiology led to the discovery of pronethalol, the first clinically evaluated beta blocker and the predecessor to propranolol. He was named head of biological research in 1964 at Smith, Kline and French Laboratories, where he and his research team discovered buramamide, the prototype of histamine receptor antagonist that led to cimetidine. Tagamet, the commercial version of cimetidine, is the first drug ever to exceed $1 billion in annual sales. Black’s scientific contributions have been recognized with numerous awards, including knighthood in 1981. He visited Ohio State in 1988 to present a colloquium on drug research in the College of Pharmacy. Viktor E. Frankl, Doctor of Humane Letters Viktor E. Frankl, professor emeritus of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Vienna, Austria, and Distinguished Professor of Logotherapy at the U.S. International University in California, is acknowledged by his peers as one of the most prominent mental health professionals in the world. Frankl is the founder of the Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy, known as logotherapy or existential analysis. Logotherapy is based on the belief that one seeks the meaning of life and that discovering the special significance of one’s life is a psychologically healing process. He earned his medical degree and his doctoral degree from the University of Vienna. He headed the neurology department at Vienna’s Rothschild Hospital from 1940 to 1942, and from 1946 to 1970, he was head of the Neurologic Poliklinik Hospital of Vienna. From 1942 to 1945, Frankl was held captive in the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz and Dachau. He described his experiences in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, written in 1959. The book has sold more than 2 million copies and has been named one of the most influential books in the American Library of Congress. Frankl is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Nobel Prize nomination, the American Psychiatric Association’s Oskar Pfister Award, the Cardinal Innitzer Award, the City of Vienna Ring of Honor and the Albert Schweitzer Award. Pancras J. M. Ssebuwufu, Doctor of Education Pancras J. M. Ssebuwufu is chief academic and administrative officer of Makerere University, the premier institution of higher education in Uganda and a traditional leader of higher education in East Africa. Throughout the tumultuous years of the Amin and Obote regimes, Ssebuwufu defended the high standards in science and technology he has espoused throughout his academic career. A native of Kampala, Uganda, Ssebuwufu earned his bachelor of science degree from Makerere University and his doctoral degree at Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in physical chemistry in Ireland before returning to Makerere as a lecturer in chemistry in 1979. He was named senior lecturer and department chair in 1985. As department chair, he initiated, reformed and designed new curricula in pure chemistry, industrial chemistry and chemical engineering. He assumed the vice chancellorship in 1993. Ssebuwufu chairs the Uganda Management Institute and the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology, and is director of the National Agricultural Research Organization. In 1996, he was named Administrator of the Year by the major daily newspaper, The New Vision. He has authored or co-authored some 20 scholarly articles and papers, and has served as a consultant to the Ugandan government and several private firms on a wide variety of chemistry-related issues. Ssebuwufu is also a strong supporter of the three-decade collaborative relationship between Makerere and Ohio State, which included an exchange of faculty members and students. R. David Thomas, Doctor of Business Administration R. David Thomas, senior chair and founder of Wendy’s International Inc., is the spokesperson in the restaurant company’s television commercials and has become a familiar face worldwide. A native of New Jersey, Thomas entered the work force at the age of 12. When he was 15, his family moved to Fort Wayne, Ind., where he began working at Hobby House Restaurants. He dropped out of school after the 10th grade to concentrate on work. After serving in the U.S. Army, he returned to Hobby House as a short order cook. In 1956, his employer bought a Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) franchise, where Thomas met his “fast food mentor,” Colonel Harlan Sanders. Thomas’ career with KFC flourished after he negotiated a deal to revive four failing KFC carryouts in Columbus in exchange for part ownership. Six years later, he sold those restaurants and an additional four back to KFC for $1.5 million. He became KFC’s regional operations director, traveling with Colonel Sanders and learning his business techniques. In 1969, Thomas opened the first Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers restaurant in downtown Columbus, naming the business after his daughter. The chain grew rapidly, adding 1,000 units in its first 100 months. The company now operates some 4,000 restaurants throughout the United States and internationally. Thomas, who was adopted shortly after birth, is an advocate for adoption. He served as a national spokesperson for a White House initiative on adoption in 1990 and established the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption in 1992. A strong supporter of Ohio State, Thomas was a founding member of the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Research Institute Foundation. He serves on the foundation’s board and also is a member of the Ohio State University Foundation Board and the Ohio State 4-H Foundation. David L. Meeker, Distinguished Service Award During his lifetime, David L. Meeker brought outstanding musical and administrative skills to Ohio State. A former U.S. Air Force pilot, Meeker joined the Ohio State faculty as an assistant professor of music education in 1968. He served as the assistant director and director of the School of Music, and as associate dean of the College of the Arts. He retired as director and professor emeritus in 1988. Following his retirement, Meeker continued to serve as the Ohio State Marching Band announcer on football Saturdays. He directed the Alumni Marching Band for 22 years, molding it into one of the most successful and well-known goodwill ambassadors for Ohio State. Under his direction, the band performed more than 100 engagements each year throughout the United States, and participated in parades in Osaka, Japan, and Dublin, Ireland. Meeker was a regional and national leader in the music education field, serving as president of the Ohio Music Education Association, which awarded him a Distinguished Service Award in 1993. He served as assistant director of the All-Ohio State Fair Band from 1970 to 1993 and was inducted into the Ohio State Fair Hall of Fame in 1996. Florence Zacks Melton, Distinguished Service Award Florence Zacks Melton is the inventor of a variety of practical products, including removable shoulder pads, foam-soled slippers and exercise and therapy equipment. She and her second husband, Samuel M. Melton, helped to establish Ohio State’s Melton Center for Jewish Studies in 1976. A native of Philadelphia, she quit school three months before graduation to help her family. In 1947, she and her first husband, Aaron Zacks, founded the R.G. Barry Corp., which today is a multimillion dollar business and the largest manufacturer of foam-soled slippers. She serves as consultant for product development and design. An advocate of Jewish education, Melton played a major role in the creation of the Melton Coalition for Creative Interaction, an organization that promotes cooperative, interactive educational projects among established Melton Centers at Ohio State, the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York and Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Melton is the founding member of the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education and the developer of the Florence Melton Adult Mini School through Jerusalem’s Hebrew University. Working with the National Council of Jewish Women, she developed a directory of services for teens called “Kids in Crisis.” She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the B’nai B’rith Woman of the Year and Outstanding Citizen awards, the Medal for Meritorious Service to Jewish Education from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and the Columbus YWCA Women of Achievement Award. She was inducted into the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame in 1994. # Contact: Tracy Turner, University Communications, (614)688-3682. [Submitted by: Von Vargas (vargas.12@osu.edu) Tue, 19 Aug 1997 09:59:41 -0400 (EDT)] All documents are the responsibility of their originator.