97-11-25 Eight to Receive Commencement Honors EIGHT RECEIVE SPECIAL COMMENCEMENT HONORS AT OHIO STATE COLUMBUS -- Eight professionals in the fields of politics, psychology, geography, business and higher education will be recognized with special honors during The Ohio State University’s autumn quarter commencement Dec. 12 in St. John Arena. Honorary doctorates will be presented to Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee, businessman John W. Berry, scientist E. Willard Miller, psychologist Walter Mischel and former ambassador Milton A. Wolf. The Distinguished Service Award will be presented to Judy Barker and J. Robert Warmbrod, and posthumously to Madison H. Scott. E. Gordon Gee, Doctor of Education E. Gordon Gee, the 11th president of Ohio State, is nationally known as a spokesman for higher education. He became Ohio State’s chief executive officer in September 1990 and will assume the presidency of Brown University on Jan. 1, 1998. Gee recently was elected chair of the Association of American Universities for a one-year term. He currently heads the Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities, a national panel of 25 current and former university presidents studying critical issues and reforms in higher education. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. During his tenure at Ohio State, Gee has overseen a comprehensive planning and restructuring effort aimed at positioning the university among the nation’s most highly regarded institutions of higher learning. He has traveled throughout Ohio and the nation, building support for the university and for higher education among alumni, public officials, educators, friends and news media. A native of Utah, he received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Utah in 1968 and a law degree and doctorate in education from Columbia University in 1971 and 1972, respectively. At Columbia, he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and Kellogg Fellow. He returned to the University of Utah, serving as assistant law dean, and in 1975 he joined the faculty of Brigham Young University as associate law dean and professor of law. In 1979 he was named dean of West Virginia University’s law school. He became one of the country’s youngest university chief administrators when he assumed the presidency of West Virginia University in 1981 at the age of 37. He became president of the University of Colorado in 1985. John W. Berry Sr., Doctor of Business Administration John W. Berry Sr., chair of Berry Investments Inc., Dayton, and president and trustee of the Loren M. Berry Foundation, was a member of The Ohio State University Board of Trustees from 1981 to 1990, serving as chair in 1989-90. During his tenure as an Ohio State trustee, Berry saw the university through its first $1 billion budget and the 1985-90 capital campaign, which raised $460 million in private gifts for university projects and programs. He currently serves on the university’s Business Advisory Council, The Ohio State University Foundation Board and the National Gifts Committee. He is honorary co-chair of the 1995-2000 University Campaign and is a member of the National Campaign Executive Committee. He received the university’s Distinguished Service Award in 1995. A Dayton native, Berry earned his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College. While serving in the U.S. Army, he attended Louisiana State University’s School of Engineering. In 1940, he began his career with L. M. Berry and Co., which pioneered the use of “yellow pages” for telephone directory advertising. He became president in 1963 and chair and chief executive officer in 1973. By 1986, when the firm was sold to BellSouth, it had grown to be the second-largest telephone directory advertising sales firm in the United States. Berry established the Berry Chair of New Technologies in Marketing in 1985. An auditorium and atrium in the new Fisher College of Business complex, now under construction, have been named for him in recognition of his support. E. Willard Miller, Doctor of Science E. Willard Miller, professor emeritus of geography and associate dean emeritus of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Pennsylvania State University, is the founder of the Pennsylvania Geographical Society. A 1942 doctoral graduate of Ohio State, Miller received his bachelor’s degree from Clarion University and his master’s degree from the University of Nebraska. He joined the Penn State faculty as creator and head of the Department of Geography in 1945. Under his leadership, it grew into one of the premier departments in the United States, ranking first in the nation in the 1995 National Research Council ratings. Miller was named assistant dean for resident instruction in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences in 1963 and associate dean in 1972. He was responsible for establishing an interdisciplinary major in earth sciences and a major in polymer science. A contributing editor to the Pennsylvania Geographer, Miller also played a key role in the founding of the American Society for Professional Geographers, serving as president when the group merged with the Association of American Geographers in 1948. He has received numerous awards and recognition for his work in geographic education, including a Distinguished Mentor Award from the National Council for Geographic Education and the Science Leadership Award from the Pennsylvania Academy of Sciences. He recently led a successful legislative effort to get geography back into the Pennsylvania public schools. Walter Mischel, Doctor of Science Walter Mischel, the Niven Professor of Humane Letters at Columbia University, is acknowledged by his peers as the preeminent psychologist in the field of personality research. His 1968 monograph, Personality and Assessment, challenged long- held beliefs in personality psychology and sparked new debate. A native of Vienna, Austria, Mischel moved to New York as a young boy when his family fled the Nazis. He earned his bachelor’s degree from New York University and his master’s degree from the College of the City of New York. He earned his doctoral degree in psychology in 1956 from The Ohio State University. After graduation, Mischel joined the faculty of the University of Colorado, and later served a four-year stint as assistant professor of social relations at Harvard University. In 1962, he joined the Stanford University faculty, becoming professor of psychology in 1966 and serving two terms as department chair. In 1983, he joined Columbia University as professor of psychology, serving as department chair from 1988 to 1991. He was named Niven Professor in 1994. Mischel has written seven books, including his popular textbook, Introduction to Personality, now in its fifth edition. He has received numerous awards, including the American Psychological Association (APA) Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award and the APA Distinguished Scientist Award. Milton A. Wolf, Doctor of Diplomacy Milton A. Wolf, chair of Milton A. Wolf Investors, an Ohio- based private investment firm, served as U.S. ambassador to Austria from 1977 to 1980. While ambassador, Wolf was the U.S. delegate to the United Nations Conference on Science and Technology in 1979, hosted the 1979 SALT II Summit in Vienna, and chaired the Fulbright Committee of Austria. He was the only sitting ambassador to receive Austria’s highest decoration, the Great Gold Medal of Honor with Sash. Long active in Jewish affairs, he is currently chair of the board and past president of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the overseas operational arm of the American Jewish community involved in relief, rescue and reconstruction programs in more than 50 countries. He is past president of the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland, a member of the board of governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel, and a national trustee of the United Jewish Appeal and the United Israel Appeal. He is the recipient of the Raoul Wallenberg International Humanitarian Award on behalf of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Community Federation’s Charles Eisenman Award. A former member of Ohio State’s Board of Trustees, serving as chair in 1995-96, Wolf earned his bachelor’s degree from Ohio State in 1948, a bachelor’s degree from Case Institute of Technology in 1954 and master’s and doctoral degrees from Case Western Reserve University in 1973 and 1993, respectively. Madison H. Scott, Distinguished Service Award During his lifetime, Madison H. Scott was a valued member of The Ohio State University community. A 1958 graduate of Ohio State, Scott joined the university’s staff as director of equal employment opportunity in the Office of Administrative Operations in 1968. Scott served in a variety of administrative positions, including that of the university’s first affirmative action officer, before being named vice president for personnel services in 1975, a post he held until 1990. He was named executive assistant to the president in 1990 and retired from the university in 1993 as vice president emeritus. From 1979 to 1993, he served as secretary to The Ohio State University Board of Trustees. He was a member of two university presidential search committees in 1971 and 1981, serving as secretary of the 1981 committee. Upon his retirement from Ohio State, Scott spent two years as executive assistant to the president of Texas Southern University. He died in June 1996. Throughout his career, Scott was dedicated to helping minority students advance through educational opportunities. He was the recipient of the Columbus Bar Association’s Liberty Bell Award, the Ohio State Department of Political Science Distinguished Alumnus Award and the Black Alumni Society’s Distinguished Alumni Award. Judy Barker, Distinguished Service Award The recently retired president of the Borden Foundation, Judy Barker was responsible for the company’s worldwide contribution program. She was also the vice president of social responsibility. She was the first woman to chair the Council of Better Business Bureau Foundation board of directors and to chair the Conference Board, an independent nonprofit research institution to study management and economics. Barker joined Borden in 1972, becoming administrator of the foundation the following year. She was named foundation president in 1983 and corporate vice president for social responsibility in 1990. She also served as vice president of Borden Chemicals and Plastics Limited Partnership, and vice president of the Borden Good Government Committee. A longtime friend of Ohio State, Barker served nine years as a University Hospitals board member. During her tenure, she was a member of the Nursing Task Force, the Strategic Planning Committee and the Administrative/Operations Committee. She serves as an adviser to the Wexner Center for the Arts Foundation’s Public Affairs Committee and is active in the Critical Difference for Women Program. Barker is a member of the board of directors of The College Fund/UNCF, Dillard University, Boys Choirs of Harlem, the Columbus Municipal Airport Authority and the Council for Ethics in Economics. She is a founding member of the Association of Black Foundation Executives and a member of the National Association for Female Executives, the YWCA of Central Ohio, the International Women’s Forum and the African American Women’s Leadership Institute. J. Robert Warmbrod, Distinguished Service Award J. Robert Warmbrod, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at Ohio State, was a professor in the Department of Agricultural Education from 1968 until his retirement in 1995. In 1989 he was named Presidential Professor, an honor given to one Ohio State faculty member each year who represents exceptional excellence in teaching, advising, research and service to the university. Warmbrod served as professor and chair of agricultural education from 1978 to 1986. Under his leadership, the department was recognized as the most outstanding department of agricultural education in the nation. Twice a recipient of the Ohio State Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching -- in 1972 and 1995 -- Warmbrod has advised 25 master’s and 48 doctoral candidates, many of whom are now in positions of academic leadership at land-grant institutions throughout the country. Warmbrod earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He earned his doctorate from the University of Illinois in Urbana, joining that university’s College of Education faculty in the Department of Vocational and Technical Education in 1962. He became a consultant to Ohio State’s Center for Vocational and Technical Education in 1967. Among his many awards are the Ohio Vocational Association’s Vocational Educator of the Year award, the American Association of Teacher Educators in Agriculture’s Outstanding Agricultural Educator Award, and the American Vocational Education Research Association’s Meritorious Service Award. # Contact: Tracy Turner, University Communications, (614)688-3682. [Submitted by: Von Vargas (vargas.12@osu.edu) Tue, 25 Nov 1997 10:16:28 -0500 (EST)] All documents are the responsibility of their originator.