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Fox Cities Community Leaders, Acclaimed Historian, Noted Record Producer Receiving Honorary Degrees at Lawrence University’s 154th Commencement

Two well-known and widely admired Fox Cities community leaders, one of the country’s most celebrated scholars of American colonial history and the founder of the world’s largest contemporary blues record label will be recognized for their achievements with honorary degrees from Lawrence University Sunday, June 15 during the college’s 154th commencement.

Lawrence will award an honorary doctor of laws to Oscar Boldt, chairman of The Boldt Group, and his wife, community volunteer Patricia Boldt, an honorary doctor of humane letters to acclaimed Yale University historian Edmund Morgan and an honorary doctor of music to award-winning record producer Bruce Iglauer.

In addition, Lawrence will confer 279 bachelor’s degrees during commencement exercises, which begin at 10:30 a.m. in the Main Hall Green. A baccalaureate service, featuring Peter Fritzell, professor of English, will be held Saturday, June 14 at 11 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. Both events are free and open to the public.

All four honorary degree recipients, along with Lawrence President Richard Warch, Lawrence Board of Trustees Chair Jeffrey Riester and student representative Tetteh Otuteye, a senior from Accra, Ghana, will address the graduates during commencement.

Born and raised in Appleton, Oscar Boldt has spent more than 50 years with the family construction business. Under his leadership, first as chief operating officer, later as president, then as chief executive officer and finally as company chairman, Oscar J. Boldt Construction Co. has grown into the largest contracting and construction management firm in Wisconsin and one of the nation’s top 75 general contractors. The firm earned national recognition in 1995 after playing a key role in the rescue operations following the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

During his decades-long tenure as a business and civic leader, Oscar Boldt has served as president of the board of directors of the Appleton Medical Center, the Appleton Area Chamber of Commerce, the Appleton Family YMCA, the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region, Inc., and the Appleton Rotary Club.

He also has served as a member of the Lawrence Board of Trustees as well as the board of directors of M & I Bank, Valley Bank, Midwest Express Airlines, the Boy Scouts of America – Valley Council and Pierce Manufacturing, among others.

The recipient of Ernst & Young’s Master Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1991, Oscar Boldt was inducted as a charter member into the Appleton West High School Hall of Fame (Class of 1942) in 1999 and the following year he was inducted into Appleton’s Paper Industry International Hall of Fame. Earlier this year, he was honored as a member of the Wisconsin Business Hall of Fame. A 1948 graduate of the University of Wisconsin, his alma mater recognized him with its Distinguished Alumni Award in 1999.

Patricia Boldt, a 1948 graduate of Lawrence, has developed a reputation as a woman who never says “no” when it comes to getting involved in meaningful community projects.

Since moving to the Fox Cites to attend Lawrence in the mid-1940s from Ontonagon, Mich., Patricia Boldt has been a tireless advocate, volunteer and mentor for countless area organizations. She has served as president of the Infant Welfare Circle since 1974, spent six years (1970-76) as president of the board of the United Way as well as serving on the board of directors of the Salvation Army, the Fox Valley Symphony and the Girl Scouts.

In addition, she has devoted volunteer time with LEAVEN, Meals on Wheels, Friends of the Appleton Library, Mosquito Hill Nature Center and the Lawrence Alumni Board of Directors and Founders Club. From 1974-82, she served as a member of the St. Olaf College Board of Regents.

Her generous efforts have been recognized with numerous honors and awards, including 2002’s Paul and Elaine Groth Mentoring Award, Aid Association for Lutheran’s prestigious Walter Rugland Community Service Award in 1988, which she shared with her husband, Oscar, and the St. Olaf Regents Award in 1993.

Morgan, the Sterling Professor of History Emeritus at Yale, is widely considered one of America’s most distinguished historians. His award-winning body of work includes more than a dozen books, among them “Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America,” which won Columbia University’s Bancroft Prize, and “American Slavery, American Freedom,” which was honored with prizes from the Society of American Historians and the American Historical Association.

Two of his early books, “Birth of the Republic” (1956) and “The Puritan Dilemma” (1958) have been required reading in many school history courses for decades. Among Morgan’s other works are biographies of Ezra Stiles and Roger Williams and a book on George Washington.

His most recent book, “Benjamin Franklin,” which he wrote at the age of 86, has been critically heralded as one of the best short biographies of Franklin ever published. It was a finalist for the 2002 National Book Critics Circle Award.

In 2000, President Clinton awarded Morgan one of the most prestigious honors among his many awards: a National Humanities Medal. One of the country’s highest civilian honors, it recognizes distinguished individuals who have made “extraordinary contributions to American cultural life and thought.”

Morgan retired from the Yale faculty in 1986 after a 31-year teaching career. The honorary degree from Lawrence will be Morgan’s 10th honorary doctorate.

Iglauer, who earned a bachelor’s degree in theatre and drama from Lawrence in 1969, turned a passion for the blues and a burning desire to record his favorite band into the world’s largest and most successful contemporary blues recording company.

In 1971, at the age of 23, Iglauer single-handedly founded Alligator Records, an independent label based in his one-room Chicago apartment, with the intent to make one album, a recording of Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers, his favorite group. He recorded the group live in a studio over two nights, producing a direct-to-two-track master tape and paid to have 1000 copies of the album pressed.

Since that initial recording, Iglauer has helped Alligator Records produce more than 200 titles and win more awards than any other blues label. Alligator recordings have garnered 32 Grammy Award nominations, winning twice (1982 and 1986), 18 Indie Awards from the Association for Independent Music and three Grand Prix du Disque awards. Alligator and its artists also have captured a total of 72 W.C. Handy Blues Awards, the blues community’s highest honor.

Iglauer is the co-founder of Living Blues, America’s oldest blues magazine, and is a three-term president of the Blues Music Association, which he also founded. He has been honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Montreux Jazz Festival and was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1997. Last year, Iglauer was recognized by Chicago Magazine with its “Chicagoan of the Year” award.

State Teachers Cited as Outstanding Educators at Lawrence University Commencement

Paul Bucheger of Seymour and Robert Chesney of Cedarburg will be recognized as outstanding educators Sunday, June 15 by Lawrence University at the college’s 154th commencement.

Bucheger, at teacher at Seymour High School, and Chesney, who teaches at Ozaukee High School, will be presented annual Lawrence’s Outstanding Teaching in Wisconsin Award as part of the day’s celebration.

Established in 1985, the teaching award recognizes Wisconsin secondary school teachers for education excellence. Recipients are nominated by Lawrence seniors who attended high school in Wisconsin. They are selected on their abilities to communicate effectively, create a sense of excitement in the classroom, motivate their students to pursue academic excellence while showing a genuine concern for them in as well as outside the classroom.

Bucheger and Chesney, the 39th and 40th teachers honored in the program’s 19-year history, each will receive a certificate, a citation and a monetary award.

Bucheger has taught physics and mathematics at Seymour High School since 1987, developing a respected reputation for his classroom creativity and practical, real-life applications of often intimidating subject matter for his students.

In nominating him for the award, Lawrence senior Mark Schmoll cited Bucheger’s communication skills, his ability to generate excitement about the subject matter and his genuine concern for students.

“All students learn best in slightly different ways and Mr. Bucheger is second to none when it comes to realizing this,” Schmoll wrote in his nomination. “He always finds ways to communicate the curriculum to each individual in the class. Excitement in the classroom is not only generated by the numerous fun activities that students have the opportunity to participate in, but by Mr. Bucheger’s own excitement for the material and for teaching.”

In addition to his teaching duties, Bucheger has been a long-time volunteer coach with the Seymour Middle School wrestling program.

A native of Greenwood, Bucheger earned his bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics at the UW-Eau Claire and a master’s degree in education at Viterbo University.

Chesney began his teaching career in 1978 at Ozaukee High School where he teaches English, literary analysis, research writing and AP literature.

His innovative use of technology in his classes has earned Chesney numerous awards, including Time Warner’s Teaching Creatively with Cable Gold Award in 1999, 2001 and 2002. He also was named recipient of Time Warner’s Crystal Apple National Teacher Award in 1999 and 2001.

Chesney “motivates students with his flair for adding uncommon elements to the classroom,” senior Michelle Ansay wrote in nominating her former teacher for the award. “From the very early days of ‘the Web,’ Mr. Chesney has strongly encouraged responsible use of internet resources. After a few years of exploring such resources, he began to dabble in creating resources of his own and he brought his students with him on the journey.”

The faculty advisor to the school newspaper, Chesney was named the Journalism Advisor of the Year in 1999 by the Kettle Moraine Press Association. He serves as a coach of the school forensics team and is the author of numerous published articles in “Quill and Scroll” “Tech Learning” and “The Well Connected Educator,” among others.

Chesney earned his bachelor’s degree in English at the UW-Oshkosh and his master’s degree in English literature at Marquette University.

Lawrence University Geologist Elected Fellow of Geological Society

Lawrence University Professor of Geology Marcia Bjornerud has been elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. The prestigious honor is awarded to GSA members who have had at least eight years of professional experience in geology or related fields and who have made “significant contributions” to the science of geology.

Bjornerud was one of 50 Fellows elected at the GSA’s recent annual meeting. Only seven percent of GSA’s current 2,684 fellows are women. Fellowship status is accorded for life.

A specialist in tectonics and structural geology, Bjornerud joined the Lawrence faculty in 1995 and has served as the department chair since 1998. She also directs Lawrence’s environmental studies program.

In 2000, Bjornerud was awarded a Fulbright Scholars Program grant to conduct field research in Norway, investigating the role fluids play in fault zones at different crustal levels. She also has carried out field studies in areas of the Canadian high Arctic, as well as Ontario and northern Wisconsin. Her research integrates field observations with quantitative analysis and computer modeling.

The National Science Foundation named Bjornerud one of its “distinguished scholars” for its Visiting Professorships for Women Program in 1996 and she serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Geoscience Education.

Bjornerud is the author of the nontraditional introductory geology textbook “Guide to the Blue Planet,” which is based on the premise that all students, as earthlings, should know how their planet works. She also contributed the essay “Natural science, natural resources and the nature of Nature” to the book “The Earth Around Us,” which was published in March, 2000. She earned her Ph.D. in geology at the University of Wisconsin.

“This is a well-deserved honor for Marcia and Lawrence is obviously pleased to bask in the reflected glory of her election as a GSA Fellow,” said Lawrence President Richard Warch. “She has not only made significant contributions to the science of geology, but has provided exceptional leadership to the department here, as well as to our new and burgeoning program in environmental studies.”

Bjornerud’s election as a GSA Fellow continues Lawrence’s long-standing tradition of exceptional geologists. She becomes the fourth Lawrence faculty member to be recognized as a GSA Fellow, joining John Palmquist (1970), William Read (1952) and Rufus Bagg (1896).

Founded in 1888, the Geological Society of America is a scientific society with more than 17,500 members that fosters the human quest for understanding Earth, planets and life, catalyzes new scientific ways of thinking about natural systems and applies geoscience knowledge and insight to human needs and stewardship of the Earth.

Lawrence Geology Major Cited for Presentation at Institute Annual Meeting

Lawrence University senior Amy Garbowicz was honored with a “Best Paper Award” for her presentation at the recent 49th annual Institute on Lake Superior Geology in Iron Mountain, Mich.

A geology major from Three Lakes, Garbowicz was one of more than 20 student presenters, most of whom were graduate students from major research institutions, to deliver a technical paper at the Institute’s annual meeting. She was one of three students cited with a “best paper” award, which included a monetary prize of $150.

Garbowicz delivered a talk on her research on mineralized slip striae on ancient fault surfaces in rocks related to the one billion year-old Mid-continent Rift, a geological system similar to the East African Rift. She has been investigating the reasons why this rift stopped from splitting North America in two. Her research in northern Wisconsin provides new insights into the causes of copper mineralization in the Keweenaw peninsula, which is part of the Mid-continent Rift.

The Institute on Lake Superior Geology is a non-profit professional society that convenes once each year in either the United States or Canada, providing a forum for the exchange of geological ideas and scientific data and promoting better understanding of the Precambrian geology of the Lake Superior region.

UW Political Scientist Discusses Corruption in China in Lawrence University Address

Fourteen years to the day that the Chinese government used armed force against demonstrators in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, a scholar of contemporary China discusses the societal problems widespread corruption is causing the country and the difficult choices facing China’s leaders in an address at Lawrence University.

Melanie Manion, associate professor of affairs and associate director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin, presents “The Dilemma of Corruption in Mainland China: Saving the Country or Saving the Party?” Wednesday, June 4 at 4:30 p.m. in the Wriston Art Center auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

Despite more than two decades of reform efforts, Manion says China today ranks among the most corrupt countries in the world, with corruption reaching the highest level of government. According to Manion, Chinese leaders acknowledge the problem is more serious than at any time since 1949 when the communist assumed power and they view corruption as one of the greatest threats today to communist rule.

On the anniversary of the 1989 massacre that ended the biggest anticorruption protest in Chinese communist history, Manion will examine how Chinese leaders have tried, largely unsuccessfully, to deal with the dilemma of the Chinese expression: “Don’t fight corruption and the country dies. Truly fight corruption and the communist party dies!”

A member of the La Follette School faculty since 2000, Manion is the author of the forthcoming book, “Corruption by Design: Building Clean Government in Mainland China and Hong Kong” and the 1993 book “Retirement of Revolutionaries in China: Public Policies, Social Norms, Private Interests.”

A graduate of Montreal’s McGill University, Manion studied for two years at the University of Peking before earning her master’s degree at the University of London and her Ph.D. in political science at the University of Michigan.

Her visit is supported in part by the Henry M. Luce Foundation.

Lawrence University Pianist Wins Top Honors at State Competition

Lawrence University senior Rachel Bittner earned first prize honors Saturday, May 24 at the Wisconsin Music Teachers Association’s annual Badger Collegiate Piano Competition. It was the second straight year a Lawrence pianist was awarded the competition’s top prize.

In addition, Nicholas Towns and Erin Grier earned honorable mention recognition at the competition.

Conducted at Lawrence’s Memorial Chapel, the WMTA Badger Collegiate Competition featured 12 pianists from colleges and universities throughout Wisconsin. It was adjudicated by Fred Karpoff, chair of the keyboard department at Syracuse University.

Bittner, a senior from St. Paul, Minn., who earned honorable mention recognition in this same competition last year, received $200 for her winning performance. A student of Associate Professor Anthony Padilla’s piano studio, Bittner played Beethoven’s “Appassionata” Sonata, Op. 57, Prokofieff’s Sonata No. 7, Op. 83 and Chopin’s Scherzo No. 3. She will pursue graduate studies this fall in piano performance at the University of Wisconsin, where she will study with former Lawrence music professor Catherine Kautsky.

Towns, a senior from Princeton, Ill., and Grier, a junior from Woodside, Del., are also students of Padillla’s piano studio.

Cultural Differences of Brain Death Focus of Lawrence University Biomedical Ethics Lecture

Anthropologist Margaret Lock compares the concept of brain death in Japan and North America and how culture and politics have influenced its recognition and impacted organ transplantation in the final installment of Lawrence University’s 2002-2003 Edward F. Mielke Lecture Series in Biomedical Ethics.

Lock, associate professor in social studies in medicine at Montreal’s McGill University, presents “Twice Dead: Organ Transplants and the Reinvention of Death” Wednesday, May 28 at 7 p.m. in the Wriston Art Center auditorium on the Lawrence campus. The lecture is free and open to the public.

A specialist in the relationship between culture, technoscience, health and illness, Lock will examine the reasons behind widespread anxiety in Japan over the use of a brain-dead person as a resource for the procurement of organs, which until very recently had been illegal, including the traditional Japanese cultural relationship of the dead to the living and the process of dying as a social and familial event.

She will contrast the Japanese model with that found in North America where the widely agreed opinion that the clinical condition of a brain dead body is irreversible has allowed relatively easy utilitarian harvesting of organs for transplant.

Her address also will include discussion of a recently published position of several neurologists who argue that a brain dead body is not biologically dead and that death remains, as it must always be, elusive, subject only to socially constructed definitions designed to provide medical professionals with a sense of certainty and with legal protection.

Lock, who has taught in both the departments of social studies of medicine and anthropology at McGill for more than 25 years, was the 1997 recipient of the Wellcome Medal for research in medical anthropology from the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and was the 2002 winner of the Molson Prize in the Social Sciences and Humanities of the Canada Council for the Arts for her pioneering research in medical anthropology.

Lawrence University’s Jazz Studies Director Wins International Composition Commission

Lawrence University music professor Fred Sturm has been named the recipient of the 2003 ASCAP/IAJE Commission In Honor of Quincy Jones for Established Jazz Composers of International Prominence.

The commission, widely considered the world’s most prestigious jazz composition award for established composers, is presented by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in cooperation with the International Association of Jazz Educators.

Sturm, the director of jazz studies and improvisational music at Lawrence, will write a new composition in the coming months and conduct its premiere performed by an all-star ensemble of jazz musicians next January at the 2004 IAJE Conference in New York City. The commission prize includes a cash award of $7,500.

“The ASCAP/IAJE commission comes with no strings attached,” said Sturm. “It’s basically anything goes. It will be created completely from scratch, but I’m hoping to write something that is very cutting edge.”

In addition to his ASCAP jazz commission, Sturm was recently selected to work on a pair of upcoming recording projects.

In September, he travels to Frankfurt, Germany, where he will serve as arranger/conductor for the recording of “Bodacious Cowboys: 3 Decades of Steely Dan,” a tribute to one of rock music’s most creative and enduring ensembles. Sturm will conduct the Hessischer Rundfunk (Public Radio for the State of Hessen) Jazz Band for the project. Next March, the Lawrence University Jazz Ensemble will perform the same program in a campus concert.

Sturm also will serve as arranger/conductor for the 2004 BMG/Arista Records release of Brazilian pianist, singer and composer Eliane Elias. In addition to arranging all the works on the Elias project, Sturm will travel to London in November to conduct the London Symphony in a recording of the CD’s orchestral components.

“Any of these three projects alone would be cause for celebration,” Sturm said. “Put all three together and you have a combination of sheer exhilaration and terror. If I had the luxury of spreading these projects out over a period of a couple of years, that would be heaven, but when the phone rings and you’re asked to contribute, you say ‘YES!’

“Opportunities like this don’t always come along and you may only be asked once, so you have to take advantage of them when they present themselves. The coming months are going to be extremely busy, but equally exciting and rewarding.”

A 1998 Grammy Award nominee, Sturm directed the Lawrence jazz studies program from 1977-91 and served as professor and chair of jazz studies and contemporary media at the Eastman School of Music in New York from 1991-2002, directing the internationally acclaimed Eastman Jazz Ensemble, conducting the 70-piece Eastman Studio Orchestra and coordinating the Eastman jazz composition and arranging program. A 1973 Lawrence graduate, he returned to the Lawrence conservatory faculty in the fall of 2002.

In Sturm’s 25-year university teaching career, Downbeat Magazine has cited his ensembles as the finest in the United States and Canada eight times.

Professors Katz, Nordell Become First Honorary Faculty Members of Lawrence Chapter of Mortar Board

For the first time in the organization’s 81-year history, two faculty members were among the new inductees in Lawrence University’s chapter of Mortar Board.

Derek Katz, assistant professor music, and Karen Nordell, assistant professor of chemistry, were initiated recently as honorary members at the organization’s annual spring program. They are the first two Lawrence faculty members to hold honorary membership in Lawrence’s Iota chapter of Mortar Board, a national honor society for seniors that recognizes outstanding leadership, scholarship and service to the academic community.

“Although Lawrence has never selected Mortar Board honorary members before, the contributions Dr. Katz and Dr. Nordell make to this campus and the larger community could not go unrecognized by our current chapter,” said Sarah Krile, student president of Mortar Board. “We felt that both of them fully exemplify and promote the three ideals of Mortar Board, namely the pursuit of academic excellence, the encouragement and practice of leadership and commitment to service. They are dedicated to their students and are highly respected among their peers. It was with great enthusiasm that we nominated them for this honor.”

Katz, who joined the conservatory faculty in 2000, was cited for his role as an advisor to Mortar Board and Sinfonia, the professional music fraternity Phi Mu Alpha, his work in helping to organize music history lectures and forums, sharing his expertise and time with the Russian and Eastern European Club, his regular attendance at recitals and lectures of students, many of whom he serves as both a formal and informal advisor and his “widely recognized” commitment to academic excellence.

Nordell, who also joined the faculty in 2000, was recognized for her accessibilty to students outside of the classroom, her role in organizing a variety of outreach programs, including the new PRYSM (Partners Reaching Youth in Science and Mathematics) Program, which creates mentoring partnerships between Lawrence women undergraduates majoring in math and science and area eighth-grade girls, her leadership as the instigator in many Lawrence students presenting at their first undergraduate research conferences, her volunteer service as coach of the crew team as well as her role of “host Mom” for student dinners and outings for international students who cannot make it home for the holidays.

Noted Native American Author, Poet N. Scott Momaday Closes 2002-03 Convocation Series

Pulitzer Prize-winning Native American novelist, poet, playwright and painter N. Scott Momaday shares his Kiowa Indian perspective through his unique storytelling abilities Thursday, May 22 in the final Lawrence University convocation of the 2002-2003 series.

Momaday will speak at 11:10 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel and conduct a question-and-answer session at 2 p.m. in Riverview Lounge of the Lawrence Memorial Union. Both events are free and open to the public.

Hailed as “the dean of American Indian writers” by the New York Times, Momaday’s first novel, “House Made of Dawn,” — a story of a young American Indian struggling to reconcile the traditional ways of his people with the demands of the 20th century — earned him the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

The son of a father who painted and a mother who wrote children’s books, both of whom also taught school on Indian reservations in Oklahoma and Arizona, Momaday was exposed to the Kiowa traditions of his father’s family as well as the Navajo, Apache and Pueblo Indian cultures of the Southwest.

Spanning nearly four decades, Momaday’s impressive body of creative work includes the novel “The Way to Rainy Mountain,” a collection of Kiowa tales illustrated by his father, Al Momaday; the children’s book “Circle of Wonder: A Native American Christmas Story”; four collections of poems; two stage plays, including “Children of the Sun,” which premiered at the Kennedy Center in 1997 and 1999’s “In the Bear’s House,” a mixed media collection of paintings, dialogue, poems and poetic prose that chronicles his personal quest to understand the spirit of the wilderness embodied in the bear, which holds spiritual significance among the Kiowa Indians.

In addition, he has written for The New York Review of Books, Natural History and American West, his paintings and drawings have been exhibited throughout the United States and abroad and he has served as a commentator on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.”

A graduate of the University of New Mexico and Stanford University, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1963, Momaday in 1974 became the first professor to teach American literature at the University of Moscow. Since 1982, he has taught English and comparative literature at the University of Arizona, where he serves as Regents Professor of Humanities.

He is the founder and chairman of The Buffalo Trust, a non-profit foundation for the preservation and restoration of Native American culture and heritage, and serves as president of the American Indian Hall of Fame.

In 1971, Lawrence awarded Momaday an honorary Doctor of Literature degree, one of 12 honorary degrees he has received in his career.