University of Idaho Announces 2007 Commencement Details for Statewide Celebrations
Friday, April 6 2007
MOSCOW, Idaho -- Approximately 1,724 students are eligible for graduation from the University of Idaho this May, including 1,139 baccalaureate degrees, 102 law degrees, 69 doctoral degrees, 42 specialist degrees and 372 master’s degrees. Final graduation numbers will be available following the semester's end. Commencement ceremonies will be held at the university's four main locations around the state. COEUR D'ALENE University of Idaho Coeur d'Alene will kick-off the annual commencement celebrations statewide with a ceremony Wednesday, May 2 at 7:30 p.m. in the Schuler Auditorium in Boswell Hall at North Idaho College. Degree candidates will be recognized individually and presented a diploma case as their name and degree are read. Those candidates participating in the ceremony are asked to meet at 7 p.m. to start line-up procedures. The commencement address will be given by University of Idaho Regent Sue Thilo of Coeur d'Alene. Thilo also serves on the board of the Idaho Youth Ranch, TESH Inc. – a non-profit organization in Coeur d'Alene, which provides programs and services that offer independent living opportunities for individuals with disabilities, and the North Idaho College Foundation. She is actively involved with School District 271, including her service on the Board of the Excel Foundation that offers grants to public schools. Thilo's additional community involvement in Coeur d'Alene includes the Rotary, the Coeur d'Alene Area Chamber of Commerce, Junior Achievement and the United Way. The President's Medallion will be given to Anna Pearce, known widely by her stage name – Patty Duke. An Academy Award winning actress, past president of the Screen Actors Guild and best-selling author, Pearce has been delighting and challenging audiences for more than 40 years with her work in movies and on television. Since the publication of her autobiography, "Call Me Anna" and her second book "A Brilliant Madness," she has made it her life work to talk openly about her battle and victory over bipolar disease. The President's Office will host a reception immediately following the ceremony. Friends, family, and faculty are invited to join in congratulating the new graduates. Light refreshments will be served. IDAHO FALLS University of Idaho Idaho Falls will honor degree candidates Thursday, May 3 at 7:30 p.m. at the Willard Arts Center Colonial Theatre. Degree candidates will be recognized individually and presented a diploma case as their name and degree are read. Those candidates participating in the ceremony are asked to meet at 7 p.m. to start line-up procedures. Harold Blackman, deputy assistant laboratory director of the Science and Technology Directorate at Idaho National Laboratory, will provide the commencement address. He is involved in some of the nation’s most pressing energy issues, including developing America’s alternative fuels and energy systems, advanced energy storage, hydrogen economy and transportation systems, closing the nuclear fuel cycle, critical energy infrastructure and water resources, and environmental consequences of energy development and use. Blackman is a fellow of the Human Factors Society, and a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Psychological Association. William "Bill" Holden '58 will receive the President's Medallion. For nearly 50 years at his home in southeast Idaho, Holden has been developing one of the most complete and organized collection of Vandal football history and memorabilia ever collected. The collection is as much about his life as it is about Vandal athletics and the preservation of tradition. The President's Office will host a reception immediately following the ceremony. Friends, family and faculty are invited to join in congratulating the new graduates. Light refreshments will be served. BOISE University of Idaho Boise will honor degree candidates at its 12th commencement ceremony Monday, May 7 at 7:30 p.m. at the Boise Centre on the Grove. Degree candidates will be recognized individually and presented a diploma case as their name and degree are read. Those candidates participating in the ceremony are asked to meet at the Boise Centre on the Grove at 6:30 p.m. to start line-up procedures. Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden will present the commencement address. Wasden is an 18-year veteran of the Office of the Attorney General, previously serving as chief of staff to the Attorney General, deputy chief of staff and as a deputy attorney general representing the Idaho State Tax Commission. He is a founding member and past chairman of the Government and Public Lawyers Section of the Idaho State Bar. Wasden is the chair of the Conference of Western Attorneys General and president-elect of the National Association of Attorneys General. He received his law degree from the University of Idaho. The Idaho National Guard servicemen and women will receive the President’s Medallion for their exceptional service to the state and nation. Maj. Gen. Lawrence Lafrenz, the Commanding General of Idaho's National Guard, will receive the medallion on their behalf. The President's Office will host a reception immediately following the ceremony. Friends, family and faculty are invited to join in congratulating the new graduates. Light refreshments will be served. MOSCOW The University of Idaho's main commencement ceremony in Moscow will take place Saturday, May 12 at 9:30 a.m. at the Kibbie-ASUI Activity Center. All degree candidates participating in the ceremony and faculty members, in their regalia, will meet at the Administration Lawn at 7:45 a.m. to form a procession to the Kibbie-ASUI Activity Center. In case of inclement weather, students and faculty are instructed to come to the Administration Lawn for directions. Led by bagpipes, the procession will begin promptly at 8:30 a.m., moving down University Avenue to the Kibbie-ASUI Activity Center. The commencement address will be provided by Paul Risser, chair of the Research Cabinet at the University of Oklahoma at Norman. He previously served as the chancellor for the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education, overseeing 25 state colleges and universities. Under Risser, Oklahoma higher education experienced a period of record student enrollment, improved graduation rates and unprecedented success with the Oklahoma Legislature. He also served terms as president of Oregon State University and Miami University in Ohio. Risser has worked with more than 20 national scientific organizations and now chairs the Science Committee of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C., and the Board of Trustees of the Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, N.Y. The President's Medallion will be awarded to the Rev. Percy "Happy" Watkins, a fixture in Spokane’s African American community, who has served as the longtime pastor of the New Hope Baptist Church. Watkins also received the 2007 University of Idaho Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Service Award. The concession stand on the concourse of the Kibbie-ASUI Activity Center will be open for coffee and pastries before the ceremony. The Common Grounds coffee shop in the Idaho Commons also will be open for purchasing coffee and pastries throughout the day. College celebrations for the graduates, their friends, family and faculty will be held immediately following the ceremony at the following locations: Agricultural and Life Sciences: Agricultural Biotechnology Building Interaction Court and northwest lawn Art and Architecture: Prichard Art Gallery, 414 S. Main in downtown Moscow Business and Economics: J. A. Albertson Building First Floor Gallery Education: Physical Education Building Room 110 Engineering: Memorial Gym Letters, Arts and Social Sciences: Kibbie-ASUI Activity Center Natural Resources: Natural Resources Building West Lobby Science: Idaho Commons Shuttles from hotels will be available to attendees beginning at 7:45 a.m. Those parking on the east side of campus can access a shuttle to the Commons and the Kibbie-ASUI Activity Center. Following the commencement ceremony, shuttles will provide transportation to the individual college celebrations and will return to local hotels after these celebrations. Rayburn Street, immediately east of the Kibbie-ASUI Activity Center and the College of Law, will be closed to traffic. Additional disability parking will be provided for the event. College of Law The College of Law, the university's only First Professional degree program, will hold its own graduation and celebration Saturday, May 12 beginning at 3:30 p.m. in the Student Union Building Ballroom. The college's commencement address will be provided by Deborah Leff, president of the Public Welfare Foundation, a national foundation with assets of more than $500 million based in Washington, D.C. Leff has held a variety of leadership positions in the public, private and non-profit sectors, including director of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston; president and CEO of America’s Second Harvest; and president and member of the Board of Directors of the Chicago-based Joyce Foundation, a private, policy-oriented foundation with assets of $800 million. She has worked as senior producer at ABC News Nightline, ABC News World News Tonight, and ABC News 20/20; her coverage of domestic and international issues won numerous national awards, including the Emmy and the Dupont. Lucinda Weiss, a 1973 graduate, will receive the College of Law Faculty Award of Legal Merit. In 1974, she was elected prosecuting attorney in Bonner County; at the age of 24, she was one of the youngest prosecutors in the nation and only one of three women nationwide elected that year. In 1976, when she joined the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio, she was the first female lawyer in the tire industry and the first woman appointed to head the law department of a Goodyear subsidiary. She retired from Goodyear in 2004. Weiss is a recipient of the University of Idaho Alumni Association's Silver and Gold Award. A reception will follow the ceremony at the University Inn Best Western at 1516 Pullman Road in Moscow. Honorary Degree Recipients Former Idaho Gov. John V. Evans, Laird Noh and Rotchford L. "Rotchy" Barker will receive honorary doctor of administrative science degrees. Evans has devoted his career to government service. Immediately following his graduation from Stanford in 1951, he entered politics; he was elected to four terms in the Idaho Senate, served six years as mayor of Malad City, and was elected lieutenant governor and governor of Idaho. In 1987, he retired from politics and joined D.L. Evans Bank, founded by his grandfather, as president. Noh recently retired from the Idaho Senate after 24 years, with 22 of those years as chair of the Resources and Environment Committee. Prior to election to the Idaho Senate in 1980, Noh was active in leadership of the livestock industry at the local, state and national level. Today he serves as chairman of the Board of the Rocky Mountain Sheep Marketing Association and as a member of the Executive Committee of the Idaho Nature Conservancy. He holds a bachelor's degree in business and animal husbandry from the University of Idaho and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Chicago. Barker is the former director and honorary life member of the Chicago Board of Trade. During his career as a commodities and futures trader, Barker worked at stock exchanges in New York City and Chicago. He was the president and principal owner of Agra Trading, Inc. until the company was acquired in 1970 by Gill and Duffus, a U.K. holding company. He also has served as director of Agra Trading, Inc. and is on the board of directors of American Ecology, Colorado Beef, Inc. and Idaho Power. He received a degree in business administration from the University of Idaho. He is a member of the university's Alumni Association Hall of Fame and continues his life-long service to the university by providing current students with business and trading expertise. Alumni Hall of Fame Inductees D. John Thornton, Kirby Dyess, Sharlene Gage and Keith Riffle will be inducted into the Alumni Hall of Fame. Riffle of McCall and Bellevue, Wash., is a 1962 and ’63 graduate from the College of Business and Economics. He is owner and president of Northwest Satellite Network Investments, current president of the University of Idaho Foundation and a member of the Alumni Relations Board of Directors. Keith and his wife, Patricia ‘63, served on the Campaign for Idaho steering committee. He also volunteers time to other organizations, including Northwest Gift Child Association and the Seattle Youth Symphony. Gage, of Detroit, Mich., is a 1964 and ’66 graduate in mathematics. She spent more than three decades at the Ford Motor Company. Upon retirement in 1999, she held the position of manager of corporate finance within the employee cost analysis division. In her lifetime, Gage has devoted herself to a variety of community volunteer activities, including Goodwill Industries; the University of Idaho’s Martin Peace Institute and the YWCA. Dyess, of Beaverton, Ore., is a 1968 graduate in physics – one of the first women to earn a degree in physics from the University of Idaho. In 2003, she retired as corporate vice president and director of operations for Intel Capital after nearly 30 years of service. She is now leading her own investment group, Austin Capital Management, proving seed money to start-up companies such as Blue Water Technology. Thornton, of Boise, is a 1970 and ’73 graduate of the University of Idaho. He has developed a successful law, estate and wealth planning practice. His practice encompasses a broad range of estate and tax planning, corporate, partnership, post-mortem tax planning, valuation and tax controversy matters. He volunteers his time to numerous civic and charitable activities. Thornton was an active leader in the University of Idaho’s successful Campaign for Idaho. Additional commencement information is available online at the Registrar's Web page. Video copies of all 2007 University of Idaho commencement ceremonies can be ordered from the University of Idaho Video Production Center at
About the University of Idaho
The University of Idaho helps students to succeed and become leaders. Its land-grant mission furthers innovative scholarly and creative research to grow Idaho's economy and serve a statewide community. From its main campus in Moscow, Idaho, to 70 research and academic locations statewide, U-Idaho emphasizes real-world application as part of its student experience. U-Idaho combines the strength of a large university with the intimacy of small learning communities. It is home to the Vandals. For information, visit www.uidaho.edu.