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NEWS SERVICES |
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News Release
| For immediate use |
May 1, 2006 -- No. 234 |
Local angles: Chapel Hill; Cherokee; Durham; Hendersonville; Ithaca, N.Y.; and Newark, N.J.
Four to receive honorary degrees
at UNC-Chapel Hill's spring commencement
CHAPEL HILL - The first woman elected principal chief of the Eastern Band of
Cherokee Indians, a longtime benefactor of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, an award-winning poet and novelist, and one of the nation's
most prominent theologians will receive honorary degrees May 14 during UNC-Chapel
Hill's spring commencement.
The recipients are:
The ceremony, presided over by Chancellor James Moeser, will begin at 9:30
a.m. in Kenan Memorial Stadium. Wendy Kopp, founder and president of Teach for
America, will be the featured speaker. Teach for America recruits graduating
seniors to teach for two years in some of the nation's most disadvantaged grade
schools.
Dugan was born on the Cherokee reservation and was elected principal chief of
the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in 1995 - the first woman to serve as chief
of the 13,400-member group. After completing her term, she began work at one
of the tribal enterprises, Harrah's Cherokee Casino and Hotel, where she developed
and supervised a senior management training program. Currently, she focuses
on external relations and career development for the casino.
Dugan, who earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in education from Western
Carolina University, is recognized as a leader in American Indian education.
When the Bureau of Indian Affairs turned control of reservation schools over
to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Dugan became director of education
and undertook the creation of a new school system. She worked to integrate Cherokee
culture and language instruction throughout the curriculum, and this strategy
remains in effect today.
Among her honors, she has been named Distinguished Woman of North Carolina in
the field of education (1992) and Western Carolina University Alumna of the
Year (1997). She currently serves on the N.C. Tourism Board, the Blue Ridge
Heritage Area Board and the Cherokee Indian Hospital Board of Governors.
In 2003, she collaborated with Lynne Harlan, her assistant, to write "The
Cherokee," a book providing information about Cherokee history and art.
Kenan, a Durham native, is a 1959 UNC-Chapel Hill graduate in economics and
director of Flagler System Inc. He is a trustee of the William R.
Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust; director of the William R. Kenan Jr. Fund, the William
R. Kenan Jr. Fund for the Arts and the William R. Kenan Jr. Fund for Engineering,
Technology and Science; and a member of the William R. Kenan Jr. Fund for Ethics
Board of Directors.
He also is a trustee of the Duke Endowment and a trustee emeritus on the N.C.
School of the Arts' Board of Trustees.
The Kenan family has long supported UNC-Chapel Hill, establishing 38 trusts
and funds for professorships, lectureships, scholarships, instructional programs
and buildings on campus.
Thomas Stephen Kenan III supported UNC-Chapel Hill's Institute for the Arts
and Humanities from its earliest stages and is a member of its advisory board.
He also has generously supported Wilson Library and its Southern Historical
Collection, established scholarships for voice students in the department of
music and provided funding for Ackland Art Museum educational programs and acquisitions.
He has supported the renovation and performance program endowment of Memorial
Hall, and improvements to Coker Arboretum and the N.C. Botanical Garden; he
was instrumental in the current restoration of the Campus Y building and the
planned renovation of Gerrard Hall.
Kenan's honors include UNC-Chapel Hill's Order of the Golden Fleece (1990),
William Richardson Davie Award (1995) and General Alumni Association's Distinguished
Service Medal (1996), and the North Carolina Award for Public Service (1997).
Morgan, a Hendersonville native, is a 1965 UNC-Chapel Hill English graduate
and received his master of fine arts degree from UNC-Greensboro. He is author
of 10 books of poetry, five novels and several collections of short stories.
He has been a member of the Cornell faculty since 1971.
Morgan, whose poetry is inspired by the people and sights of the North Carolina
mountains, has been called the "poet laureate of Appalachia."
One of Morgan's most celebrated novels, "Gap Creek," received the
Southern Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in 2000 and was a selection of
Oprah's Book Club.
Morgan's additional awards and honors include four National Endowment for the
Arts Fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio
Fellowship, the North Carolina Award for Literature, the James G. Hanes Prize
for Poetry from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, the Jacaranda Review Fiction
Prize and inclusion in "New Stories from the South" and "Prize
Stories: The O. Henry Awards."
Morgan has been a visiting writing professor at Davidson College and Appalachian
State University and a visiting writer at Duke, East Carolina and Furman universities.
Spong, a 1952 UNC-Chapel Hill graduate in philosophy and Charlotte native, received
his master of divinity degree from Virginia Theological Seminary. He served
for 24 years as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark (N.J.) before his
retirement.
Before serving as bishop, he had been rector of St. Joseph's Episcopal Church
in Durham (and chaplain to graduate students at Duke University), as well as
rector of churches in Tarboro and Lynchburg and Richmond, Va.
He has written 15 books, which have been translated into nine other languages
and have sold more than 1 million copies in English. His current weekly column
on the Web has a readership estimated at 100,000.
Spong is viewed as a central figure in the Episcopal conversation worldwide
on social, ecclesiastical and moral issues. His first speech in the House of
Bishops was in support of the ordination of women, and he supports the full
inclusion of gay and lesbian people in the life and ministry of the church.
His academic appointments include Quatercentenary Scholar at Emmanuel College
of Cambridge University, scholar-in-residence at Christ Church College of the
University of Oxford and William Beldon Noble Lecturer at Harvard University.
Spong has given lectures at universities and conferences and churches in North
America, Asia, Europe and the South Pacific.
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Related links:
http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/nov05/comspeaker06110705.htm
http://www.unc.edu/commencement
Photo URLs:
http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/event/commencement/2006/dugan_joyce.JPG
http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/event/commencement/2006/kenan_thomas_III.jpg
http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/event/commencement/2006/morgan_robert.jpg
http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/event/commencement/2006/spong_john.JPG
Contact: News Services staff, (919) 962-2091
