Civil rights attorney,
defibrillator developer among honorary degree recipients
By Maggie Barrett. WFU News Service
May 16th, 2005
Wake Forest University awarded three honorary degrees
during its commencement ceremony May 16. The 9 a.m.
ceremony held on Thomas K. Hearn Jr. Plaza (the Quad)
featured golf legend and Wake Forest alumnus Arnold
Palmer as speaker.
Oliver White Hill, a civil rights attorney and Presidential
Medal of Honor recipient, was awarded an honorary
doctor of laws degree. Hill's 60-year career encompassed
landmark civil rights cases including those involving
desegregation on public transportation and the right
of black citizens to serve on juries and participate
in primary elections. His most notable case, Davis
v. Prince Edward County Schools, became part of the
Supreme Court's decision on Brown v. Board of Education.
Hill served as director of the Virginia chapter of
the NAACP for 20 years and in 1948, he became the
first black elected to the Richmond City Council since
the Reconstruction Era. Hill was unable to attend
the ceremony.
Dr. Bernard Lown, professor of cardiology emeritus
at Harvard School of Public Health, received an honorary
doctor of science degree. A pioneering cardiologist
who established the world's first coronary unit, Lown
is credited with inventing the defibrillator and introducing
the drug Lidocaine to control heartbeat irregularities.
In 1985, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts
in co-founding International Physicians for the Prevention
of Nuclear War (IPPNW). Lown addressed graduates of
the School of Medicine at their hooding ceremony May
15.
Wake Forest graduate Michael Dennis Piscal, president
and founder of the nonprofit organization Inner City
Education Foundation (ICEF), was given an honorary
doctor of humanities degree. Under the umbrella of
ICEF, Piscal established View Park Preparatory Accelerated
Charter Schools in Los Angeles. The schools are cost-free,
college preparatory alternatives for the children
of working-class families in one of the worst performing
school districts in Los Angeles. Since Piscal began
ICEF, View Park Prep has expanded from one school
to three, with 70 to 80 percent of all students performing
above the national average on reading and mathematics
standardized tests.
The graduation ceremony was Thomas K. Hearn Jr.'s
last as president of Wake Forest. Hearn, one of the
longest serving university presidents in the nation,
will retire June 30 after 22 years as president of
the university. |
