Media Contact:
Mick Kulikowski, News Services, 919/515-3470

Nov. 23, 2004

Three to Receive Honorary Degrees from NC State at Commencement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Two leaders in protecting the environment and a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer will receive honorary degrees from North Carolina State University during fall commencement on Wednesday, Dec. 15, at the RBC Center in Raleigh. Commencement ceremonies will begin at 9 a.m.

R. Scott Wallinger, retired senior vice president at MeadWestvaco Corporation and a champion of sustainable development; Richard Benedick, former United States ambassador and a principal architect of a major treaty protecting the atmosphere; and Robert Ward, an internationally renowned composer, will receive honorary degrees on behalf of NC State from Interim Chancellor Robert Barnhardt.

A 1960 graduate of NC State, Wallinger has worked tirelessly to promote sustainable forestry. He is a founding director of the National Commission on Science for Sustainable Forestry, and co-leader of The Forests Dialogue, an international group representing industry, nongovernmental organizations and forest owners that uses dialogue to break impasses on critical forest issues.

Early in his professional career, Wallinger pioneered a program that provided thousands of private forest landowners in the Southeast with the advice they needed to make informed decisions about their land. Building on that program, he led the forest industry in the effort to establish the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, which commits every member company to implement sustainability practices on their own lands.

Benedick is a major figure in global environmental affairs and career diplomat who has served in Iran, Pakistan, France, Germany and Greece. He is senior advisor at Battelle Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and president of the National Council for Science and the Environment, an organization of more than 500 universities, scientific societies, industry and civic groups dedicated to improving the scientific basis for environmental decision-making.

He was chief negotiator and a principal architect of the historic Montreal Protocol to protect the stratospheric ozone layer, and has served as special advisor to secretaries-general of United Nations conferences on environment, development and population issues. His book “Ozone Diplomacy: New Directions in Safeguarding the Planet,” was selected for an anthology of 20th century environmental classics. In 2002, he was elected to the American Academy of Diplomacy, an association of 100 former cabinet secretaries, ambassadors and statesmen who have made notable contributions to American foreign policy.

Ward was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1962 for his opera “The Crucible,” which was based on the Arthur Miller play. He was Mary Duke Biddle Professor and is now professor emeritus at Duke University. Prior to that, he served as chancellor of the N.C. School of the Arts; vice president and managing editor of Galaxy Music Corporation and Highgate Press; director of the Third Street Music School Settlement, and as faculty member and assistant president of the Juliard School of Music.

Ward has received numerous accolades in his career, including election to the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the National Academy of Arts and Letters, the New York Music Critics Circle Citation Award, and three Guggenheim fellowships.

For more information about NC State’s fall 2004 commencement activities click here.

- kulikowski -