John Glenn: Commencement Speaker

May 3, 1999
CONTACT: Jeffrey Bendix
Director, Media Relations
(216) 368-6070 [email protected]

FORMER SEN. JOHN GLENN TO DELIVER CWRU COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS

Approximately 2,350 students to receive diplomas

Last commencement for CWRU President Agnar Pytte

Three Honorary Degrees to be Awarded

CLEVELAND -- John Glenn, former senator from Ohio, the first American astronaut to orbit the earth, and as a crew member of the shuttle Discovery the oldest person ever to go into space, will deliver the address at Case Western Reserve University's commencement convocation, which begins at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, May 16 in the Veale Convocation Center, 2132 Adelbert Road, on the CWRU campus.

First elected to the U.S. Senate in 1974, Glenn retired in 1998. At his 1992 re-election he became the first Ohio senator elected to four consecutive terms. He will receive an honorary doctor of science degree at the convocation.

Presiding over the CWRU ceremonies for the last time will be Agnar Pytte, the University's president since 1987. In that time he has signed more than 30,000 diplomas, representing about one-third of CWRU's living alumni. Pytte will retire June 30, to be succeeded by David Auston, provost of Rice University.

CWRU will award two other honorary degrees during the event. Sherman E. Lee, an alumnus who is a former director of the Cleveland Museum of Art and a former CWRU professor of art, will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree. The University will present an honorary doctor of science degree to David B. Scott, a former professor and dean of CWRU's School of Dentistry.

Glenn set another record this fall by becoming the oldest person in space when he joined the seven-person international crew of the space shuttle Discovery on its nine-day mission. At 77, Glenn was 16 years older than anyone who had been in space before. He served as a payload specialist on the space flight, participating in numerous tests to help researchers try to understand how periods of weightlessness lead astronauts to experience many symptoms similar to those of aging. These include a loss of bone density and muscle mass, problems with the sense of balance, erratic sleep cycles, and changes in the circulatory system which enlarge and weaken the heart.

Glenn's first space flight was February 20, 1962, during a five-hour flight in the one-man Mercury-Atlas 6 "Friendship 7" spacecraft -- the first time a manned American spacecraft orbited the Earth.

As a test pilot, Glenn set another major record -- in July 1957, he notched the first transcontinental flight at supersonic speed, flying from Los Angeles to New York in just under three and a half hours.

He attended Muskingum College from 1939-42 before leaving to enter the Naval Aviation Cadet Program, from which he graduated in 1943 and was commissioned in the Marine Corps. Glenn retired from the Marine Corps as a colonel in 1965 after a distinguished and decorated military career. He served as vice president and director of the Royal Crown Cola Co. from 1966-74.

He completed his B.Sc. in 1962. He has received honorary degrees from Muskingum and eight other colleges and universities.

Lee was director of the Cleveland Museum of Art from 1958-83, after serving as assistant director from 1956-57 and associate director from 1957-58. He joined the art museum in 1952 as curator of Oriental art, and held that post until the end of his directorship.

From 1962-83, Lee was a professor of art at CWRU. He has been an adjunct professor of art at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill since 1983. He received his Ph.D. in art history in 1941 from Western Reserve University. He earned his A.B. in 1938 and M.A. in 1939, both from American University.

A 1984 New York Times article stated that "Lee's philosophy, ... together with the comprehensiveness of its collection and its strong financial base, was instrumental in developing the institution into one of the handful of great American museums."

Scott joined CWRU's School of Dentistry in 1965 as the Thomas J. Hill Professor of Physical Biology. He served as the school's dean from 1969-75. Scott is now dean emeritus and Hill Professor emeritus.

Before joining CWRU, he served as a dental officer in the U.S. Public Health Service, retiring with a final rank of rear admiral. Following his CWRU tenure, he served as director of the National Institute of Dental Research in the National Institutes of Health from 1976-81. A pioneer in the use of the electron microscope to study mineralized tissues, Scott resolved the ultrastructural pathology of enamel crystal changes that occur during the formation of dental cavities.

Scott played a key role in the classic 15-year study of the effect of water fluoridation on cavity formation. He was the only dental officer to participate in all 15 examinations in this Grand Rapids, Michigan study, which showed that adding fluoride to the drinking water reduced cavities by more than 50 percent. He also used his forensic dentistry expertise to assist agencies such as the Cuyahoga County Coroner and FBI. Scott conducted detailed examinations of dental remains and compared them to dental records, to help confirm the identity of human remains.

Graduate and professional schools with guest speakers for commencement are:

Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing
Kate Ireland, Former CWRU trustee and former national chair of the Frontier Nursing Service

4 p.m., Church of the Covenant, 11205 Euclid Ave.

Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences
Louis Stokes, Former U.S. Representative from the 11th Congressional District and current faculty member of the Mandel School

11:30 a.m., The Temple-Tifereth Israel, 1855 Ansel Road

School of Dentistry
Harold C. Slavkin, Director, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research

2 p.m., Church of the Covenant, 11205 Euclid Ave.

School of Law
Richard North Patterson, Author; Law School alumnus. and member of Law School's visiting committee

2 p.m., The Temple-Tifereth Israel, 1855 Ansel Road

School of Medicine
John M. Eisenberg, M.D., Administrator, Agency for Health Care Policy and Research

1:30 p.m.,Veale Center, 2132 Adelbert Road

Weatherhead School of Management
Lee Fisher, President and Chief Executive Officer, Center for Families and Children, and former Attorney General, State of Ohio

4 p.m., Veale Center, 2132 Adelbert Road

-CWRU-