Contact: Macreena Doyle
Coordinator of News Services
St. Lawrence University
315-229-5587
[email protected]
CANTON - St. Lawrence University will hold its Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 23, at 10 a.m. on the Owen D. Young Library Quadrangle. The ceremony will be in Leithead Fieldhouse in the event of inclement weather.
Three honorary degrees and a North Country Citation will be awarded at Commencement. All four honored guests will speak. Diane DiPrima, poet and playwright of the "Beat" generation; Adirondack photographer Nathan Farb; and The Honorable John Fraser, until recently Canada's Ambassador for the Environment, will all receive honorary degrees. U. S. Representative John M. McHugh (R-Pierrepont Manor) will receive the 1999 North Country Citation.
DiPrima is a poet, essayist, dramatist, editor, teacher and publisher. In "The Beats," George Butterick wrote, "Among women of her generation, Diane DiPrima is the writer who by her life and work most embodies the definable patterns of the Beat Generation." Her "Selected Poems" was published in 1975; her autobiography, "Memoirs of a Beatnik," was published in 1998.
Farb is widely recognized as one of the premier outdoor photographers working today, and the Adirondacks have been one of the principal subjects of his photographs. His work appears regularly in The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Adirondack Life and Conde Nast Traveler, among other publications.
Former Speaker of the House of Commons in Canada, Fraser was appointed Ambassador for the Environment in 1994 and was awarded the Order of Canada in 1995. He is affiliated with many international environmental organizations, including the World Wildlife Fund Canada Nature of Tomorrow Campaign, the Biosphere Program, the Advisory Committee on Protection of the Sea and the International Institute for Sustainable Development. In 1981, he was the keynote speaker for the St. Lawrence University Canada-U.S. Acid Rain Seminar.
McHugh is serving his third term in the House of Representatives from the 24th Congressional District, which includes all of Clinton, Hamilton, Franklin, Fulton, Lewis, Jefferson, St. Lawrence and Oswego Counties in New York state, as well as parts of Herkimer and Essex Counties. He is a member of the Committees on National Security, Government Reform and Oversight and International Relations. St. Lawrence annually awards the North Country Citation to individuals from the region who, through their professional and volunteer endeavors, have improved the quality of life in the North Country.
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