Honorary degree recipients

Seven individuals will receive honorary degrees from the University of Massachusetts at Commencement ceremonies May 26-27

The honorary degree recipients are:

Ali A. Al-Shamlan, director general of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences, doctor of science;

Kelsey Grammer, award-winning actor, doctor of humane letters;

Marian L. Heard, University alumna and president and chief executive officer of the United Way of Massachusetts Bay, doctor of public service;

Stephen R. Levy, University alumnus and general partner of Levy Venture Partners, doctor of laws;

Terrence Murray, chairman and chief executive officer of FleetBoston Financial Corp., doctor of laws;

Florence Schorske Wald, founding board member of Hospice Inc., and former dean of the Yale University School of Nursing, doctor of science;

Harris Wofford, former head of the Corporation for National Service and previously U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, doctor of public service.

Al-Shamlan, Wald, and Wofford will receive their honorary degrees during the Graduate School Commencement Sat. May 26 at 10:30 a.m. in the William D. Mullins Memorial Center. Honorary degrees will be conferred on Grammer, Heard, Levy, and Murray during undergraduate ceremonies Sun. May 27 at 10 a.m. in Warren P. McGuirk Alumni Stadium. Grammer will deliver the main address at that event.

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Biographical Profiles of Honorary Degree Recipients

	Ali A. Al-Shamlan has been director general of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences since 1985. From 1988-92, he was Kuwait’s Minister of Higher Education. He joined Kuwait University in 1967 and was chairman of the geology department from 1975-78; assistant dean, faculty of sciences, 1978-82; and dean, faculty of sciences, 1982-84. He is a Founding Fellow of the Islamic Academy of Sciences. Al-Shamlan received an undergraduate geology degree from the University of Puget Sound, a master’s degree in geology from the University of Texas, and a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Kuwait.
	Kelsey Grammer has received three Emmy Awards for his portrayal of NBC’s popular Dr. Frasier Crane, and has been nominated for playing the character a total of 11 times in three different series, “Cheers,” “Wings,” and “Frasier.” He also won Golden Globe, Screen Actor’s Guild, American Comedy, and People’s Choice awards for the same role. Grammer can be seen in the recently released feature film, “Fifteen Minutes,” and he provided the voice for the prospector, Stinky Pete, in the animated film “Toy Story 2.” Grammer has also performed in classic works by Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw, including “Macbeth” and “Othello” on Broadway. His production company, Grammnet Productions, has numerous comedy and drama projects currently in production.
	Marian L. Heard has been president and chief executive officer of the United Way of Massachusetts Bay since 1992. Prior to assuming her current duties, Heard served for 17 years in various leadership posts at the United Way of Fairfield County, Conn., including as president and chief executive officer for three years. She recently completed her second term as national board chairman for the Points of Light Foundation, for which she was founding president and chief executive officer. In 1997, she was appointed by former President Bill Clinton to be chief executive officer of the Steering Committee of the Presidents’ Summit for America’s Future, led by Clinton and former President George Bush. Heard received a bachelor’s degree from the University in 1976. She also holds an associate’s degree from the University of Bridgeport and a master’s degree from Springfield College, as well as numerous honorary degrees.
	Stephen R. Levy is the general partner of Levy Venture Partners, a limited partnership that invests in early-stage ventures in the field of information and communications technologies. Levy spent most of his career at BBN Corp., a leading high-technology company founded in 1948. He was chief executive officer with BBN from 1976-94, steering its transformation from a small, Cambridge-based consulting, research, and development firm into a global products and services company employing more than 2,000 people. Levy retired as chairman from BBN in 1995, after which the company merged with GTE Corp., in 1997, and then with Verizon in 2000. Levy has served on numerous professional, public, and private corporate boards. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University in 1962, and was named the Isenberg School of Management’s 1998 Alumnus of the Year.
	Terrence Murray is chairman and chief executive officer of FleetBoston Financial Corp. He is also a director of the company, serving in that capacity since 1976. Murray joined FleetBoston in 1962. He served in several Fleet Bank-Rhode Island departments and was elected president of FleetBoston Financial Corp., and the bank in 1978, and named chairman, president, and chief executive officer in 1982. Murray is a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and a director of the Financial Services Roundtable. He also serves on the board of trustees of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and has received many awards for his community leadership.
	Florence Schorske Wald has been a member of the faculty at the Yale University School of Nursing since 1957, serving as dean of the school from 1958-68, and clinical professor of nursing there since 1980. Wald is a founding board member of Hospice Inc., in Branford, Conn., the first hospice program in the US A Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, she has published widely and earned many distinctions including the Founders Award from the National Hospice Association, the Distinguished Woman of Connecticut Award, and three honorary degrees. She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College, and received two master’s degrees from Yale.
	Harris Wofford was head of the Corporation for National Service from 1995-01, during which time he played a leading role in organizing the Presidents’ Summit for America’s Future. He was a US Senator from Pennsylvania from 1991-94. Earlier in his career, in 1961, as a member of the White House staff, Wofford helped to launch the Peace Corps, and during the 1970s, he formed and chaired a panel to study the idea of national service, which produced the landmark report “Youth and the Needs of the Nation.” In 1987, as Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Labor and Industry, he established and led the state’s Office of Citizen Service, which promoted school-based service-learning and youth corps. Wofford is a former president of the State University of New York at Old Westbury, and also of Bryn Mawr College. He is an alumnus of the University of Chicago, and the law schools at both Howard and Yale universities.

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