Three Honorary Degrees to Be Awarded By UMass Amherst at Commencement Ceremonies May 27-28
May 5, 2006
| Contact: | Patrick J. Callahan 413/545-0444 |
AMHERST, Mass. – The University of Massachusetts Amherst will award three honorary degrees during its undergraduate, graduate and Stockbridge School commencement ceremonies May 27-28.
At the undergraduate ceremony May 28, alumnus and blues musician Taj Mahal (Henry St. Claire Fredericks) will receive an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree. On May 27 at the Graduate School Commencement, alumna Marie V. McDemmond will receive an honorary Doctor of Public Service degree. Also on May 27 at the Stockbridge School commencement, alumnus Sherwood A. Moore will receive an honorary Doctor of Science degree.
BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILES
Taj Mahal, born Henry St. Claire Fredericks in New York’s Harlem on May 17, 1942, grew up in Springfield, Mass., in a home filled with music. His father was a jazz pianist, composer and arranger of Caribbean descent, and his mother, a schoolteacher from South Carolina, was an accomplished gospel singer. His parents encouraged their children to develop pride in and respect for their heritage, yet his first formal study of music came in the form of classical piano lessons. Two years of that convinced him that “I had my own concept of how I wanted to play.” He went on to learn clarinet, trombone and harmonica, and to sing. When an accomplished guitarist, Lynnwood Perry, moved next door, Taj Mahal borrowed his stepfather’s guitar and took inspiration from Perry’s mastery of a broad range of blues styles.
After attending Springfield schools, Taj Mahal earned an associate’s degree in animal science in 1963 from the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at UMass Amherst. While at UMass Amherst he played with a popular party band, the Elektras and began assuming the identity of “Taj Mahal.” In 1964, he traveled to Los Angeles and became part of The Rising Sons, a group that opened for such acts as Otis Redding, The Temptations, and Martha and the Vandellas. He also met and played with such stellar bluesmen as Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and Lightnin’ Hopkins. Taj Mahal went on to produce three seminal albums in a row: Taj Mahal (1967), The Natch’l Blues (1968) and Giant Steps/De Old Folks at Home (1969). They were marked by the restlessly expanding eclecticism that he has exercised ever since, including forays into movie soundtracks, children’s recordings, and collaborations with a wide array of musicians from traditions the world over. Taj Mahal has earned nine Grammy Awards and has his own independent record label, Kandu Records. He was voted the official blues artist of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts earlier this year.
Marie V. McDemmond served as president of Norfolk State University, Virginia’s largest historically black university, from 1997-2005. During her tenure she found the school $6.5 million in debt, but swiftly made budget cuts, then secured a $4.1 million bailout from the state and paid it back two years early. She oversaw the creation of Norfolk State’s first major private fundraising campaign, pushed for multimillion-dollar increases in state funding, and planned a high-tech entrepreneurial program for the school. That capped off a dynamic, groundbreaking career in academic administration.
Along the way, McDemmond earned a doctorate in education from UMass Amherst in 1985. She was associate vice chancellor for administration and finance and budget director at UMass Amherst from 1980-84. McDemmond was also director of finance for the 15 community colleges in Massachusetts from 1979-80.
McDemmond overcame much to rise so high. Both her parents died when she was a child and she was raised by relatives in New Orleans. After attending Xavier University in New Orleans, she held a series of teaching and community-service jobs while earning a master’s degree from the University of New Orleans. After she earned her doctorate from UMass Amherst, she served in financial and teaching posts at Atlanta and Emory universities, the University of New Orleans, and Florida Atlantic University. She was vice president of administration and finance at Florida Atlantic before becoming president of Norfolk State.
Sherwood Moore is considered to be the greatest golf-course superintendent of our time. Moore pioneered the use of fairway contour mowing and triplex green mowers on fairways and prepared Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y., for three USGA championships. He has served as an articulate spokesman for the profession, written many articles on its practice, and mentored a number of the nation’s finest superintendents. Moore has also served as president of both the New Jersey and New York Metropolitan Golf Course Superintendent Associations.
A 1937 graduate of the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at what was then Massachusetts Agricultural College, Moore participated in the Winter School for Greenskeepers and Golf Course Foremen; the nation’s first program of its kind, it is still offered at UMass Amherst. He successively served as superintendent at the Lake Mohawk, Crestmont and Hollywood clubs, all in New Jersey, before moving on to Winged Foot and then to Captains, in Brewster, Massachusetts. Moore has received the Old Tom Morris Award, whose other recipients include such luminaries as Gerald Ford, Bob Hope and Jack Nicklaus. Now retired, Moore lives in Brewster with his wife, Marie.
#245-06
High-resolution photos available upon request.
E-mail story to a friend 
Printer-friendly version
