Six Honorary Degrees to Be Awarded By UMass Amherst at Commencement Ceremonies

May 13, 2008

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Patrick J. Callahan 413/545-0444

Four to receive Distinguished Achievement Awards

AMHERST, Mass. – The University of Massachusetts Amherst will award six honorary degrees during its undergraduate and graduate commencement ceremonies May 23-24.

At the Undergraduate Commencement at Warren P. McGuirk Alumni Stadium on Saturday, May 24, alumnus and actor Bill Pullman will receive an honorary doctor of fine arts degree and Charles Feldberg, an alumnus and retired multinational food executive, will receive an honorary doctor of science degree. Distinguished Achievement Awards will be given to alumna Dorothy D. Gavin and her husband, Joseph G. Gavin, Jr., alumnus Michael R. Haley, Jr., and alumnus Edward P. Marram.

At the Graduate Commencement on Friday, May 23, alumnus David Pimental, emeritus professor of insect ecology and agricultural sciences at Cornell University, will receive an honorary doctor of science degree; Peter James Tolan, actor, film writer, producer and director and television writer will receive a doctor of fine arts degree, and songwriters Alan and Marilyn Bergman will receive honorary doctor of fine arts degrees.


BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILES

Charles Feldberg, in his 35 years at Bestfoods, the multinational manufacturer of consumer food products, has become known as one of the top leaders in food science and marketing. At plants in 63 countries, Bestfoods produces well-known products, including Hellmann’s mayonnaise, Mazola oil and Skippy peanut butter. During a career that included both scientific and business positions with multinational responsibility, Feldberg rose to become Bestfoods’ vice president for health, safety and quality assurance. He was responsible for implementing standards for food quality, safety and regulatory compliance for company operations worldwide, as well as for worker health, safety and security.

Feldberg was elected a fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists in 1992. For more than 25 years he was an adviser to the United Nations’ food standards program. He has also served as senior adviser on scientific affairs (including food safety and regulatory issues) for the Grocery Manufacturers of America and as an adjunct professor of marketing at C.W. Post College of Long Island University. Feldberg’s support for the food science program at UMass Amherst has been deep and enduring, and includes long service as a member and the founding chair of its alumni advisory board.


William Pullman has appeared in five dozen films in all sorts of cinematic contexts: comedies—be they goofy (Cold Feet, Sibling Rivalry), farcical (Ruthless People), or romantic (Sleepless in Seattle, While You Were Sleeping)—as well as dramas (The Accidental Tourist), action films (Independence Day), thrillers (Malice), neo-noirs (Last Seduction, Red Rock West), horror films (The Grudge), westerns (Wyatt Earp) and the quirkily unclassifiable (Igby Goes Down). His admirers also recognize Pullman’s willingness to take on—and not infrequently steal the show in—supporting roles.

Less well known is how accomplished he is in other realms, especially theater. Pullman is an inspired and innovative director (and earned an M.F.A. in directing at UMass Amherst). In teaching theater at Montana State University at Bozeman and elsewhere, he has helped launch several distinguished careers. Pullman is one of the outstanding theater actors of our time and is widely rated as the finest living interpreter of the work of Edward Albee. He has also ventured into playwriting (Expedition 6) and film direction (The Virginian). Pullman has been an ambassador for the Multiple Sclerosis Society since 1998, serves on the board of the Cornerstone Theater Company, and has helped facilitate health programs in Hornell, N.Y., his hometown.


For 52 years the elegant craftsmanship of Alan and Marilyn Bergman has sustained the tradition of what is often called the Great American Songbook. The Bergmans’ professional standing is reflected in their list of musical collaborators, which includes Michel Legrand, Marvin Hamlisch, Dave Grusin, Cy Coleman, Henry Mancini, Johnny Mandel, John Williams, Quincy Jones and James Newton Howard. Their signature songs include Nice ’n’ Easy for Frank Sinatra, In the Heat of the Night for Ray Charles, and That Face for Fred Astaire. Their list of Oscar, Emmy and Golden Globe nominations is extensive.

The Bergmans’ television work includes the theme songs for Maude, Good Times, Alice, Brooklyn Bridge and In the Heat of the Night. In 2001, they collaborated with Cy Coleman on Portraits in Jazz: A Gallery of Songs, a song cycle commissioned by the Kennedy Center; after successful runs in Washington and Los Angeles it is now under the title Up Close and Musical, being prepared for Broadway. They are also working on a musical, The Man Who Was Magic, based on a Paul Gallico book. Marilyn Bergman is president and chairman of the board of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Alan Bergman serves on the Library of Congress National Film Preservation Board. Both Bergmans are on the executive committee of the Music Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.


David Pimentel has pursued a lifetime of scientific research in such areas as basic population ecology, ecological and economic aspects of pest control, biological control, biotechnology, sustainable agriculture, land and water conservation, natural resource management and environmental policy. He is internationally recognized as an authority on interactions between humans and the environment. He urges policy makers to “consider the future while there is still time to make meaningful changes” to enhance sustainability, ensure the food supply and create innovative technology for energy production.

A professor emeritus of ecology and agricultural science at Cornell University, Pimentel is a prolific author. His two dozen books include The Pesticide Question, which explains that while modern agriculture cannot completely do without synthetic chemicals. U.S. pesticide use might be reduced by at least 35 percent without reducing crop yields, and Food, Energy and Society, which points the way toward achieving the necessary balance between basic human needs and environmental resources. Pimentel has also written some 600 scientific articles and served on committees for the National Academy of Sciences, the President’s Science Advisory Council, the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress, the U.S. State Department and the U.S. departments of Agriculture, Energy, and Health, Education and Welfare. After receiving his bachelor’s degree here in 1948, Pimentel earned a Ph.D. from Cornell in 1951 and did postdoctoral work at Oxford University and the University of Chicago.


Peter James Tolan has produced some of the brightest, most adroit comedy in the past three decades in theater or on the small or large screen. While at UMass Amherst in the late 1970s, Tolan, by his own admission, sampled “every major but animal husbandry.” Although he did not complete his degree here, he made a name for himself writing and producing spoof musical comedies about campus life (one being Southwest-Side Story). He went on to act and write as a member of Dudley Rigg’s Brave New Workshop in Minneapolis and to write a series of well-received one-act plays in New York. He then moved to Los Angeles, and soon found success in television and film.

As a television writer and producer, Tolan’s credits include Murphy Brown (for which he won an Emmy), Home Improvement, Ellen and The Larry Sanders Show, the last of which garnered him six Cable ACE awards, an Emmy, and a Peabody Award. He also created, wrote and was executive producer for the Denis Leary vehicle The Job and does likewise for the current Leary hit, Rescue Me. Tolan’s film work includes writing screenplays for Just Like Heaven, Analyze This, Analyze That, America’s Sweethearts, My Fellow Americans, Bedazzled, The Smoker and Finding Amanda, which was recently screened as part of the Tribeca Film Festival, marks Tolan’s debut as a director.


For many years Dorothy D. and Joseph G. Gavin Jr. have made significant and lasting contributions to UMass Amherst and have applied their talents to an astonishing variety of its endeavors. After graduating in 1943 from what was then Massachusetts State College, Dorothy Dunklee married Joseph Gavin and they raised their three children. During that time she served as financial secretary of the Congregational Church in Huntington, Long Island, where they lived for nearly 50 years. Her loyalty to her alma mater was evident early: she is a charter member of both the Alumni Association and the Chancellor’s Council.

The Gavins moved to South Amherst in 1995, and created an endowment, the Edna Skinner Legacy Fund, to establish the Center for Research on Families. A second endowment established the Tay Gavin Erickson Lecture Series, named for their late daughter, which brings nationally recognized family research speakers to campus. The Gavins have also supported the Center for Sports Nutrition, the Athletics Association, the College of Engineering’s Wind Turbine Project, and a host of other campus initiatives in the sciences, humanities, and arts.

Dorothy serves on the board of directors of the UMass Amherst Foundation, is a Friend of the School of Public Health and Health Sciences, continues on the Alumni Association and Chancellor’s Council, is a three-time gift coordinator for class reunions, and has served on the UMass Time Capsule Committee. Joseph has frequently counseled the College of Engineering, served on its advisory board, and taken part in many academic and development events. He has been a Friend of the Libraries and of the College of Public Health and Health Sciences, a member of the William Clark Society, and a campus ambassador. Joseph Gavin’s 39 years at Grumman Aircraft included a decade as director of the Apollo lunar module program and nine years as president and chief operating officer. He is a recipient of NASA’s Distinguished Public Medal and an honored member of several academies and professional societies.


Michael R. Haley, Jr., is a versatile and much-loved figure in the world of cinema and television filmmaking. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in 1965, and working on the construction of the Southwest housing complex, Haley studied at the University of Grenada in Spain, where he received a certificate in Hispanic Studies and wrote and produced a play. Back in the U.S., he worked as a Vista volunteer, bartender, and part-time teacher before joining an avant-garde theater troupe that played in the Berkshires, Boston and New York. That led to a chance opportunity to act in his first film, the low-budget, best-forgotten Honeymoon Killers. He then worked in New York television, mostly as a production manager at Channel 13, New York’s public TV station. After completing the first Directors Guild of America Assistant Directors Training Program, he went on to work on what is now more than five dozen feature films and nearly 20 television movies, as everything from actor to assistant director to producer and even, just once, choreographer.

Directors with whom Haley has worked include Sidney Lumet, Sidney Pollock, Barry Levinson, Penny Marshall, Harold Ramis and Mike Nichols. He has acted alongside the likes of Sophia Loren, Christian Slater and John Travolta, and may best be remembered as the irate umpire in the classic “There is no crying in baseball” scene in A League of Their Own. His many awards include three for co-executive producing Angels in America: a Humanitas Award, a Directors Guild of America Award and an Emmy.


For three and a half decades Edward P. Marram has exercised his talent for high-technology entrepreneurship in ways that have led to solid advances in science, industry and medicine and helped foster a whole generation of new entrepreneurs. Marram is the founder, president and CEO of Geo-Centers Inc., which provides services and products for homeland-security preparedness and has been recognized twice by Inc. magazine as one of the nation’s fastest-growing privately held companies.

Marram was at Three Mile Island the day of the 1979 accident, helping direct the transportation of radioactive material out of the area. The first responders to the 9/11 World Trade Center attack were trained by Marram in handling weapons of mass destruction. He has been appointed twice to the Summer National Defense Science Board, crafting strategic recommendations for the Pentagon.

Marram is entrepreneur-in-residence at Babson College and has taught executive management courses in Venezuela, Germany, Belgium, France, Scotland, Israel and elsewhere. At UMass Amherst, he created a scholarship two decades ago and has served for more than 10 years on the advisory committee of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Marram has served on many public and private boards. He is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and the board of overseers for Children’s Hospital Boston, and is a former member of the Health and Educational Financial Authority of Massachusetts.

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