Lawrence Today magazine, Fall 2003
June 15, 2003: 279 members of what Board of Trustees Chair Jeffrey
Riester, ’70,
in opening remarks, called “Lawrence’s current ‘Best Class
Ever,’” received Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Music degrees
(sometimes both) at Commencement exercises held on the Main Hall Green.
In addition to Riester, featured speakers included four recipients of honorary degrees, President Warch, and senior class representative Tetteh Otuteye, from Accra, Ghana. Professor Emeritus of English Peter Fritzell was the principal speaker at Baccalaureate exercises on Saturday, June 14.
Honorary degrees
Two well-known and widely admired Fox Cities community leaders, one of the
country’s most celebrated scholars of American colonial history,
and the founder of the world’s largest contemporary Blues record
label were recognized at Commencement by the conferring of honorary degrees.
Oscar Boldt, chairman of The Boldt Group, and his wife, community volunteer Patricia Hamar Boldt, ’48, each received the honorary degree Doctor of Laws.
Born and raised in Appleton, Oscar Boldt has spent more than 50 years with the family construction business. Under his leadership, Oscar J. Boldt Construction Company has grown into the largest contracting and construction-management firm in Wisconsin and one of the nation’s top 75 general contractors. A member of the Lawrence Board of Trustees, he was the recipient of Ernst & Young’s Master Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1991 and was inducted into Appleton’s Paper Industry International Hall of Fame in 2000. Earlier this year, he was honored as a member of the Wisconsin Business Hall of Fame.
Patricia
Boldt is known as a woman who never says “no” when
it comes to getting involved in meaningful community projects. Since moving
to the Fox Cites to attend Lawrence in the mid-1940s from Ontonagon, Mich.,
she has been a tireless advocate, volunteer, and mentor for countless area
organizations, including the Infant Welfare Circle, United Way, the Salvation
Army, the Fox Valley Symphony, the Girl Scouts, Leaven, Meals on Wheels,
Friends of the Appleton Library, Mosquito Hill Nature Center, and the Lawrence
University
Alumni Association.
Her generous efforts have been recognized with numerous honors and awards,
including 2002’s Paul and Elaine Groth Mentoring Award; Aid Association
for Lutherans’ Walter Rugland Community Service Award, which she shared
with her husband; and the St. Olaf College Regents Award.
Edmund Morgan, Sterling Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University, is widely considered one of America’s most distinguished historians. His award-winning body of work includes more than a dozen books, among them Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America, which won Columbia University’s Bancroft Prize, and American Slavery, American Freedom, which was honored by the Society of American Historians and the American Historical Association.
Two of his early books, Birth of the Republic and The Puritan Dilemma, have been required reading in history courses for decades. Among his other works are biographies of Ezra Stiles and Roger Williams and a book on George Washington, and his most recent book, Benjamin Franklin, which he wrote at the age of 86, has been critically hailed as one of the best short biographies of Franklin ever published and was a finalist for the 2002 National Book Critics Circle Award. In 2000, President Clinton awarded Professor Morgan the National Humanities Medal, one of the country’s highest civilian honors.
Bruce Iglauer, who earned a bachelor’s degree in theatre and drama from Lawrence, turned a passion for the Blues and a burning desire to record his favorite band into the world’s largest and most successful contemporary Blues recording company.
In 1971, at the age of 23, Iglauer single-handedly founded Alligator Records, an independent label based in his one-room Chicago apartment, intending to make just one album, a recording of Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers. Since that initial recording, Iglauer has helped Alligator Records produce more than 200 titles and win more awards than any other Blues label. Alligator recordings have garnered 32 Grammy Award nominations, winning twice; 18 Indie Awards from the Association for Independent Music; and three Grand Prix du Disque awards. Alligator and its artists also have captured a total of 72 W.C. Handy Blues Awards, the Blues community’s highest honor.
Iglauer is co-founder of Living Blues, America’s oldest Blues magazine, and is a three-term president of the Blues Music Association, which he also founded. He has been honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Montreux Jazz Festival and was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1997. Last year, Iglauer was recognized by Chicago magazine with its Chicagoan of the Year Award.
Lawrence awards for teaching
Richard Sanerib, associate professor of mathematics, received Lawrence’s
Excellence in Teaching
Award, given annually to a faculty member for “outstanding
performance in the teaching process, including the quest to ensure that
students reach their full development as individuals, human beings, and
future leaders
of society.”
Randall McNeill, assistant professor of classics, was presented the Young Teacher Award in recognition of demonstrated excellence in the classroom and the promise of continued growth.
A specialist in logic, algebra, and topology, Sanerib joined the mathematics department in 1976. Among the subjects he teaches are calculus, foundations of algebra, and graph theory, and his research interests include the history of mathematics.
Sanerib, who received the Young Teacher Award in 1979, is one of only four faculty members in the 29-year history of the two awards to receive both teaching honors.
In presenting the award, President Warch hailed Sanerib as “the teacher parents hope their children will encounter in college.”
“You fill the classroom with an infectious passion for mathematics and then fill your office hours with the sage and thoughtful guidance of a caring mentor,” Warch said. “Outside the classroom, you are at perfectly scripted times coach, cheerleader, wise counselor, psychologist, quiet listener, and good friend. When students need to look into themselves, you hold up the mirror.”
A native of Boston, Sanerib earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics at St. Anselm’s College and his doctorate in mathematics at the University of Colorado.
McNeill,
who joined the classics department in 1999, is a specialist in
Latin poetry, particularly the work of Roman poet Horace, as well
as Greek
and
Roman history.
His
2001 book, Horace: Image, Identity, and Audience, examines
the techniques Horace used to depict his personal existence and
how those
techniques
influenced, and were adapted by, later Roman poets.
The president cited McNeill’s passion, energy, and enthusiasm
for the classical languages:
“Your classes are like the Lawrence hockey games you love to watch — fast and furious — and that’s why your students get caught up in all the excitement,” Warch said.
“Your lectures are stimulating, engaging, and entertaining, and they are complemented by comprehensive study guides that you faithfully and laboriously prepare for your students. Whether it’s a vexing grammatical challenge or an historical conundrum, your explanations are always down-to-earth and right on the mark.”
Born and raised in Chicago, McNeill earned a bachelor’s degree in classics at Harvard University and his Ph.D. in classics at Yale University.
Wisconsin teaching award
Paul
Bucheger of Seymour and Robert Chesney of Cedarburg
received Lawrence’s
2003 Outstanding Teaching in Wisconsin Award.
Established in 1985, the teaching award recognizes Wisconsin secondary schoolteachers for educational excellence. Recipients are nominated by Lawrence seniors who attended high school in Wisconsin and are selected on their abilities to communicate effectively, create a sense of excitement in the classroom, and motivate their students to pursue academic excellence while showing a genuine concern for them in as well as outside the classroom.
Bucheger and Chesney are the 39th and 40th teachers honored in the program’s 19-year history. Each received a certificate, a citation, and a monetary award.
Bucheger has taught physics and mathematics at Seymour since 1987, developing a reputation for his classroom creativity and practical, real-life applications of often intimidating subject matter for his students.
In nominating him for the award, Lawrence senior Mark Schmoll cited Bucheger’s communication skills, his ability to generate excitement about the subject matter, and his genuine concern for students.
“All students learn best in slightly different ways, and Mr. Bucheger is
second to none when it comes to realizing this,” Schmoll wrote in his nomination. “He
always finds ways to communicate the curriculum to each
individual in the class. Excitement in the classroom is generated not only by
the numerous fun activities
that students have the opportunity to participate in, but
by Mr. Bucheger’s
own excitement for the material and for teaching.”
In addition to his teaching duties, Bucheger has been
a long-time volunteer coach with the Seymour Middle
School
wrestling
program.
A native of Greenwood, Bucheger earned his bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics at the UW–Eau Claire and a master’s degree in education at Viterbo University.
Chesney began his teaching career in 1978 at Ozaukee High School, where he teaches English, literary analysis, research writing, and AP literature.
His innovative use of technology in his classes has earned numerous awards, including Time Warner’s Teaching Creatively with Cable Gold Award in 1999, 2001, and 2002. He also was named recipient of Time Warner’s Crystal Apple National Teacher Award in 1999 and 2001.
Chesney “motivates students with his flair for adding uncommon elements to the classroom,” senior Michelle Ansay wrote in nominating her former teacher for the award.
“From the very early days of the Web, Mr. Chesney has strongly encouraged responsible use of Internet resources. After a few years of exploring such resources, he began to dabble in creating resources of his own, and he brought his students with him on the journey.”
As faculty advisor to the school newspaper, Chesney was named the Journalism Advisor of the Year in 1999 by the Kettle Moraine Press Association. He serves as a coach of the school forensics team and is the author of numerous published articles in Quill and Scroll, Tech Learning, and The Well Connected Educator, among other publications. He earned his bachelor’s degree in English at the UW– Oshkosh and his master’s degree in English literature at Marquette University.