Lawrence
Today magazine, Fall 2006
Emmy-winning television producer and director Catherine Tatge, ’72, and
businessman-turned-cultural-advocate Richard Franke were recognized for their
achievements and societal contributions by the presentation of honorary doctoral
degrees at Commencement on June 11.
A storyteller, and more
“The work of your documentary-production company has brought you
a well-deserved
reputation as a storyteller — and
a truth teller — of the highest order. Part teacher, part prophet,
part poet, and, always, fair-minded chronicler and critic of our times, you
have
allowed us, however briefly, to stand in
the presence of some of the greatest minds and most talented artists of the
age. Ideas and issues are your territory, a territory that you have explored
with courage and honesty.” — from the citation accompanying the
honorary degree Doctor of Fine Arts
As co-founder of New York City-based Tatge/Lasseur
Productions, Inc., Catherine
Tatge has earned a reputation as a leader in arts filmmaking for bringing
innovative, intellectual material to the screen,
including
works on creative genius, spiritual matters, and the human condition. She
has produced programming for the PBS series “American Masters,” for “Great
Performances,” and
for “Alive TV.”
Tatge has collaborated extensively with noted television journalist Bill
Moyers, including the seminal PBS series “Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth
with Bill Moyers,” for which she earned an Emmy award in 1988. She also
worked with Moyers on nearly a dozen other projects over the years, including
the hate trilogy “Beyond Hate,” “Facing Hate with Elie Wiesel,” and “Hate
on Trial”
and the 1996 public television series “Genesis: A Living Conversation.” In
2004, she explored the contrasting views of C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud in
the four-part PBS series “The Question of God.”
Her recent projects include “Breaking the Silence: Children’s Stories,” which
examines the effects of domestic violence on children; “Small Wonders,” a
series on the future of nanotechnology; and “The History and Future of
Democracy,” a four-part series hosted by author and Newsweek International editor Fareed Zakaria.
A partisan of the humanities
“It is something of a scandal that many people define the humanities
by
what they are not — i.e., ‘subjects that are not sciences’ — but,
in your time and in your city, you have done much to turn the spotlight of
institutional and public attention upon what the humanities are. As
you have put it, ‘Ideas matter…appreciation of the humanities
is essential to our lives.’” — from the citation accompanying
the honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters
Richard Franke had an eminently successful 40-year career as an investment
banker for the Chicago firm John Nuveen & Co., retiring in 1996 as chairman
and CEO. First as Nuveen’s
president and later as its CEO, he established himself as a friend of higher
education and a champion for the humanities, often incorporating the arts
into the life of the company. In 1989, while serving on several cultural
boards,
including those of the Lyric Opera, Shakespeare Theatre, and Chicago Symphony,
he embarked on his most ambitious project, creating the Chicago
Humanities Festival, a
city-wide event designed to “celebrate the power
of ideas in human culture.”
Under Franke’s leadership and drive as chair of the board of directors,
the festival has grown into the world’s largest celebration of the
humanities, covering two full weeks in early November and attracting scores
of the world’s
foremost scholars, authors, playwrights, historians, artists, and performers
who offer presentations based around a single theme of universal appeal.
This fall’s 17th festival, October 28-November 12,
will offer 125 programs on the theme “Peace and War: Facing Human Conflict.”
In recognition of his efforts in raising awareness of the ways the humanities
enrich daily life, Franke was honored in 1997 by President Clinton as one
of ten recipients of the first National Humanities Medal. That same year,
he was
named chairman of the National Trust for the Humanities. Since 1996, he has
served as an elected member of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and
Sciences.
In 2005, Franke added author to his résumé, chronicling his
grandparents’ journey
from Berlin, Germany, to Springfield, Illinois, and their struggle to build
a new life in late 19th-century America in the biographical book, Cut from
Whole Cloth: An Immigrant Experience.