Staff Report
An architect and an author who have earned international distinction will receive honorary degrees at UNM’s 2001 Spring Commencement Ceremony Saturday at 9 a.m. in The Pit.
An estimated 2,491 degrees will be conferred to UNM main campus graduates at the ceremony.
Of the total conferred, two are associate degrees; 1,832 are bachelor’s degrees; 334 are master’s degrees; 71 are doctorate degrees; 105 are juris doctorate degrees; two are post-master’s degrees; 67 are medical doctorate degrees; 77 are pharmacy doctorate degrees; and one is an education specialist’s degree.
Honorary Degrees
New Mexico resident, author and artist N. Scott Momaday will receive an honorary doctorate of letters degree and architect Antoine Predock will receive an honorary doctorate of fine arts degree.
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Momaday, who attended Bernalillo High School and earned his bachelor’s degree from UNM in 1958, is the author of 13 books. His work includes novels, short stories, poems, plays, memoirs, essays, children’s tales and reproductions of his original art work. His first novel, “House Made of Dawn,” won the Pulitzer Prize in 1969. That book, along with “The Way to Rainy Mountain,” a memoir of Momaday’s quest for his Kiowa Indian heritage, inspired a new wave of contemporary American Indian writing.
Momaday moved to New Mexico with his family when he was two years old and, as a child, lived in Gallup, Shiprock, Hobbs and Jemez Pueblo. After graduating from UNM in 1958 with a major in political science and minors in English and speech, he taught for a year in Dulce, N.M., on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation. Momaday’s career then took him to Stanford University and later to the University of Arizona, where he is now a regents’ English professor.
Predock, who is the founder and principal of Antoine Predock Architect based in Albuquerque, was an architecture student at UNM from 1957 to 1961. In 1981, he was named a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and, in 1991, he was named a Nissan International Fellow at the Aspen Design Conference.
He is the recipient of more than 50 national and international awards, including the prestigious Rome Prize Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome. He also received the distinguished award of honor at the 2000 American Institute of Architects Summit Awards.
In addition, his buildings have received numerous national, state and regional awards from the American Institute of Architects. Among his award-winning projects in New Mexico is La Luz community on Albuquerque’s West Mesa. Last year, the New Mexico Society of Architects presented him with an honorary award for design excellence for the Spencer Theater for the Performing Arts in Ruidoso.
In 1981, Predock was named the Kea Distinguished Professor at the University of Maryland. Since then, he has been invited to teach as a distinguished professor and critic at numerous universities. His firm has been invited to participate in competitions throughout the United States and Europe. He has designed academic buildings for several campuses. He also designed a ballpark for the San Diego Padres.
As his schedule allows, Predock lectures and provides student critiques at the UNM School of Architecture and Planning. He has underwritten the School’s Don Schlegel Annual Lecture and also has created the annual Antoine Predock Graduate Scholarship for a UNM student. Recently, his design was selected for a new UNM School of Architecture and Planning building.
Commencement Ceremony
Richard Holder, UNM deputy provost and chemistry professor, will be master of ceremonies. The prelude and the processional will be performed by University Band under the direction of conductor Eric Rombach-Kendal. The National Anthem will be sung by voice performance graduate Heather Alvarez.
Greetings will then be offered by UNM President Bill Gordon and UNM Board of Regents President Larry Willard.
The commencement address will be delivered by Irvin D. Harrison, who is graduating magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in English and professional writing. Harrison has an extensive record of service to the University and to the Associated Students of UNM.
He has been inducted into a number of honorary organizations — most recently, the Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Beta Kappa honor societies. He also is a member of the UNM Trailblazers, UNM Golden Key International Honor Society, UNM Mortarboard National Senior Honor Society and UNM Blue Key Honor Fraternity.
Following the commencement address, UNM Faculty Senate President John Geissman and UNM Alumni Association President-Elect Connie Beimer will deliver additional greetings.
UNM Provost Brian Foster will then recognize UNM honors graduates. Gordon will award the Tom L. Popejoy Dissertation Prize to Erik Wibbels from the UNM Political Science Department for his dissertation on “Federalism and the Comparative Politics of Market Reform.”
Following the awarding of the honorary degrees and the conferring of degrees, Alvarez will lead the singing of the alma mater.
This year, 60 members of UNM’s class of 1951 will participate in the ceremony.
Following the ceremony, all degree candidates and their guests are invited to a reception hosted by Gordon and his wife from 1- 4 p.m. at University House, 1901 Roma Rd. N.E.
For more information, call the University Secretary’s Office at 277-4664.
