News Releases

One Thousand Graduates to March at USM Commencement

April 29, 2008

Roger Wilkins, who shared a Pulitzer Prize in 1972 for Watergate coverage with Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein and Herb (Herblock) Block, will be the speaker at the University of Southern Maine’s 128th Commencement.  Ceremonies will take place 9 a.m., Saturday, May 10, in the Cumberland County Civic Center, Portland. It is expected that more than 1,000 graduates will be marching at the ceremony.

Wilkins is the Clarence J. Robinson Professor of History and American Culture at George Mason University.  He served as assistant attorney general during the Johnson administration, and has written for The New York Times and The Washington Post. Among his public service activities, he served as past chair of the Board of Trustees of the Africa-America Institute and is a member of the Board of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. He is publisher of NAACP’s journal Crisis and has served on the Board of Trustees of the University of the District of Columbia and on the District of Columbia Board of Education. He will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters during the ceremony. 

Mark A. Coursey of Auburn, who will graduate with a B.S. in Leadership and Organizational Studies from USM Lewiston Auburn College, was chosen to be student commencement speaker.  Coursey returned to college after a 16-year absence using Osher Re-entry Scholarships.  He plans to attend the University of Maine School of Law this fall.

Gary Lawless of Brunswick, a poet and a champion of literature in Maine, will be awarded an honorary doctor of humane letters.  Born in Belfast, he graduated from Colby College, after which he apprenticed in the home of Pulitzer Prize-winning Beat poet Gary Snyder. He opened Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick and in 1976 began Blackberry Books, a small press devoted to bringing Maine classics back to print and publishing international poetry and fiction.  He teaches at Mt. Ararat High School, leads writing workshops at Brunswick’s Spindleworks Art Center, and at Portland’s Reiche School.

USM alumnus Ray Stevens, class of 1986, of La Jolla, Calif., will be awarded an honorary doctor of science for his commitment to the advancement of science and for his contributions to science education at USM. Stevens, and Auburn native, received his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California and in 1989 became a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard. After becoming a tenured faculty member at the University of California at Berkeley, he established the John S. Ricci Undergraduate Fellowship at USM, to honor his undergraduate professor and mentor, USM Professor Emeritus of Chemistry John S. Ricci.  The fellowship brings a USM student to the Stevens Laboratory of the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego for a summer of research.  The first recipient of the Ricci Fellowship, Sri Dhyana of Portland, graduates this year with a B.S. in physics and a minor in biochemistry.

Kenneth Nelson and Mary P. Nelson of Falmouth will receive a Distinguished Achievement Award for their years of commitment to USM.  Kenny Nelson is president of Nelson and Small, Inc., a Portland-based wholesale distributor of appliances.  He is a graduate of Bowdoin College and the Boston University School of Law.

While practicing law in Boston in the 1970s, Kenny provided legal counsel to the technology, financial, and biomedical businesses taking root around the city.  After 10 years of practice, Kenny and Mary returned to Maine and the family business, bringing with them a vision of replicating Boston’s university-based economic growth here in southern Maine. Among Kenny’s first steps toward that end was to take a lead role in establishing an electrical engineering program at USM. His company created the Nelson and Small Prize in Electrical Engineering, a grant to provide stipends to USM faculty for special efforts in electrical engineering. He also helped establish the Maine Foundation for Technology Education, which has raised more than $1.5 million in cash and equipment to support technology education in the University of Maine System since 1987.

Mary is a graduate of Smith College, and she earned her master’s degree in public policy from the USM Muskie School of Public Service in 1988. She is president of the Friends of USM School of Music and is in her sixth year as chair of the School’s Advisory Board. An accomplished vocalist, Mary is a member of the USM Choral Arts Society, which often performs with the Portland Symphony Orchestra. Mary is a former director of alumni relations for the University of Maine School of Law.  She plays a prominent role in the Portland’s arts and cultural scene, serving on a number of boards, including those of Portland Symphony Orchestra, the Maine College of Art, and the Maine Historical Society.  She co-chaired the capital campaign for USM’s Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education, and is the immediate past president of the Osher Library Associates.

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