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USM Grads Told Active Citizenship Changed the Nation

May 10, 2008

Pulitzer Prize-winner Roger Wilkins told a record number of University of Southern Maine graduates that the presidential candidacies of a woman and a black “would have been fodder for a fantasy movie” in his graduation year of 1953. “Today, whatever our problems are, we have a vastly different and better country than the one we lived in in 1953,” he told a crowd of more than 7,000 at USM’s 128th Commencement, held Saturday, May 10, in the Cumberland County Civic Center, Portland.

Wilkins, a former editorial page staff member at The Washington Post, shared a Pulitzer Prize in 1972 for Watergate coverage with Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein and Herb (Herblock) Block. Those who came of age in the 1950s and 1960s changed the country through active citizenship, said Wilkins, “motivated by the Civil Rights movement and unleashed by President Kennedy’s suggestion to ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”   He reminded the audience that in the summer of 1787, when Benjamin Franklin was asked what was created at the Constitutional Convention, he replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”  Wilkins told the nearly 1,100 graduates in attendance, “It is now your turn to keep it.”

Wilkins, who served in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations and now is a professor of history at George Mason University, was awarded an honorary doctor of humane letters.

Student speaker Mark Coursey of Auburn, told fellow graduates that they have learned “to ask new questions and seek new answers. When we walk out these doors, “said Coursey, “we should refuse to abandon our search. We must make this quest for knowledge a part of our everyday lives. When we are faced with an injustice we must refuse to accept the answer that this is the way it has always been.” Coursey, who received a B.S. in Leadership and Organizational Studies from USM Lewiston-Auburn College after a 16-year hiatus from academic study, will be attending the University of Maine School of Law in the fall.

Auburn native and USM alumnus Ray Stevens, class of 1986, of La Jolla, Calif., was awarded an honorary doctor of science for his commitment to the advancement of science and for his contributions to science education at USM.  Stevens, a leading research scientist at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, established USM’s John S. Ricci Undergraduate Fellowship to honor his undergraduate professor, and to give undergraduates a chance to work at his Scripps lab. The first recipient of the Ricci Fellowship, Sri Dhyana of Portland, graduated today (May 10) with a B.S. in physics and a minor in biochemistry.

Gary Lawless of Brunswick, a poet and a champion of literature in Maine, was 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 taught at Mt. Ararat High School, and leads writing workshops at Brunswick’s Spindleworks Art Center, and Portland’s Reiche School.

Kenneth Nelson and Mary P. Nelson of Falmouth received 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.  His company created the Nelson and Small Prize in Electrical Engineering to provide stipends to USM faculty for special efforts in electrical engineering. Kenny also helped establish the Maine Foundation for Technology Education. Mary is president of the Friends of USM School of Music. She also serves on the boards of the 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.

Audio clips of remarks by USM student speaker Mark Coursey and USM Commencement speaker Roger Wilkins are available at http://www.usm.maine.edu/mcr/showcase/

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