Detroit Pistons owner William Davidson and nationally known children’s advocate Marian Wright Edelman will receive honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from Wayne State University during winter commencement ceremonies at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 15, in Detroit’s Cobo Arena. Also to be honored will be businessman and philanthropist Yousif B. Ghafari and civic activist Angela Kennedy. Ghafari and Kennedy will receive Distinguished Alumni awards.

William “Bill” Davidson, who earned a degree in business law from Wayne State, is majority owner of the Pistons as well as Palace Sports and Entertainment. In 1999, he and his Palace Sports partners purchased the National Hockey League’s Tampa Bay Lightning. He also owns the WNBA’s Detroit Shock basketball team. His major success in business came as president and chief executive of Guardian Industries in Auburn Hills, a global supplier of products for the automotive and construction industries.

Although reticent about publicity, Davidson is a major booster of the metropolitan Detroit area whose philanthropy is widely known. In 1997, he was honored by the Council of Michigan Foundations and was listed in a New York Times article as one of America’s most generous donors. A Bloomfield Hills resident, he is a founding member of the Pistons/Palace Foundation, a charitable organization that has donated millions to deserving groups. He also has made donations totaling many millions in support of cancer research and prevention programs at the Karmanos Cancer Institute and Childrens Research Center of Michigan, to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and to educational institutions.

Marian Wright Edelman of Washington, D.C., is the founder and chief executive officer of the nationally known Children’s Defense Fund headquartered in the nation’s capital. A graduate of Spelman College and the Yale Law School, Edelman was the first African-American woman admitted to the Mississippi bar and is the founder of the Washington Research Project, a public interest law firm. She also was director of the Center for Law and Education at Harvard University for two years.

Awards received by Edelman include numerous honorary degrees, the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Prize, the Heinz Award and a MacArthur Foundation Prize fellowship. In 2002, she was accorded the nation’s highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She is the author of seven books, including Families in Peril: An Agenda for Social Change and Stand for Children. Her prolific authorship of books with a powerful social message earned her a Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Yousif Ghafari of Bloomfield Hills is founder and chairman of Ghafari Associates, an architectural, engineering and design consultation firm headquartered in Dearborn. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, a master’s degree in applied mathematics and computer applications and a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Wayne State.

A loyal supporter who pledged $9 million to WSU during the current fundraising campaign, Ghafari was honored in October when the university renamed one of its newer residence halls, formerly North Hall, after him. He received a Corporate Leadership Award from WSU in 1994 and the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award in 1990, when he was named to the College of Engineering’s Hall of Fame.

Ghafari also is a member of the International Institute of Metropolitan Detroit’s Hall of Fame. He has received many awards from community organizations, including the American Cancer Society and the Boy Scouts of America. He serves on boards of directors for numerous area organizations, including the Economic Club of Detroit and the Detroit Regional Chamber, and he is a trustee for the Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan and the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute.

Angela Kennedy of Detroit is vice president of clinical services for New Center Community Mental Health Services in Detroit. The holder of two master’s degrees (in social work and in dispute resolution) from Wayne State, she is an adjunct professor in the WSU School of Social Work and with Madonna University’s addiction studies certificate program.

Kennedy has been influential in the human services field in metropolitan Detroit for more than four decades. She has held leadership roles with such organizations as Matrix Human Services, Neighborhood Service Organization, Detroit-Wayne County Community Mental Health, Northeast Guidance Center and Detroit General Hospital (now Detroit Receiving Hospital).

She has used innovative strategies to increase revenue for programs and services, strengthening the programmatic and financial systems of several agencies. Among her accomplishments is development of a grant for statewide counseling services and a statewide helpline for problem gamblers and their families. While she was director of the Detroit-Wayne County Community Mental Health Board, she established, improved and sustained dozens of community-based group homes for persons with mental illness and developmental disabilities.

Also to be honored during the December commencement exercises will be graduating seniors Sharon Bobryk of Sterling Heights and Kevin Brown of Eastpointe. They will receive the David D. Henry Award, which recognizes leadership and service to the university, academic achievement and outstanding contributions in the area of student activities.