DETROIT – More than 13,000 people – new graduates, guests, faculty and administrators – will gather at Wayne State University’s Tom Adams Field at the Matthaei Athletics Complex Saturday, May 5, 11 a.m., for annual commencement ceremonies. The occasion marks the second year of the return of commencement to campus (the ceremonies had been held at Cobo Arena for many years prior to 2006) and only the second time in the university’s history that the event has been held outdoors.

 

About 2,400 graduating students plan to participate in Saturday’s ceremonies. For the first time this year, graduates and others who are unable to attend commencement will have access to a live Webcast of the ceremonies for a nominal fee through an arrangement between the university and B2 Networks. (For details visit http://www.wayne.edu/ and click on “Live Webcast 2007 Commencement” on the left side of the page.)

 

Receiving honorary doctoral degrees will be businessman/philanthropist Marvin I. Danto of Bloomfield Hills and musician/composer Billy Taylor of New York City. Retired District of Columbia Court of Appeals Judge Annice M. Wagner, who resides in the nation’s capital, will receive the Distinguished Alumni Award.

 

Four graduating students also will be honored.  Receiving the David D. Henry Award will be Meghan Misiak of Livonia and David Topolewski of  Clarkston. Receiving the Howard A. Donnelly Award will be Clarence Dass of Bloomfield Hills and Rebecca Grace of Ann Arbor. The prestigious Henry and Donnelly awards are presented for high scholastic achievement, leadership and service.

 

Marvin I. Danto, who studied engineering at Wayne State, will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree for outstanding achievements as a business entrepreneur and generosity to education, the arts, health care and other causes that benefit mankind. He is former CEO of Englander-Triangle Inc., a multi-store fine furniture and interior design firm. Currently, he is CEO of the Michigan Design Center in Troy, and he built the Design Center of the Americas, the nation’s largest freestanding design firm, in Florida.

 

Widely known for philanthropy as well as his business success, Danto  donated $3 million in support of Wayne State’s planned new Engineering Development Center, which will be named in his honor. Other organizations he has generously supported include the United Way, National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Kids in Distress, Sarasota Ballet and the Cranbrook Academy of Art, to name a few. He serves on the finance committee for the Detroit Institute of Arts and is an advisor to the American Craft Museum in New York. He also has served on the boards of the Jewish Home for Aged, the College of Creative Studies and the Sarasota Ballet.

 

Billy Taylor will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree for exceptional contributions to the nation’s musical heritage. An acclaimed musician, composer, teacher and author, he has penned more than 300 songs and tours internationally. Since early in his career, when he was program director for a New York radio station, he has brought jazz to a national audience. He was musical director of the first TV series ever produced about jazz, “The Subject is Jazz,” in 1958. He also served as musical director for “The David Frost Show” in the 1970s and has collaborated on projects with the Public Broadcasting System and other networks. For 25 years, he was arts correspondent for CBS-TV’s “Sunday Morning” show.

 

Taylor has received numerous honors and accolades, including the National Medal of Arts, two Peabody Awards for excellence in journalism, an Emmy, a Grammy, the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowship Award and induction into the International Association for Jazz Education Hall of Fame. In 1992, the Schombury Center for Research in Black Culture named him as one of “100 Black New Yorkers of

the 20^th Century.”

 

Annice Wagner, a Wayne State Law School graduate who also has a bachelor’s degree from WSU, served on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals for 15 years – 11 as chief judge – prior to retirement from the bench in 2005. Her distinguished career in law includes service as general counsel for the National Capital Housing Authority and for the People’s Council for the District of Columbia as well as associate judge of the DOC. Superior Court. In addition to her tenure on the bench, Wagner served on the board of directors for the Conference of Chief Justices and was a board member and president for the United Planning Organization, an agency that focuses on improving the quality of life for the poor in the nation’s capital.

 

As a judge on the superior court, Wagner served in all of the court’s divisions, including civil, criminal, family, probate and tax. She presided over the latter two divisions and chaired a task force on gender bias in the courts. She also served on the superior court rules committee and the sentencing guidelines commission.

 

Meghan Misiak earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education with a specialty in language arts and a co-major in university honors.  As a member of the Wayne State softball team, she earned numerous honors during her four years on the team, including being named to the National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-American Academic Team. She also was named Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Freshman of the Year, All-GLIAC first team, second team and honorable mention as well as Great Lakes Region Most Outstanding Player.

 

She is a recipient of the WSU College of Education Dean’s Award and served on the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. She has organized fundraisers for the Make-a-Wish Foundation and participated in many volunteer endeavors, including the St. Aloysius Soup Kitchen, Big Brothers/Big Sisters and Adopt-a-Family. She also has been active with Boys and Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan and Toys for Tots. A substitute teacher, Misiak is certified to teach elementary through eighth grade classes and is a varsity softball coach at Livonia Churchill High School.

 

David Topolewski will receive a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a major in accounting and a co-major in university honors.  He founded the WSU Honors Student Association, where he was president for three years, and he served as the student representative on the WSU Honors Council. He participated in numerous Habitat for Humanity building projects and was a frequent volunteer at area soup kitchens. In 2006, he coordinated a group of honors students who worked as ticket-takers at the Detroit Super Bowl and donated their earnings to charity.

 

Topolewski also served as a resident assistant in the university’s Ghafari Residence Hall. He is an Honors Program peer adviser and a member of Phi Beta Delta, a national honor society for scholarly achievement in international education. He also is a member of the prestigious Beta Gamma Sigma business honor society. In 2006, he was named WSU School of Business Administration Student of the Year, and he is pursuing an MBA degree through the business school.

 

Clarence Dass will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in history with a co-major in university honors. He is co-founder of the Model United Nations (MUN) program at Wayne State and represented WSU at the Model UN competition in New York earlier this year and a similar international competition the previous year in The Hague. Through his involvement with MUN, Dass has trained many high school and college students in cross-cultural communication and conflict resolution. He organized a group of WSU students to serve as tutors to Detroit Public Schools students at YouthVille Detroit, a community center, and was honored by Young People For, a division of People for the American Way.

 

In 2005, Dass received Wayne State’s Emerging Leader Award and, earlier this year, won the top individual award at the Michigan Interscholastic Speech League competition. As a four-year member of the WSU Forensics/Debate Team, Dass competed in five national championship events. He was a member of the Student Code of Conduct judiciary hearing committee at Wayne State and is a recipient of an undergraduate research grant.

 

Rebecca Grace earned a bachelor’s degree in history with a co-major in university honors and a minor in Spanish. She is a past president of WSU’s Honors Student Association, where she also has served as vice president and event coordinator. She was a student representative on the Honors Council and was student coordinator of B Start, a five-year MBA collaborative effort between the Honors Program and the School of Business Administration.

 

Grace recruited and helped train more than 160 student volunteers who served as campus guides for high school students considering attendance at Wayne State during the annual Scholars Day recruitment program this year. She served as secretary for the WSU chapter of Habitat for Humanity and assisted with several Habitat building projects. Other volunteer activities include fundraisers for Wayne State University Press, peer advisor with the Honors Program, participation in the Heat and Warmth Fund Bailout and Alternative Spring Break public service. She plans to pursue a doctorate in economics at WSU, where she also will be a graduate teaching assistant.        

 

# # #