Honorary degree recipients represent range of accomplishments

Activists setting a standard of excellence in civil and environmental engineering, agriculture to alleviate hunger among Africa’s poor, agronomy, sustainability and the culinary arts, and disability issues will receive honorary degrees from the University of Wisconsin–Madison during spring commencement weekend, Friday, May 12-Sunday, May 14.

All five of the individuals honored attended UW–Madison. They are:

Oscar C. Boldt, who earned a bachelor of science degree in 1948. When a bomb demolished the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City 11 years ago, Boldt employees seven miles away heard the blast and offered their help.

For the next three weeks 120 Boldt Co. employees in Oklahoma City dedicated all their time and resources to rescue and recovery efforts. Oscar Boldt refused monetary compensation for the contributions his company made.

As a recent college graduate, Boldt began running the company in 1950 after an accident sidelined his father. During his more than 50-year tenure, the firm has expanded to more than a dozen offices across the country including the Oklahoma City site, with corporate headquarters in Appleton. Founded in 1889 by Oscar’s grandfather, the Boldt Construction Co. today employs more than 2,000 and has annual sales of more than $500 million.

The Boldt Co. constructed both UW–Madison’s Kohl Center and the UW Foundation Building. A $495 million paper-machine complex for Stora Enso in Wisconsin Rapids, a 430,000-square-foot cardiac-care addition to St. Luke’s Medical Center in Milwaukee and $76.6 million in improvements to Oklahoma City’s Will Rogers World Airport also are some of the projects on the Boldt Co.’s portfolio.

Florence Chenoweth, who earned a master’s degree in 1970 and a Ph.D. in 1980. After earning her master’s degree here, Chenoweth returned to her native Liberia to become its first female minister of agriculture at the age of 32. A decade later she fled the country, walking across it to Ivory Coast Sierra Leone, in the wake of a violent coup. The ensuing unrest plunged Liberia into civil war and anarchy, and claimed the lives of many prominent citizens there. Chenoweth and her children barely escaped.

After returning to UW–Madison to complete her doctorate, her commitment to helping Africa’s poor took her to Zambia. Her work there brought liberalization of Zambia’s food markets. She went on to use her skills to assist the poor of Gambia and South Africa before being tapped for global responsibilities by the United Nations in 2001. Her subsequent work led to her appointment as U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) representative to the U.N. and executive director of the FAO Liaison Office in New York. In that capacity she continues to carry the Wisconsin Idea around the world.

William L. Ogren, who earned a bachelor’s degree in 1961. Ogren’s astonishing aggregate of discoveries began in the early 1970s with the way in which oxygen inhibits photosynthesis. His high precision measurements of this process are now used in global models predicting how fast carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere, the use of the Arabidopsis plant species as the model for plant genome studies and the first example in plants of alternative splicing: a process through which one gene makes two variations of a protein.

His discoveries have had a profound effect on the understanding of photosynthesis, genome studies and greenhouse gas effects. His work has had a substantial impact on agriculture of all kinds.

Odessa Piper, who participated in independent study from 1973-75. Her name is instantly recognizable as the former chef-proprietor at Madison’s L’Etoile restaurant.

However, Piper also has distinguished herself as a tireless champion of sustainability in American agriculture and cooking. Using food to address fundamental questions of what our responsibilities are to each other and to the planet, Piper opened L’Etoile in 1976. From the beginning, she committed it to expanding the possibilities for eating fare prepared from local resources. Her menus evolved to merge culinary and ecological goals by relying on the region’s abundance and diversity throughout the year, including winter in the Snow Belt.

She also has had a substantial impact on the training of chefs. Because of her advocacy, more culinary schools include on-farm internships as part of their formal training programs. She also has worked with innovative farmers to develop a plan for a school of organic farming and cooking so that the next generation of farmers and cooks can bring more wholesome and locally raised foods to all members of society.

Robert Z. Segalman, who earned a Ph.D. in 1972. Without the national service Speech-to-Speech (STS), many people with speech difficulties would not be able to use that day-to-day mainstay of modern life, the telephone.

Segalman, himself challenged by cerebral palsy, developed the system in 1972. During 2002, consumers made more than 115,542 STS calls in 27 states, in addition to STS calls made in Sweden and in Australia.

The system works through trained “re-voicers,” operators who communicate clearly with listeners. Segalman not only designed the system but also instructional procedures for the operators. In addition to giving the gift of speech to hundreds of thousands, he also has worked energetically in support of STS policies and for the legislation necessary to put the system in place. He continues to advocate for the use of STS around the world and is establishing a nonprofit organization, Speech Communication Assistance on the Telephone.

The university will bestow its honorary degrees during the ceremony on Friday, May 12, which begins at 5:30 p.m. at the Kohl Center. In all, five ceremonies will be held through Sunday, May 14.

Honorary degree candidates receive no financial stipend from the university. UW–Madison academic departments recommend candidates for honorary degrees to the 28-member Committee on Honorary Degrees. Upon recommendation of the committee, nominees are presented to the UW–Madison chancellor, UW System Board of Regents and the UW–Madison Faculty Senate for final approval.