UAF AWARDS FIVE HONORARY DEGREES THIS SPRING

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 5, 2000

Fairbanks, Alaska - Former state legislator and Alaskan "Fish Czar" Clem Tillion is one of five honorary degree recipients to be recognized by the University of Alaska Fairbanks during this spring's commencement ceremonies May 7. In addition to Tillion, UAF will honor multicultural education expert James Banks, internationally known ethnographer John Bockstoce, renowned Arctic geologist David Hopkins and Alaskan banker Edward Rasmuson.

The honorees were selected for significant achievements that have brought distinction to their academic or professional careers, and for their lasting contributions to the state and the nation.

The commencement keynote address will be given this year by James Banks, professor of education and director of the center for multicultural education at the University of Washington. Recognized nationally as a leading African American educator, Banks has served as president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and of the National Council for the Social Studies.

A former elementary school teacher, Banks was named Distinguished Scholar by the AERA's Committee on the Role and Status of Minorities in Educational Research and Development in 1986. A decade later he received the committee's Distinguished Career Award.

In 1995, Banks and his wife, Cherry, edited "The Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education," considered the first research text on multicultural education to be published. His research on African American children raised in predominately white neighborhoods was also chronicled in "The Journal of Negro Education." Banks will receive a doctor of letters degree during the ceremony.

Fellow degree recipient John Bockstoce spent a large part of the 1960s and 1970s traveling in Arctic waters on a small boat, armed with little more than a camera and an insatiable inquisitiveness to research the biology, ecology and natural history of the Northwest Alaska coast.

From 1969 to 1981, Bockstoce served as principal investigator for ethnographic research into Eskimo whaling techniques from Point Hope to Point Barrow, Alaska. He also served as field director of excavations at Herschel Island in the Yukon Territory and at Cape Nome in Alaska, and published a variety of articles and findings on the ecology and economics of the area.

Bockstoce's doctoral dissertation, based on whale harvesting technology of the Thule Eskimos, is just one of numerous scientific and scholarly efforts still used by environmentalists, federal investigators and agencies.

In 1977, Bockstoce was among several pioneering scientists to question the low official bowhead whale censuses, defending the cultural importance of Inupiaq subsistence whaling. His efforts earned him the affection of residents near Point Hope, who honored him with the Inupiaq name of "Siqpan," a well-known moniker in the area which means "fuel for the stoves" that light up the long winter nights. He will receive a doctor of science degree.

David Hopkins has been lighting the lamp of knowledge for UAF students for so long that some say he's practically a fossil. Actually, he is several of them– in name, that is. Several fossils discovered in the Circumpolar North, including an extinct beetle, a lemming, barnacle and willow, have been named in honor of Hopkins, UAF professor emeritus and founding director of the Alaska Quaternary Center.

For nearly half this century, Hopkins has earned an international reputation as a leading quaternary geologist and favorite professor among UAF geology students. His research and field work led to the first scientific evidence of a land bridge linking Alaska and the Russian Far East, considered by many a key factor in the migration of people from Asia to North America.

Hopkins' pioneering research focusing on the Late Cenozoic history, and the marine and land regions in Alaska, has led to worldwide recognition of the scientific importance of the Bering Sea land bridge and the migration patterns of people who lived tens of thousands of years ago. He will receive a doctor of science degree.

Although his family ties to Alaska don't stretch quite that far back, honorary degree recipient Edward Rasmuson represents the third generation of an Alaskan business family who have greatly impacted the development of the state. Rasmuson's grandfather, E.A., began working at the Bank of Alaska in 1916, just one year after the cornerstone of the state's first institution of higher education was laid in Fairbanks. Three years later, E.A. would take control of the business that would become the National Bank of Alaska, passing the helm to his son, Elmer, and eventually his grandson, Edward. NBA, the state's largest financial institution, agreed to a $907 million buyout by Wells Fargo & Co. last December.

The youngest Rasmuson followed familial footsteps not only with a financial career, but in philanthropic causes as well. Despite the fact that he runs the largest bank in the state, Rasmuson has served on virtually every major board, foundation, commission or committee that has to do with education in Alaska.

For 14 years Rasmuson served on the University of Alaska Board of Regents, including a stint as president of the board, followed by eight years with the University of Alaska Foundation. He has also served on the Sheldon Jackson College Board of Trustees for seven years and as a trustee for Alaska Pacific University.

Rasmuson will receive a doctor of laws degree during next month's graduation ceremony– the same honorary degree his father Elmer received from the University of Alaska 30 years ago.

Clem Tillion, a veteran fisherman who has lived in Alaska for more than half a century, will receive a doctor of laws degree during commencement this year. Tillion was named among the top 40 history makers who have most affected Alaskan lives by the Anchorage Daily News in 1999.

He has made an indelible imprint on national and international fisheries management policy as a charter member of the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council and presidential appointee to the National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere. Tillion was instrumental in establishing the 200-mile jurisdictional limit for United States coastal waters and helped implement Individual Fishing Quotas for the harvest of sable fish, halibut and black cod.

Elected to the Alaska State Legislature in 1962, Tillion served in both the House and Senate before being named Senate President from 1978-1980. During his tenure, Tillion oversaw the passage of several significantly important pieces of legislation, including establishment of the Alaska Permanent Fund.

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NOTE TO EDITORS: Honorary degree recipient photos are available upon request.

CONTACT: UAF Senior Public Information Officer Debra Damron at (907) 474-7122 or via email at fynews@uaf.edu.

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