The two speakers for Chadron State College’s commencement ceremonies Friday, Dec. 14, bring experience to the podium. This is the second time at the CSC commencement podium for both speakers.

The speaker for the undergraduate ceremony is Dr. Ron Hull of Lincoln, a pioneer of public television who has been heavily involved in the Mari Sandoz Heritage Society since its inception. Dr. George Griffith, CSC professor of language and literature, will deliver the commencement address for the students receiving master’s degrees.

Hull was the speaker for the undergraduate ceremony in May 1975 and Griffith spoke to students receiving master’s degrees in December 1996.

The ceremony for graduates earning master’s degrees will be at 2 p.m. in Memorial Hall and the bachelor’s degree ceremony will be 4 p.m. in the Armstrong Physical Education Building. People who are unable to attend the ceremonies may visit csc.edu/live to access live video of the ceremonies.

Chadron State College is scheduled to confer degrees to 181 graduates during the two commencement ceremonies,

Click here to see the list of graduates.

Ron Hull, Ed.D.
Commencement Speaker and
Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree Recipient

In addition to serving as the commencement speaker, Dr. Ron Hull is receiving the Chadron State College Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree for his outstanding service to CSC and greater society.

Hull, a television pioneer who has been heavily involved in the Mari Sandoz Heritage Society since its inception in 1971, was instrumental in the development of the Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center on the CSC campus. Hull is president emeritus of the organization, and continues to serve as a board member.

Hull is regarded as one of Nebraska’s most prominent television pioneers. He was a long-time program manager for the Nebraska ETV Network. His book, “Backstage – Stories of My Life in Public Television,” has received much acclaim since being published earlier this year. He continues to serve as senior adviser to Nebraska Educational Telecommunications and Professor Emeritus of Broadcasting for the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

While serving as program manager for ETV from 1955-1982, Hull co-developed the “Anyone for Tennyson?” poetry series and a collection of dramas titled “The Mark Twain Series” for the Public Broadcasting Service.

He took a leave of absence in 1966-1967 to serve the United States Information Agency as a television adviser to the government of South Vietnam. He was instrumental in developing a four-station television network for the country, which he advised through 1972.

Hull also was director of the program fund for the Corporation of Public Broadcasting in 1982-1988, a period which the CPB developed the acclaimed “The American Experience” and made programming commitments of more than $170 million. Stations and independent producers churned out a number of classic PBS programs during that period, including “Eyes on the Prize,” “Vietnam: A Television History,” and “Great Performances.”

The honorary degree will complement a long list of honors that Hull has received throughout his career. Recent commendations include the Pioneer Award from the NEBRASKAland Foundation in 2009. Other honors during the 2000s included induction to the Nebraska Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame and the Nebraska Sower Award by the Nebraska Humanities Council.

Hull earned a Doctor of Education degree from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, which was preceded by a bachelor’s degree in speech and drama from Dakota Wesleyan University and a master’s degree in television from Syracuse University. Dakota Wesleyan and UNL have each presented him with awards that recognize outstanding alumni.

George Griffith, Ph.D.
Professor of Language and Literature
Commencement Speaker

Dr. George Griffith has become one of Chadron State College’s most revered professors during nearly four decades at the institution. He is in his 37^thyear as a professor of language and literature at CSC.

Griffith, who joined CSC as an assistant professor in August 1975, has been employed at the institution longer than any other faculty member. He attained the rank of full professor in 1985 and served as chairman of the CSC Department of English and Humanities from 1991-1994.

Griffith has developed a reputation for challenging students while teaching courses in English literature, composition and ethics. He directed the honors program at CSC from 1988-2001, has led three study tours to Europe and was among the first CSC professors to embrace online learning at CSC. In 2002, five years after his ethics course went online, he was presented an award for innovative excellence at the International Conference on College Teaching and Learning.

Griffith also is the 1991 winner of the prestigious Burlington Northern Outstanding Teaching Award, and was named CSC’s outstanding educator in 1989.

The professor also has completed post-doctoral work at Yale, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and three University of California institutions – Los Angeles, San Diego and Santa Cruz. Those experiences include institutes and seminars for the National Endowment for the Humanities.

He lists about 40 scholarly articles, presentations and research projects, many of them related to Victorian studies and George Eliot. He serves as a board member for the Victorian Interdisciplinary Studies Association of the Western United States, and is working on a book titled “George Eliot and America.” He also has narrated a series of “This Day in Literature” podcasts that are available on the CSC English and Humanities website.

Griffith is a native of the East Coast. Before coming to Chadron State, which has been his only full-time academic employer, he earned a bachelor’s degree from LaSalle College at Philadelphia in 1969 and a master’s and doctorate from Southern Illinois University in 1971 and 1975, respectively. He completed the examinations for his doctorate “with distinction.”

 

The Chadron State College music department closes its 2012 concert schedule tonight (Thurs) with Mallets & Ivory, the annual holiday concert by the CSC ensembles for percussion and keyboards. The free concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in Memorial Hall.

Keyboard ensemble director Dr James Margetts says the concert will also include the CSC guitar ensemble with songs in the style of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and vocalist Karin Keller, who began entertaining Mallets & Ivory audiences as an undergraduate in the late 1990s and has been a regular part of the concerts since graduating in 2001.

Concert-goers will have an opportunity to support CSC music students by buying tickets for a quilt raffle that will be held during the second half of the program. The proceeds  will benefit the CSC chapter of MTNA…the Music Teachers National Association.

Shown to the left is Traci Clarke, LPN-C, just after being presented her Box Butte General Hospital Employee of the Year plaque during the annual Recognition Dinner held Friday, December 7.

Ms. Clarke, a nurse in BBGH Patient Care Unit (and in surgery whenever needed), was one of 11 Employee of the Month recipients eligible to be voted on by their peers as employee of the year.

Ms. Clarke was nominated by 17 co-workers for the November Employee of the Month (EOM). The nominators used so many superlatives in describing why she deserved being EOM, that just listing them gives one a sense of why she was named Employee of the Year: leadership, compassionate, caring, exceptional, ever helping, pleasant, flexible, dependable, dedicated, awesome, loving, teacher/mentor, devoted, hardworking, willing, friendly, tremendous, remarkable, awe-inspiring, top notch, fantastic, knowledgeable, deserving, team worker, a standout, cheery, joyful, positive, valuable, and finally a great asset and a fantastic example for everyone at BBGH.

Her co-workers attribute all these accolades to how she interacts with fellow employees and to the patients under her care, as well as their families.

An injured female bald eagle found suffering from lead poisoning last week in a roadside ditch east of Crawford is described as in stable condition and recovering at a raptor recovery center in southeast Nebraska.

Clayton Serres of Crawford found the female eagle along Bethel Loop Road on Sunday the 2nd and immediately drove to the Dawes County Sheriff’s substation in Crawford to report it.

Deputy Scott Swickart went out and found the eagle, which he says didn’t try to fly away, but simply remained perched and still among the tall weeds.

Deputy Swickart contacted dispatchers, who called Nebraska Game and Parks. Swickart kept the eagle company while waiting for Conservation Officer Dan Kling to arrive to take charge.

Kling says it appeared the bird had a broken or injured wing, so he prepared to take it to a rehabilitation center. He quickly named her Fluffy after she showed her 1-1/2″ talons to them several times as they “coaxed” her into a pet carrier.

Kling drove Fluffy to Dannebrog, where he was met by staffers from the non-profit Raptor Recovery Nebraska…the
state’s only permitted raptor recovery rehab center…who took her on to their facility near Lincoln in Elmwood. Kling says it was Raptor Recovery that determined Fluffy was suffering from lead poisoning.

Kling says bald eagles are very susceptible to lead poisoning in the wild, with the lead generally entering their blood stream because of their diet.

He says Fluffy may have eaten a duck or other bird that had been hit by a hunter using lead shot or that had swallowed a lead sinker. He thinks the eagle might even had swallowed a spent lead bullet from the recent firearm deer season.

Although this isn’t the first time in his Game and Parks career that Kling has found an ailing eagle, it looks to be the most rewarding since it appears Fluffy will survive while none of the others did.

The fugitive sought by Dawes County authorities since Monday night is now in custody.

Sheriff Karl Dailey says Justin Pierce, who also uses the name Justin Beck, was arrested shortly before 1:00 this (Wed) afternoon while hiding in a haystack on Bethel Road south of Whitney.

Although Dailey had been working through third-parties who had contact with Pierce by cell phone to get him to come in and surrender, Pierce was still trying to elude capture when he was arrested.

Dailey says more details on the end of the 2-day manhunt will be released later this afternoon.

Dailey isn’t surprised that Pierce managed to elude the manhunt and deal with chilly temperatures because he has military training in escape-and-evade practices.

Dailey also says that since nothing in Pierce’s record suggests violence, he didn’t consider him a threat to local residents, adding that he would have called in more resources from other agencies had he felt Pierce posed a physical threat.