The legacy of a past University president and the accomplishments of faculty, staff and students over the past year were all honored Tuesday during the 2013 Honor the Best ceremony in the Glick Ballroom of the Joe Crowley Student Union.
Among the many highlights was the dedication of the ballroom in the name of the late University President Milt Glick.
President Marc Johnson said Glick, the University's 15th chief executive who served from 2006 until Glick's death in 2011, was "the man who brought tomorrow into such clear focus he enabled all of us to fit it into our grasp."
Glick's wife, Peggy, along with couple's two sons and two grandsons, were on hand to unveil a portrait of Glick inside the Glick Ballroom. Outside, in the entryway on the wall, words from Glick's inaugural speech from 2006 were printed: "The next Comstock Lode is not in the mines of Nevada; it is in the minds of Nevadans."
Peggy Glick said she found the dedication of the ballroom altogether fitting, as her husband "loved" the student union. She said he would often walk through the Joe Crowley Student Union and marvel at the activity of students that seemed to go on at all hours, in all forms.
"It was just wonderful," Mrs. Glick said of the pride her husband took at seeing students engage in what he often liked to call "a sticky campus" - a place that brought knowledge to life for students and kept them engaged. "It's lovely he's being remembered in this particular place."
Mrs. Glick said she was moved by seeing the words of her husband on the wall as she walked in to the ceremony on Tuesday.
"When I saw that saying outside ... it broke me up," she said. After pausing briefly, she added, "It'll be quite wonderful that the people of Nevada will be reminded not of the mines, but of the minds."
Of the portrait, which featured a smiling Glick holding the sweat-stained, often-seen hat that he wore to events on and off campus, Mrs. Glick said, "I love the fact that particular hat is there. That is the dirty hat that (the late Nevada Sen. Bill Raggio, whose widow, Dale, was also in the audience on Tuesday) used to hassle him about." She said her husband bought other hats, but in her mind, the one he held in the portrait was "the real McCoy. He must've had that hat for 20 years."
Tuesday's event, in addition to the dedication of the Glick Ballroom, also featured the announcement of many of the campus' most important and prestigious awards.
Below is a complete listing of all the awards presented:
- F. Donald Tibbitts Distinguished Teacher Award Runners-Up: Sarah Cummings, Eric Marchand.
- F. Donald Tibbitts Distinguished Teacher Award: Kristen Clements-Nolle.
- Distinguished Outreach Faculty: Erika Ryst.
- Outstanding Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentor: Peter Goin.
- Student Employee of the Year: Dominique Price.
- Cavanaugh Community Volunteer Award: Lianne Barnes.
- Henry Albert Senior Public Service Award: Tatiana Chaker, Savanna Richards.
- Phi Kappa Phi Award: Jordan Bjerke, Tauni Nettenstrom.
- Outstanding Senior Award: Elizabeth Howald, David Velez.
- Outstanding Graduate Student Researcher: Mohammad Tofiqur Reza.
- Outstanding Graduating Graduate Student: Lyndsay Munro.
- ROTC Governor's Award: Dashawna Jimerson.
- Faculty Senate Award for Outstanding Service: Susan Donaldson, Kent Ervin.
- Thornton Peace Prize: Carina Black.
- Regents' Academic Advisor Award, Undergraduate: Elena Pravosudova.
- Regents' Academic Advisor Award, Graduate: Robert Ostergard.
- Regents' Creative Activity Award: Peter Epstein.
- Regents' Rising Researcher Award: Matthew Forister.
- Regents' Scholar Award, Graduate: Richard Kelley.
- Regents' Scholar Award, Undergraduate: Jade Keehn.
- Outstanding Researcher of the Year: John Cushman.
- University's Global Engagement Award Runner-Up: Berch Berberoglu.
- University's Global Engagement Award: Gregory Mosier.
- Distinguished Classified Employee Award: Michelle Bruce.
- Distinguished Service: Marsha Read.
- Distinguished Faculty: Chris Cheney.
- Emeriti Faculty: Christopher Ault, Suzanne Bach, Melody Bayfield, Donald Bear, Cynthia Birk, Richard Bjur, Marie Boutte, John Burton Jr., Steven Cavote, Susan Chandler, Cathy Chapman-Walters, Christine Cheney, Claudia Collins, Carol Condit, Betty Cossitt, Stephen de St. Jeor, James Duncan, Leslie Levin Golberg, Monica Grecu, Kathy Halbardier, Gary Hausladen (posthumously), Karen Hinton, Dale Johnson, Mary Ann Lambert, Barbara Land, Thomas Lean, Andrea Lenz, Frank Lucash, Cleborne Maddux, Kenneth Maehara, Elza Major, Zanny Marsh, Sesi McCullough, Watkins Wilford Miller, Pierre Mousset-Jones, James Owen (posthumously), Melanie Peck, Michael Peters, Donald Pfaff, Robyn Powers, Michael Robinson, David Schooley, Stefanie Scoppettone, Dennis Uken, Peter Winkler.
