Veritas, Vol. 40, No. 08, May 1998

              Veritas
May 1998
Volume 40 • Number 8
For the Faculty and Staff of the University of Miami
Six honorary degrees to be awarded at commencement
Its that time of year again,
when hundreds of undergraduate, graduate, medical, and law students converge on the lawn between the Whitten University Center and the Otto G. Richter Library to receive their academic degrees. Commencement exercises will begin prompdy at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, May 8, unless otherwise indicated due to inclement weather.
Former U.S. president George Bush will deliver the keynote speech and will also receive one of six honorary degrees to be awarded at the ceremony. Honorary degrees are awarded to distinguished individuals who have made a notable contribution in their respective fields. The honorary degree recipients are as follows:
George Herbert Walker Bush As 4lst president of the United States, George Bush led the nation during such historic events as the fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification of Germany, the end of the Cold War, and emergence of democracy in Eastern Europe. Bush
also pursued a policy of free trade in the international economic arena, lowering trade restrictions and tariff barriers in the process. His efforts culminated in the Enterprise for the Americas Initiative and the North American Free Trade Agreement. Bush is also considered a strong international leader. He successfully engineered the overthrow of the corrupt Noriega regime and rallied worldwide support to send 425,000 American troops into Kuwait when Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded that country in 1992. A well-respected leader and visionary, Bush will receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Public Service.
Barbara Pierce Bush Her strong commitment to public service is just one of the reasons former First Lady Barbara Bush will receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Humanities. During her many years in public life, Mrs. Bush has volunteered countless hours and today supports various charities and humanitarian causes.
She is perhaps best known for her work on behalf of literacy, a cause she believes will help solve many of the problems plaguing American society today. As a result, Mrs. Bush helped create the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. To spread the word on the importance of literacy, she regularly makes public appearances to emphasize the importance of reading in daily family life.
Edwin G. Krebs Nobel Laureate Edwin Krebs is receiving the honorary degree of Doctor of Science for the joint discovery of protein phosphorylation— the reactions that regulate energy use, growth, and transformation of cells.
Internationally recognized for his work in biochemistry,
Krebs shared the 1992 Nobel Prize for Medicine with Edmond Fischer, his research partner for over 40 years. Their discovery of this process has been instrumental in helping scientists gain a better under-
standing of life processes at the molecular and cellular level.
Agustín A. Román One of the first Cubans in over two centuries to be appointed bishop in the United States, Agustín A. Román, auxiliary bishop with the Archdiocese of Miami since 1979, has dedicated his life to religious service and humanitarian work and will receive the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. After being expelled from Cuba in 1961, Bishop Román arrived in Miami in 1967, where he was quickly identified with the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity, a project he helped finance through the support of fellow Cuban parishioners.
Since then he has created a ministry that is marked by humility and tenacity. A man of action, Román was called on in December 1986 to mediate a crisis that erupted in federal prisons in Georgia and Louisiana when Cuban detainees began protesting there. Román was able to resolve the crisis without bloodshed, garnering him both national and international recognition.
Continued on page 3
ALS center opens at the School of Medicine
Thanks to a $1.75 million donation, the School of Medicine recently became the new site for a multidisciplinary treatment facility for families and patients suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the muscle-wasting disorder commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
The man behind the generous donation was West Palm Beach resident Mark Kessenich, Jr., who was diagnosed with ALS four years ago. Although Kessenich continues to work, actively trading government securities for the past 34 years, he and his family have recendy devoted their efforts to opening the Kessenich Family MDA (Muscular Dystrophy Association) ALS Center at the School of Medicine. The family established a term endowment fund to help make this center possible in South Florida.
“In my experience with ALS, Ive encountered a number of specialists who have contributed gready to the quality of my life. A major objective of the center is to provide a kind of ‘one-stop shopping’ where patients can consult a variety of specialists in one setting,” says Kessenich, who has received treatment at the Eleanor and Lou Gehrig MDA/ALS Center at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York while spending his summers in Wes th amp ton.
Several sports celebrities and artist Romero Britto joined more than 100 people at the opening ceremony, held at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center on March 4. Miami Dolphins’ coach Jimmy Johnson cut the ribbon, while retired Dolphins Hugh Green, Lorenzo Hampton, and Mark Clayton joined the celebration.
The Kessenich Family MDA ALS Center, under the direction ofWalter G. Bradley, chairman of the Department of Neurology at the School of
Medicine, will combat ALS through research and support for patients and their families from the time of diagnosis through the course of the illness.
MDA Senior Vice President and Executive Director Robert Ross says the center will advise patients and families about ALS and management of its symptoms; provide counseling about health care decisions; and help patients receive expert care in such areas as physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology, communications, respiratory therapy, and nutrition. The center also will organize and supervise support groups.
“To have single-handedly provided all this and more for others facing the daunting challenge of ALS identifies Mark Kessenich as a man whose courage is matched only by his generosity,” says Ross.
Other objectives of the center include conducting research and therapeutic trials in search of better treatments, or a cure, for ALS; serving as a liaison for ALS patients with primary care physicians, visiting nurse services, hospice care providers, physician specialists, medical consultants, and insurance company case managers; and publishing a quarterly newsletter and other educational materials.
“We also hope to develop a database, which will provide information and contacts for ALS patients and their families that will also be available through the Internet,” adds Bradley.
A former MDA research grantee, Bradley has directed MDA clinics at
Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston and the University of Vermont in Burlington, prior to directing the MDA clinic at the School of Medicine since 1992. He is also chief of the School of Medicine Neuromuscular Research Division and has conducted numerous clinical trials to look at potential ALS treatments, involving more than 100 patients in trials of Myotrophin, BDNF, GDNF, and CNTF.
“Rilutek is available, but it isn’t the drug that stops the disease in its tracks,” says Bradley, speaking of the
(Foreground, from left to right) Mark Kessenich, III, son of the donor; Walter Bradley, chairman of the Department of Neurology and director of the center; Mark Kessenich, Jr., and his wife Beverly, with (background, from left to right) former Miami Dolphins Hugh Green, Mark Clayton, and Lijfort Hobley at the center's kickoff event.
first approved ALS drug, which came on the market in 1996. “The only drug any of us will be satisfied with is the drug that actually stops the progression of the disease.”
For more information about the new Kessenich Family MDA ALS Center, call 1 -800-690-ALS1. Information about MDA is also available electronically through its Internet web site: www.mdausa.org.