Editors: For additional information on the award recipients contact Greg Swenson at the CU-Boulder Office of News Services at (303) 492-3113.
The University of Colorado at Boulder will honor four alumni with prestigious awards at the university commencement ceremony on Friday, Dec. 22, at 9:30 a.m. at the Coors Events/Conference Center.
NASA astronaut James Voss and computer software pioneer David Stern will be awarded honorary doctor of science degrees. Charles Wilcox, a staple of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, will receive the University Medal. Barbara Hornby, a longtime proponent of preserving and protecting historic Colorado, will receive the university聮s Distinguished Service Award.
Voss is a veteran of four space flights, including a trip to the International Space Station aboard the space shuttle Atlantis. He is scheduled to make a fifth flight in February 2001. Voss received a master聮s degree in aerospace engineering from CU-Boulder in 1974 and was assigned to NASA聮s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in 1984, where he was selected as an astronaut candidate in 1987.
Stern, who was born and raised in Colorado, conceived and developed Interactive Data Language, a computer language used by scientists and engineers in dozens of fields to rapidly analyze data. IDL is one of the principal processing and visualization tools for Hubble Space Telescope images and El Ni帽o satellite monitoring systems. Stern founded Research Systems, Inc. in Boulder and built it into a company with 75,000 customers worldwide, including NASA, Porsche, Abbott Laboratories and many other companies and laboratories. In October, Stern sold the company to the Eastman Kodak Co.
Wilcox, who received a master聮s degree in theater from CU-Boulder in 1976, has devoted nearly 30 years of his life to theater production, including 20 years performing with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. He has played many of Shakespeare聮s characters including Brutus, Toby Belch, Bottom, Gonzolo, Caliban and John of Gaunt. During the annual Colorado Shakespeare Festival he is also frequently seen portraying "Will Shakespeare," a character he created who takes on the role of the famous playwright.
Hornby has spent nearly three decades prompting historic preservation of Colorado landmarks and structures and helping present-day Coloradans maintain their connection to Coloradans of the past. She graduated from CU-Boulder in 1944 with a bachelor聮s degree in English literature, and went on to serve as the first woman and professional president of the century-old Colorado Historical Society and was one of the founding board members of CU-Boulder聮s Center of the American West. She now serves as vice chair of the Colorado Historical Foundation and of the Denver Landmark Commission.