Alumni Gazette
As it does each year, the commencement season offered the chance to honor extraordinary achievements and service among the University’s extended family. Five Rochester alumni—honorary as well as degree holding—were recognized in 2012.
Roger Friedlander ’56: Charles Force Hutchison and Marjorie Smith Hutchison Medal
A retired vice president of Staples and a University trustee, Friedlander was the cofounder of Spectrum Office Products, one of the largest office supply businesses in the Northeast before it was sold to Staples in 1994. From 1996 to 2000, he chaired the board of the Golisano Children's Hospital, and from 2000 to 2004, he chaired the board of the Medical Center. He’s been a trustee since 1997, and also serves on the executive advisory committee of the Simon School and the Eastman Dental Center Foundation Board.
Robert Hurlbut: Honorary Doctor of Science Degree
The president of the Hurlbut Trust and a University life trustee, Hurlbut is a leader in the business of providing dignified elder care. In 1968, he founded Vari-Care, which oversaw 24 long-term health care facilities and retirement complexes in several states. In 1994, he created the Hurlbut Trust, which offers financial and consulting services for health care facilities and rental properties. Hurlbut has served as the chair of the board of the Medical Center, vice chair of the Eastman Dental Center Foundation Board, and an inaugural member of the School of Nursing National Council.
Arthur Moss ’62M (Res): Eastman Medal
A professor of medicine at the School of Medicine and Dentistry, Moss is one of the nation's most influential cardiologists. His clinical and scientific research focuses on the treatment and prevention of cardiac arrhythmias (irregular heart beats), heart failure, and long QT syndrome, a rare, genetic disorder that makes the heart particularly susceptible to arrhythmias. He led the first large study proving implantable defibrillators saved the lives of patients who suffered a heart attack and were prone to arrhythmias. His discovery of three genes involved in the disease led to the creation of a diagnostic blood test.
George Walker ’56E (DMA): Honorary Doctor of Music Degree
A Pulitzer Prize–winning composer, Walker has published more than 90 works that have been performed by virtually every major orchestra in the United States and by many abroad. In 1996, he won the Pulitzer Prize in music for Lilacs for Voice and Orchestra, which was premiered by the Boston Symphony under conductor Seiji Ozawa. Walker’s most recent work, Sinfonia No. 4, premiered in March. He’s a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Classical Music Hall of Fame.
Glenn Watkins ’53E (PhD): Rochester Distinguished Scholar Award
The Earl V. Moore Professor Emeritus of Music History and Musicology at the University of Michigan, Watkins is a distinguished musicologist whose scholarly impact ranges from his pioneering studies of Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo to his influential books on musical modernism and its postmodern consequences. Watkins’s book Gesualdo: The Man and His Music, with a preface by Igor Stravinsky, was a 1974 National Book Award nominee.
