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Thursday, May 4, 2017

Commencement May 5, 6 | Smith memoir recalls life of a ‘working class writer’

Longtime commencement mace bearer Dr. Lee Meserve, Distinguished Teaching Professor of biological sciences, will reprise his role during commencement ceremonies May 5 and 6. Meserve will retire from BGSU in June.

Achievement to be honored at 288th BGSU commencement

Degree candidates at the University’s commencement ceremonies Friday (May 5) and Saturday (May 6) will hear from alumni who have gone on to distinguished careers in academia, the Coast Guard and the financial services industry.

The Bowling Green campus will hold three ceremonies, all in the Stroh Center. The 7 p.m. Friday event will comprise the Graduate College and the colleges of Health and Human Services, Musical Arts, and Technology, Architecture and Applied Engineering. Giving the commencement address will be Anthony Rucci, who received a bachelor’s degree in psychology and master’s and doctoral degrees in industrial/organizational psychology from BGSU. Rucci is now a clinical professor of management in the Fisher School of Business at the Ohio State University and a Distinguished Teaching Professor.

The 9 a.m. Saturday commencement for the College of Arts and Sciences will feature an address by Rear Admiral June Ryan, who earned a Bachelor of Science in biology in 1985. Ryan serves as the Ninth Coast Guard district commander, a position she assumed in June 2015. She is the senior Coast Guard commander for the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Seaway.

The colleges of Business Administration and Education and Human Development will hold commencement at 2 p.m. Saturday. Susan Mucciarone, who earned a Bachelor of Science in business administration in 1979, will give the commencement address. She is the managing director of Private Client Relationship Management at The Glenmede Trust Co. and a member of the Glenmede Management Committee. In this role, she leads private client investment and wealth advisory for individuals and families throughout the country.

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Smith memoir recalls life of a ‘working class writer’

Larry Smith

Dr. Larry Smith, professor emeritus of humanities and English at BGSU Firelands, has recently released his latest memoir, “The Thick of Thin: Memoirs of a Working-Class Writer.”

A native of Mingo Junction in the industrial Ohio River Valley, Smith shares in the book his memories of youth in Ohio’s Appalachian country where his father was a brakeman on the railroads of Weirton Steel. The book follows Smith and his wife, Ann, as they moved north to teach in Euclid, Ohio, then on to Kent State University, and finally coming to rest in Huron at BGSU Firelands.

Smith taught at Firelands College from 1970 to 2012 and is the founder of the college’s Firelands Writing Center. He was the first poet laureate of Huron, Ohio, and is a founder and director of Bottom Dog Press. He is the author of eight books of poetry, a previous memoir, five books of fiction and two biographies.

“Larry Smith’s strikingly lucid and complete memoir has a deep and strong focus upon bringing forward the experience of Midwest Ohioan mill town working-class life. His writing moves with great energy, directness, honesty, clarity, and empathy touching upon family, townspeople, and others, but also upon nature, in the sense of experiencing the oneness of self and place,” said fellow author Ingrid Swanberg.

Pre-College Programs offers help creating academic summer camps

Faculty who are interested in starting an academic summer camp for youth can gain assistance from the Office of Pre-College Programs.

The office staff can help camp directors with recruiting student campers; developing and coordinating advance planning; budgets and summer program scheduling; posting chaperone and other camp positions; working with related campus offices such as Conference and Event Services and Residence Life; and organizing camp staff training and orientation.