Antoine Predock to Receive Honorary Degree from MU
2,163 Graduates to Receive Degrees During MU’s Fall Commencement Ceremonies
December 12th, 2012
By: Jerett Rion
The University of Missouri will honor architect Antoine Predock with an honorary degree during the fall commencement ceremonies from Friday, Dec. 14 through Sunday, Dec. 16. Predock will speak at the Graduate School ceremony on Saturday, Dec. 16.
Predock is known for his famous architectural designs, including his first national award-winning building, the Nelson Fine Arts Center at Arizona State University. Since then, Predock has won more than 50 design awards for his architectural designs across the nation.
During commencement weekend, MU will award 2,352 degrees, including 1,703 bachelor’s degrees, 481 master’s degrees, 155 doctorates, 4 law degrees, and 9 education specialist degrees. (Some students receive more than one degree.) Of those degrees, approximately 305 were earned online.
“Currently, our graduation rates are the highest in our history,” said Ann Korschgen, vice provost for enrollment at MU. “This is a reflection of the combination of efforts from faculty, staff and students themselves ensuring a successful student experience at Mizzou resulting in graduation. We have confidence that these graduates will make a substantial contribution to the workforce.”
Each school and college holds separate ceremonies for commencement, and many invite notable speakers to address the graduates. University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe is scheduled to speak at the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources ceremony on Saturday, Dec. 15.
Other speakers at this year’s commencement ceremonies include:
- Brian Brooks, professor emeritus and former deputy director of the MU School of Journalism, will speak at the School of Journalism ceremony on Friday, Dec. 14;
- Ralph Hill, president and chief executive officer of WPX Energy, Inc. in Tulsa, Okla., will speak at the Robert J. Trulaske College of Business ceremony on Friday, Dec. 14;
- Stephen Kanne, director of the MU Thompson Center for Autism & Developmental Disorders, will speak at the School of Health Professions ceremony on Saturday, Dec. 15.
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NOTE: A detailed schedule of events and biographical information of honorary degree recipients are attached. For more information on the commencement ceremonies and Columbia accommodations, please visit http://commencement.missouri.edu.
MU Fall Commencement
Schedule of Events
NOTE: Students in the School of Social Work will participate in the College of Human Environmental Sciences ceremony. The School of Natural Resources in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources will hold a separate commencement ceremony. The schools of law, medicine and veterinary medicine do not hold commencement ceremonies in December.
Friday, December 14
Online Commencement
Website: http://online.missouri.edu/commencement
Alumnus Speaker: Kevin Gralen, president of ShopTab, an e-commerce tool for Facebook
Sinclair School of Nursing
1 p.m.
Jesse Auditorium. Jesse Hall
Speaker: Judith Fitzgerald Miller, dean of the Sinclair School of Nursing
Trulaske College of Business
2 p.m.
Hearnes Center
Alumnus Speaker: Ralph Hill, president and chief executive officer of WPX Energy, Inc. in Tulsa, Okla.
School of Journalism
3:30 p.m.
Jesse Auditorium, Jesse Hall
Speaker: Brian Brooks, professor emeritus in the School of Journalism
College of Engineering
6 p.m.
Jesse Auditorium, Jesse Hall
Speaker: David Russell, Missouri Commissioner for Higher Education
Saturday, December 15
Honors Ceremony
8:30 a.m.
Jesse Auditorium, Jesse Hall
School of Natural Resources
11:30 a.m.
Jesse Auditorium, Jesse Hall
Speaker: William Ruppert, National Nursery Products in St. Louis
College of Arts and Science
12:30 p.m.
Hearnes Center
Speaker: Justin Dyer, assistant professor of political science at MU
School of Health Professions
2 p.m.
Jesse Auditorium, Jesse Hall
Speakers: Stephen Kanne, director of the MU Thompson Center for Autism & Developmental Disorders and alumnae speaker Laura Franken, occupational therapist for the Blue Valley School District in Overland Park, Kan.
College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources
3:30 p.m.
Hearnes Center
Speaker: Tim Wolfe, University of Missouri System President
College of Human Environmental Sciences
5 p.m.
Jesse Auditorium, Jesse Hall
No Speaker
Graduate School
6:30 p.m.
Hearnes Center
Speaker: Honorary Degree recipient Antoine Predock (see attached biography)
Sunday, December 16
ROTC Commissioning of Officers
10 a.m.
Stotler Lounge
Memorial Union
No Speaker
Antoine Predock
Renowned architect Antoine Predock is recognized for his steadfast commitment to the cultural identity and geological history of regions reflected in his structural and landscape designs. His designs possess both contextual appropriateness and conceptual artistry.
He was born in Lebanon, Mo., and graduated from high school in Ferguson, Mo. He briefly studied engineering at the University of Missouri until transferring to the University of New Mexico, where an architecture professor, Don Schlegel, inspired Predock to enroll in the School of Architecture and served as his mentor. Predock then completed the requirements for a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Columbia University, where he studied with painter Elaine DeKooing, and worked as co-director of a modern dance company.
He achieved triple professional licensing credentials as an architect, landscape architect and interior designer before establishing a premier design studio, Antoine Predock Architect PC, in Albuquerque, NM, in 1967. Since then, he and his team of 20-plus architects have tirelessly planned more than 100 buildings and projects, including the famous 1933 Turtle Creek house in Texas, San Diego Padres Petco Park, the Las Vegas Central Library and Discovery Museum, The Ohio State University Student Recreation and Physical Activities Center, and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, Manitoba. His studio has offices in Albuquerque, NM, Los Angeles, and Taipei, Taiwan.
Predock is considered one of the top architects in the United States. He gained widespread attention after his first national design award for work on the Nelson Fine Arts Center at Arizona State University. His multi-dimensional spaces exhibit a regional identity and symbolic power that celebrate the natural environment, and cultural and historical characteristics of regions.
Predock has given 245 guest lectures to scholars at the University of Mexico; University of California, Los Angeles; Clemson University; Harvard University and many other prestigious higher education institutes globally. With more than 60 exhibits, 20 writing competitions, 240 books and chapters, 14 online publications, and 820 journals and newspaper articles, his productivity is nearly unparalleled.
Predock has been honored with more than 80 national and regional design awards. In 2006, the American Institute of Architects awarded him a Gold Medal, which was given in the past to U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Kahn. In 2007, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.
He served as the Nissan International Fellow at the Aspen Design Conference, as a Rome Prize Fellow with the American Academy in Rome, as an American Institute of Architects Fellow, and as the William Kline Fellow for Columbia University.
Predock also has an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from University of New Mexico and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from University of Minnesota.
He resides with his wife, sculptor Constance DeJong, in Albuquerque. His son, Hadrian, also is an architect.