University of Southern Indiana

USI Alumni Association

Issue 9: March 2004
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More than 1,500 degrees to be awarded

The University of Southern Indiana Board of Trustees at the March 4 board meeting approved 1,500 associate, baccalaureate, and master's degrees to be awarded in 2004. The degrees will be conferred during the Commencement ceremony at 3 p.m. on Sunday, May 9.

Board members also approved awarding honorary degrees, one posthumously, to Indiana citizens. The degrees will be awarded to John M. Dunn, president of Dunn Hospitality Group; posthumously to Ruth Gray Yates, a respected and inspirational educator and benefactor who died earlier this year, and Melissa S. May, a judge and member of the Indiana Court of Appeals, who will be this year's Commencement speaker.

Dunn will be recognized for his civic and University leadership. Dunn heads a hotel management group with hotels and extended stay facilities in Indiana and Kentucky. He is a former chair of the USI Foundation Board of Directors and was active as a major gifts chair in the Boards Division of Campaign USI, the first capital campaign conducted at the University.

Dunn's other volunteer work through the years includes serving as chair of the Tri-State Youth for Christ Board of Directors, member of the board of directors for the Evansville Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Mission Health Systems, Old National Bank, Welborn Foundation, Welborn Baptist Foundation, WNIN-TV/FM 88 and Vectren, Inc., and member of the advisory council for the Indiana University Medical School. An honor graduate of Oakland City University, he received an honorary degree from that institution in 1977.

Yates, whose teaching career spanned 35 years, was born in Evansville and was a member of the second graduating class of Bosse High School in 1926. A graduate of the University of Evansville, she married fellow educator Davis Yates in 1938 and together they gave 80 years of service to the youth of Vanderburgh County. The couple moved to Perry County in 1964 and to Tell City in 1979. Mrs. Yates was active in the community until her death. Beginning in 1999 and continuing until her death, Mrs. Yates was a close friend of USI. She was a member of Reflections, the Planned Giving Society of the USI Foundation; she was an annual underwriter of the New Harmony Theatre; and she had established the Ruth Gray Yates Endowed Presidential Scholarship and a four-year named Presidential Scholarship. She will be recognized for her lifelong commitment to education, dedicated community involvement, and her interest in the USI students.

Melissa S. May is a former Evansville attorney and a judge with the Indiana Court of Appeals. She is one of three judges for the Fourth District. Her honorary degree will recognize her distinguished career in the law and in the judiciary. May is currently on the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Attorney Specialization and chair of the Specialization Committee for the Continuing Legal Education Commission. She is a member of the American Bar Association, Indiana Bar Association, Evansville Bar Association, Indianapolis Bar Association, National Association of Women Judges, Indiana Judges Association, and American Judicature Society. She earned her law degree from Indiana University-Indianapolis and is a member of the adjunct faculty for the IU School of Law.

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