Three to receive honorary degrees from Wofford
May 8, 2014
Coffey, Henry-Crowe, Kuh to be honored at Commencement May 18
SPARTANBURG, SC – May 8, 2014 – Wofford College will confer three honorary degrees during the 2014 Commencement Exercises on Sunday, May 18, on the lawn of Main Building. The event will be held at 9:30 a.m.; about 360 degrees will be conferred to graduates.
Dr. Charles Edward (Ed) Coffey, vice president and CEO of Behavioral Health Sciences at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Mich., will receive the honorary doctorate of science degree; the Rev. Susan Thurston Henry-Crowe, the general secretary of the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, will receive the honorary doctorate of divinity degree; and Dr. George D. Kuh, the Chancellor’s Professor of Higher Education Emeritus at Indiana University-Bloomington and adjunct professor of higher education policy at the University of Illinois, will receive the honorary doctorate of humanities degree.
The college also will present the prestigious Algernon Sydney Sullivan and Mary Mildred Sullivan Awards to two students and two non-students; the Roger Milliken Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Science; and the Philip Covington Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Humanities and Social Sciences. The honor graduate – the student with the highest GPA – also will be recognized.
A native of Little River, S.C., Coffey graduated from Wampee High School and was a member of the Class of 1974 at Wofford. Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, he majored in psychology. He was chosen as Wofford’s fifth Rhodes Scholar in 1974 and studied at St. John’s College, Oxford University. He then completed his M.D. degree at Duke University’s School of Medicine and completed residencies in neurology and psychiatry. For some time, he served on the Duke faculty as an associate professor.
In 1996, Coffey was recruited to the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, where he now is vice president and CEO of Behavioral Health Sciences and holds the Kathleen and Earl Ward Chair of Psychiatry at Henry Ford Hospital. He also is professor of psychiatry and neurology at Wayne State University School of Medicine.
Coffey is widely praised for his innovative work on “Perfect Depression Care,” regarded as a model for health care transformation. It has earned him numerous honors and an appointment to the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention. Serving on the editorial boards of several journals, he also has made numerous contributions to the fields of neuropsychiatry, mood disorders and brain aging.
Active in supporting Wofford alumni and academic programs, Coffey is member of the President’s Advisory Board.
In February of this year, Henry-Crowe of the South Carolina United Methodist Conference became the general secretary of the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, one of four international general program boards of the United Methodist Church, assuming a primary coordinating responsibility for education and leadership formation, the United Nations and international affairs, and advocacy.
Born in Asheville, N.C., but raised and educated in Greenville, S.C., Henry-Crowe graduated from Winthrop University in 1973. She earned the master of divinity degree from Candler School of Theology in 1977 and was admitted to full ministerial connection in the South Carolina conference in 1977. For eight years, she served in local pastorates and worked in campus ministry and then was a key conference staff member from 1985 through 1991.
In 1991, Henry-Crowe moved to Emory University, where she served 22 years as dean of the chapel and religious life, fostering interreligious dialogue in an ever-changing world of religious pluralism. She was awarded the “Chaplain of the Year” in 2000 by the United Methodist Foundation for Christian Higher Education. She also was the first woman to serve as president of the denomination’s Judicial Council and was a delegate to three General Conferences. Emory recognized her as one of its 175 History Makers during its 175th anniversary celebration, and LaGrange College conferred the doctor of divinity degree.
Kuh is the Chancellor’s Professor of Higher Education Emeritus at Indiana University-Bloomington and adjunct professor of higher education policy at the University of Illinois. He is the founding director of the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research and the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). He also served as the founding director of the Strategic Arts National Alumni Project. A past president of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, he serves on the board of regents for the National Leadership Council for the Association of American Colleges and Universities’ “Liberal Education and America’s Promise” initiative.
Kuh is the author of more than 350 publications and hundreds of presentations related to higher education topics. Of particular importance was his leadership in Project DEEP (Documenting Effective Educational Practice) and the resulting publication, “Student Success in College: Creating Conditions that Matter.” These influential benchmarking studies included Wofford and identified what strong-performing colleges and universities typically do to promote student achievement.
Kuh earned a bachelor’s degree at Luther College, a master’s degree at St. Cloud State University, and a doctorate from the University of Iowa. He is the recipient of seven honorary degrees and numerous awards from higher education institutions and associations. One such distinction, the Contribution to Literature and Research Award of the National Association of Student Personnel Administration, has been named in his honor.
