CLAS confers highest honor to Carson

Lakin, Snell and Windhorst receive recognition

Nadine Carson, who earned her bachelor’s degree in home economics at ASU in 1953 and was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2000, is this year’s recipient of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame Award. The award, established by the board of directors of the college alumni chapter in 1995, recognizes alumni for exemplary achievement. It is the highest honor the college confers to a graduate who has achieved professional distinction and made significant community service contributions.

Also being honored by the college are Mervyn Lakin, Alice “Dinky” Snell and Rogier Windhorst.

Lakin and Snell are receiving the college’s Distinguished Achievement Award, which recognizes citizens of Arizona, ASU alumni and others who contributed to the advancement and development of the college. Windhorst, a Regents’ Professor of Astronomy in the new School of Earth and Space Exploration, is receiving the Distinguished Faculty Award. This award recognizes faculty members who exemplify the college’s mission. Instructional excellence, special dedication to students and performance that make an impact in the greater community or in the professional field are hallmarks of award recipients.

Nadine Carson

Alumna Carson is being recognized for her strong leadership and outstanding community commitment, as well as her commitment to higher education. At ASU, Carson and her husband, Ed, have generously supported several key projects, including the Old Main restoration, the Edward and Nadine Carson Presidential Chair held by CLAS faculty member Stuart Lindsay, and the Ed and Nadine Carson Student-Athlete Center in Intercollegiate Athletics.

Carson has provided years of service and leadership to the ASU Sun Angel Foundation Board, the ASU Campaign for Leadership, Phoenix Children’s Theatre, Phoenix Symphony, Phoenix Art Museum, Homes for Emotionally Troubled Children and Teens, Les Dames for the Smithsonian, Camp Fire Regional Council Board, Arizona Cancer Center and the Council of the Children’s Burn Foundation.

In 2000, the Carsons received the Regents’ Award for Outstanding Service to Education from the Arizona Board of Regents.

Mervyn Lakin

Since coming to Arizona 31 years ago, Lakin, a retired internist, has been a leader in the community and at ASU. Still involved, Lakin chairs the Director’s Council for the School of Global Studies and is a member of the Advisory Board to the Barrett Honors College.

Far from limiting himself to the field of medicine, the wide scope of Lakin’s interests are evidenced through the diversity of his support for ASU. He and his wife, Lorraine, have contributed to numerous ASU programs, including the Ambassador’s Club, KAET/Eight, Jewish Studies Program, the Institute of Human Origins, the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict, the Department of History, and the Joan and David Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics.

Alice “Dinky” Snell

Snell, who is known throughout the community as Dinky, is one of Arizona’s leading advocates for children and education. While serving as chair of the ASU Foundation Board of Directors, she was committed to ensuring the foundation’s leadership role in increasing scholarship support for ASU students. Alice and her husband, Dick, were co-chairs with Nadine and Ed Carson of the successful ASU Campaign for Leadership, which ended in 2001 and in which more than $500 million – almost twice the original goal – was raised for the university.

Snell has received numerous awards, including the Phoenix Woman of the Year award from the Phoenix Advertising Club, the Freeman Award from the Arizona Science Center, the Volunteer of the Year Award from the Alexis de Tocqueville Society of the Valley of the Sun United Way and the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education at ASU.

Rogier Windhorst

Windhorst joined ASU’s faculty as an assistant professor in 1987. Now, nearly 20 years and many discoveries later, he is a Regents’ Professor.

As a leading international scientist who has unraveled the formation and evolution of distant galaxies, Windhorst’s research with the Hubble Space Telescope since 1994 has led to fundamental discoveries about the beginning of the universe. Throughout this time, he has led a large group of research scientists, graduate students and undergraduates. His Cosmology Group in the School of Earth and Space Exploration aims to understand how today’s universe of galaxies came to be, and how the first galaxies were born. He is one of the six Interdisciplinary scientists for NASA's 6.5-meter James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to be launched in 2013.

Carol Hughes, carol.hughes@asu.edu

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