Editor’s Note: For graduate feature story ideas, contact Suzanne Dowling at 205/348-8324 or sdowling@ur.ua.edu.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Ransom Wilson, internationally renowned flutist and conductor, will give the commencement address at The University of Alabama’s spring commencement ceremonies Friday, May 16, in Coleman Coliseum on the UA campus.

Two University-wide commencement ceremonies will be held this year, at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., respectively, to award degrees. Wilson, who will also receive an honorary doctorate of humane letters, will speak at both ceremonies.

Also during the 9 a.m. ceremonies, two notable Alabamians will receive two of UA’s top awards.

Wayne Flynt, Distinguished University Professor at Auburn University and a renowned expert on Southern history, politics and religion, will receive the Hugo Black Award, UA’s top award, in recognition of his distinguished service to the people of Alabama and the nation.

H. Pettus Randall III, who served as chair of Randall Publishing before his death in 2002, will be the posthumous recipient of the Julia and Henry Tutwiler Award, UA’s most prestigious award for volunteer service to UA and the people of Alabama.

David Bronner, CEO of Retirement Systems of Alabama, the largest financial organization in Alabama, will speak at the UA School of Law’s graduation ceremony at 5 p.m., also in the Coliseum.

At 9 a.m., students from the following schools will receive their degrees (bachelor’s, master’s, educational specialists, Ph.D. and Ed.D): College of Arts and Sciences, College of Engineering, College of Human Environmental Sciences, School of Social Work, Graduate Interdisciplinary Studies.

At 1 p.m., students from the following schools will receive their degrees (bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D.): Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration, College of Communication and Information Sciences, College of Education, and Capstone College of Nursing.

A native of Tuscaloosa, Wilson has long been recognized as one of the world's leading instrumentalists and is equally esteemed as an outstanding conductor of orchestral and operatic repertoire. He has accompanied many internationally renowned artists from the podium, including Itzhak Perlman, André Watts, Frederica von Stade, Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg, Joshua Bell, Garrick Ohlsson, Jeffrey Kahane and Robin Sutherland.

He is an Artist Member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and is professor of flute at Yale University, as well as music director of the orchestra at the Idyllwild Arts Academy, and artistic director of Oklahoma's OK MOZART International Festival.

This seasons’ engagements have included concerts with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia; the Cincinnati Pops at Blossom; the Detroit Symphony; the Puerto Rico Symphony; the New Haven Symphony, England's Hallé Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, the Tulsa Philharmonic, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, among others.

He has recorded 30 albums as both flutist and conductor, and was three times nominated for the "Grammy" award. Other awards he has received include the Alabama Prize from the New York Times Foundation, and the Award of Merit in Gold, from the Republic of Austria.

Recently Wilson established a new CD label, Image Recordings, for which he acts as producer and head of Artists & Repertoire. Their first release, an all-Ravel disc played by the Borromeo String Quartet, was recently awarded the prestigious Chamber Music America/WQXR 2001 Record Award.

An outspoken advocate, Flynt has traveled the state of Alabama giving countless lectures on the plight faced by all Alabamians, particularly its poor citizens. In part, the interest grew from the federal war on poverty and his own Appalachian years in the mountains of northeast Alabama. His research led to his acclaimed book, “Poor But Proud: Alabama's Poor Whites,” which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and won the coveted Lillian Smith Award for Non-Fiction in 1990.

A native Alabamian, Randall earned his bachelor’s in history and English from UA; and his Juris Doctor from the UA School of Law in 1971. He became president of the family-owned Randall Publishing in 1976 and chairman and CEO in 1984. He remained active until his death on Sept. 7, 2002, following a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer.

Randall’s involvement in civic, fraternal and religious organizations included the Tuscaloosa Chamber of Commerce, the Tuscaloosa Arts Council, the Boys and Girls Club of Tuscaloosa, the Episcopal Church, the March of Dimes, the United Way and the Tuscaloosa Association of Retarded Citizens and more. In 2002, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama and was named Tuscaloosa County’s Citizen of the Year for 2002 by the Tuscaloosa Civitan Club.

For more information, see UA’s Commencement Web site at www.ua.edu/commencement2003/ or contact Suzanne Dowling at 205/348-8324 or sdowling@ur.ua.edu.