UpDate - Vol. 11, No. 15, Page 1
December 19, 1991
Board of Trustees honors six with degrees, medals
Six individuals were tapped for University of Delaware honors
by the Board of Trustees, at its regular semiannual meeting Dec. 18
in Clayton Hall, in recognition of their contributions to the
quality of life on the campus, in the state and in the nation.
The board approved resolutions awarding the honorary degree,
the highest honor the University can bestow, to:
* Long-time trustee John E. Burris of Milford, who serves
as secretary-treasurer of the board, the Honorary Doctor
of Humane Letters degree;
* Long-time trustee J. Allen Frear Jr. of Dover, a 1924
University graduate and Delaware's U.S. senator from
1949-61, the Honorary Doctor of Laws degree; and
* Anna Janney DeArmond, Delaware professor emerita of
English who has served the University community for more
than 50 years, the Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters
degree.
Selected to receive the Medal of Distinction, awarded in
recognition of professional achievements and public service of
national or international significance, is George Dallas Green, a
member of Delaware's Class of 1956 and former manager of the
Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees.
Chosen recipients of the Medal of Merit, given in recognition
of contributions to human progress, primarily through sustained
service to others, are Lloyd Stuart Casson, Delaware '61, vicar of
the Parish of Trinity Church and St. Paul's Chapel in New York; and
Robert W. Grimble of Wilmington, an active member of the Academy of
Lifelong Learning.
Burris, former president and currently chairman of Burris
Foods, was first elected to the Board of Trustees in 1975. A member
of the Delaware Community Foundation, the Brandywine Foundation,
the Delaware Family Foundation and the Ethics Commission of
Delaware, Burris chaired the Sussex County United Way Campaign and
the Nehemiah Project-a program to build a chapel inside the prison
gates at the Delaware Correctional Center.
Frear was an agriculturist in Dover, a state commissioner of
Delaware State College and president of Kent General Hospital in
Dover. A member of the state Grange and the State Farm Bureau, he
serves as an adviser to the Blood Bank of Delaware. Frear was
appointed to the board in 1950, and he chairs the Honorary Degrees
and Awards Committee and is a member of the Agriculture,
Nominating, Physical Education, Athletics and Recreation and
Executive committees.
DeArmond, recipient of the first University
excellence-in-teaching award in 1954, earned the recognition again
in 1972. Although officially retired from the University, she
continues to teach, including classes in the Academy of Lifelong
Learning. She also has served on significant University committees,
including the Commission on Undergraduate Education. Author of
Andrew Bradford, Colonial Journalist, DeArmond also has written
numerous articles and reviews.
Green attended the University on a basketball scholarship and
lettered in that sport as well as in baseball. He left school after
his junior year to pitch for the Phillies, returning to complete
his degree in business administration in 1981. He also played for
the Washington Senators and New York Mets before retiring from
pitching in 1967. He returned to the Phillies as a manager in the
farm system in 1968 and was manager of the World Champion Phillies
in 1980-the team's first World Series win in 97 years. He was
inducted into the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame in 1983 and
currently is active in the fundraising efforts on behalf of the Bob
Carpenter Sports/Convocation Center.
Rev. Casson, a Dover native, was associate rector of St.
Andrew's Episcopal Church and rector of St. Matthew's Episcopal
Church in Wilmington, and served as president of the Wilmington
School Board, the Council of Churches of Wilmington and New Castle
County and the Delaware Opportunities Industrialization Center-
which he founded. In 1985, he was voted canon and subdean of St.
John the Divine in New York and he became vicar of the parish of
Trinity Church and St. Paul's Chapel in New York in 1988.
Grimble retired from the Du Pont Co. in 1979, where he served
as chairman of Du Pont International, S.A., and general
manager/director of the company's international department. He
joined the Academy of Lifelong Learning in 1981 and is the only
Academy Council chairman to have served two terms. Co-chairman of
the fundraising effort on behalf of the new home of the academy-
Roxana C. and S. Samuel Arsht Hall in Wilmington, Grimble is a
scholar of medieval history who has organized and led a number of
academy study trips in conjunction with Oxford University in
England.
In other action Dec. 18, the trustees approved resolutions:
* authorizing the administration to proceed with renovation
projects in Robinson Hall, the former French House and
the Newark Hall annex;
* expressing their gratitude to members, volunteers, the
governing board and officers of the new Delaware Diamonds
Society, created to attract and recognize donors who
exhibit exemplary support of the University;
* establishing the Eugenia Slavov Memorial Fund, in honor
of the longtime member of the Department of Foreign
Languages and Literatures, to recognize deserving
undergraduates in Italian and Russian studies; and
* establishing an endowed fund to be used for the general
enrichment of educational programs in the College of
Marine Studies, in keeping with the wishes of the donor,
known as the Maxwell Plater Harrington and Mildred
Hargadine Harrington Fund.