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Hamilton College has announced the names of five people who will receive honorary degrees at the College's 188th commencement on Sunday, May 21. They are Kenneth (Kenny) Davern, a jazz clarinetist and saxophonist; John D. Feerick, dean of Fordham Law School; the Rev. Dr. Joan Martin, associate professor of Christian Social Ethics at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass.; John Nichols '62, author; and Sir Brian Urquhart, retired United Nations undersecretary.

Kenny Davern

Called "probably the finest clarinetist playing today," by Will Friedwald in The New York Times, Kenny Davern became interested in jazz in high school, developing a style which differed from the dominantly Bebop style of his contemporaries. Davern began playing professionally at the age of 16 and soon after he joined Jack Teagarden, with whom he made his recording debut. In 1955 he joined Phil Napoleon's "Memphis Five," then touring the East Coast. During the next few years, Davern often worked at the legendary Nick's in Greenwich Village, not only with Napoleon, but also with Pee Wee Erwin's jazz band, and finally with his own band, "The Washington Squares," that included Johnny Windhurst, Cutty Cutshall, Dave Fishberg, Cliff Leeman and Jack Six. During this period he also appeared at two jazz landmarks, The Central Plaza and The Stuyvesant Casino.

In 1961 Davern joined clarinetist/entertainer Ted Lewis for a month-long engagement at New York's Roseland Ballroom. From 1962 to 1963 he was with the Dukes of Dixieland. A highlight of this tenure with the Dukes is the remarkable Gospel album the band recorded with the Clara Ward singers. In 1963 he was in the on-stage band for the nine-week run on Broadway of June Havoc's Marathon '33, starring Julie Harris. Over the years Davern has appeared on the screen and the soundtracks of several movies, including The Hustler, The Gig, and The Mighty Aphrodite.

He also has performed at several European jazz festivals, and recorded several albums, including "Chalumeau Blue" (1976), "The Hot Three" (1979), "The Blue Three at Hanratty's" (1981), and "Love Hot Jazz" (1984).

John D. Feerick

John D. Feerick has served as Dean of Fordham University School of Law since 1982. He practiced law from 1961-1982 at the New York firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, as a partner from 1968 to 1982, developing its labor and employment law practice.

During his tenure as dean at Fordham, Feerick has served in a number of public positions: as a member of the New York State Law Revision Commission; the New York City Office of Collective Bargaining; president of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York; chairman of New York State Commission on Government Integrity; and as a special New York State Attorney General from 1987-1990, culminating in a series of reports to the Governor and Legislature, with investigative findings and recommendation for government ethics reform.

Feerick has been a mediator and arbitrator of many disputes, including labor disputes at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, the 1994 transit negotiations in New York, the NFL salary cap and recently in the NBA. He previously chaired the Ethics Committee of the Dispute Resolution Section of the American Bar Association. He is also a member of the New York State Judicial Salary Commission and the Committee to Promote Public Trust and Confidence in the Legal System. Feerick was a member of a task force that helped develop the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and he was a draftsman of the proposed constitutional amendment on electoral college reform that passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 1970. A graduate of Fordham College and Fordham Law School, he is the author of several books, one of which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and scores of articles.

Feerick currently serves as chair of the board of directors of the American Arbitration Association and was president of the Citizens Union Foundation.

He has received a number of recognitions including an award from Common Cause for his work in exposing campaign financing abuses in New York State; the distinguished lawyer's award of the New York State Bar Association, and its Gold Medal; the first Dean of the Year Award from the National Association of Public Interest Law; and most recently the Law and Society Award from the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.

Joan Martin

The Reverend Dr. Joan M. Martin is the William W. Rankin Associate Professor of Christian Social Ethics at the Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) in Cambridge, MA. She has been a member of the EDS faculty since 1994.

As an activist scholar, Dr. Martin had made a significant contribution to recent institutional anti-racism efforts at EDS as well as in its educational philosophy and practice. Her leadership extends beyond EDS, having served the American Academy of Religion's Section on Women and Religion Steering Committee and as the section's co-chairwoman for three years, as a member of the AAR's Womanist Group, and as the five-year host of the Northeast Feminist Ethics Consultation.

Dr. Martin is the author of a forthcoming book from Westminster Press (May 2000), More than Toil and Chains: The Work Ethic of Enslaved Christian Women. She earned a masters of divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1976, and a master of a

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