Commencement 2007 - Bowdoin College

HONORANDS OF THE 2007 COMMENCEMENT
GEOFFREY CANADA ’74
DOCTOR OF HUMANE LETTERS (L.H.D.)
Geoffrey Canada, president/CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone, is a visionary educator and
advocate for children and community redevelopment. He grew up in the South Bronx, graduated
from Bowdoin in the class of 1974, and earned a master’s degree in education at Harvard University
in 1975. In 1983 he began working in New York with the Rheedlen Centers for Children and
Families, an inner-city human services agency, and became president/CEO in 1990. The Harlem
Children’s Zone initiative was launched in 1997 in a sixty-block area of central Harlem to provide
children and their families with the kinds of support and resources that can transform lives and
communities. U.S. News and World Report named Canada one of “America’s Best Leaders” in 2005.
Last year New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg chose him to be co-chair of a task force assigned
to reduce poverty in the city. He is the recipient of the Heinz Award in the Human Condition, a
2005 Liberty Medal, and Bowdoin’s 1993 Common Good Award. He was elected an overseer of the
College in 1995, trustee in 1996, and trustee emeritus in 2006.
ROBERTO DÍAZ
DOCTOR OF MUSIC (MUS.D.)
Roberto Díaz is an internationally renowned violist and the president and CEO of the Curtis Institute
of Music in Philadelphia. A native of Chile, he is the oldest of three siblings who attended the
New England Conservatory of Music. He is the former principal violist of the National Symphony
Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and was a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra
and the Minnesota Orchestra. He has received numerous awards, including prizes at the Naumburg
and Munich international viola competitions. His 2006 recording of Viola Transcriptions by William
Primrose was nominated for a Grammy Award. An active chamber musician, he is a member of the
Díaz Trio, which has toured the United States, Canada, Europe, Mexico, Chile, and China. The Trio
was one of two ensembles invited by Isaac Stern to participate in a special concert celebrating the
next one hundred years of music making at Carnegie Hall. He has served on the faculty at the Curtis
Institute of Music, the Peabody Institute, and Rice University.
STANLEY F. DRUCKENMILLER ’75
DOCTOR OF HUMANE LETTERS (L.H.D.)
Stanley F. Druckenmiller is chairman, CEO, and founder of Duquesne Capital Management in
New York City, and a member of the Bowdoin class of 1975. His extraordinary record of success
in the world of finance is matched by a remarkable record of philanthropy—at his alma mater and
elsewhere. He was elected overseer of the College in 1991, trustee in 1996, and trustee emeritus
in 2002. During his service on the Governing Boards, he helped shape the College’s investment