The graduates of 2013 won’t need to look far for inspiration at West Virginia University’s Commencement for the success that awaits them.

They’ll be in good company with an owner of the 2001 World Series champion team and a woman who helped shape housing and long-term healthcare for the elderly, along with three other extraordinary individuals who will be awarded honorary degrees from WVU.

This year’s honorary degree recipients are: Dr. Vicente Anido Jr., an international ophthalmology leader; Edward DiPaolo, a former Halliburton executive; Helen Holt, the first female West Virginia Secretary of State; Jennie Hunter-Cevera, a scientist who holds 15 patents; and Ken Kendrick, a business executive who made his career in computer software, banking and baseball.

Considered higher education’s most prestigious recognition, honorary degrees are awarded to individuals selected through a nomination process.

WVU’s 2013 honorary doctorates will be recognized during Commencement exercises May 17-19.

Vicente Anido, Jr.

Dr. Vicente Anido epitomizes the American dream.

Born in Havana, Cuba, in 1952, Anido would come to the United States and earn a bachelor’s of pharmacy and master’s in pharmacy administration at WVU. He then would go on to receive a doctorate in pharmacy administration from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

From there, he was all set.

Today Anido is a highly respected ophthalmology industry veteran and leader, with more than 37 years of multinational general management experience in the healthcare field.

From 2001 to 2012, Anido was president, CEO and a director of ISTA Pharmaceuticals, a company recently acquired by Bausch & Lomb. Prior to this, he served as general partner of Windamere Venture Partners. He has also served as president and CEO of CombiChem, Inc., a biotechnology company, and was president of the Americas Region of Allergan, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company focusing on ophthalmology, dermatology and neuromuscular indications.

Anido currently serves on the Board of Directors of QLT, Inc. and Depomed, Inc. Both are NASDAQ-listed pharmaceutical companies. In addition, he was just named chairman of the board of Aerie Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately-held clinical stage pharmaceutical company focused on developing products to treat glaucoma, a disease normally associated with increased fluid pressure in the eye.

He is married to Patty Chambers Anido. They have three married children, Vincent John, Cassie and Angie, and two grandchildren.

Anido will receive his honorary doctorate of science from the School of Pharmacy at 5 p.m. May 18 at the Morgantown Event Center.

Edward J. DiPaolo

A Philadelphia-area native, Edward “Jed” DiPaolo immersed himself into the WVU community as a student. He was a gymnast, a cheerleader and a candidate for Mr. Mountaineer. He was vice president of Sigma Chi fraternity, president of the American Society of Agricultural Engineering Student Chapter and a member of Alpha Epsilon.

In 1976, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering, but he already had his foot in the door of one of the world’s largest oilfield services companies, the Halliburton Company.

His nearly three decades with Halliburton began with a summer internship in Weston, W.Va. After graduating from WVU, he began working offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. In time, opportunities in the oil and gas industry allowed DiPaolo to work worldwide in various technical and management roles, leading to his position as group senior vice president of global business development at Halliburton.

He retired in 2002, at the age of 49, as one member of a three-man leadership team that managed an $8 billion business with 100,000 employees located in 106 countries.

DiPaolo is a partner in and president of JNDI Corporation, an oil and gas consulting company he formed in 2002. He brings more than 36 years of experience in the energy industry to clients worldwide. He also serves as a senior advisor with Duff & Phelps Corporation, a publicly traded financial advisory and investment banking firm. He was an energy partner at Growth Capital Partners, L.P. in Houston, Texas, for eight years, and currently serves on the advisory board of the WVU Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources.

DiPaolo has been married for 36 years to Nancy McCormick from Logan, W.Va. They live in Houston and have two daughters.

He will receive his honorary doctorate of science from the Statler College at 1 p.m. May 18 at the Coliseum.

Helen Holt

There are extraordinary people who’ve never attended WVU – yet they still embody the true Mountaineer spirit.

Helen F. Holt is one of those people.

Born in rural Illinois in 1913, Holt would accomplish her greatest feats after moving to the Mountain State in the 1940s.

It was here where she became the first female Secretary of State of West Virginia, served in the House of Delegates, and led the most important program in housing and long-term healthcare for the elderly in the 20th century.

Before coming to West Virginia, Holt received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in zoology from Northwestern University and was inducted into Sigma Xi.

In 1941, she married the dynamic former U.S. Sen. Rush D. Holt, of West Virginia, the youngest person ever elected to the Senate. Holt moved to Weston, W.Va., where she raised three children, started a nursery school, served as a state officer of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs and was principal adviser to her husband, whom she succeeded in the state legislature after his early death.

Following her two years as the Secretary of State of West Virginia, Holt served as Assistant Commissioner of Public Institutions and was responsible for the women’s prison and homes for elderly persons.

In 1960, President Eisenhower appointed her to create a program to lead the nation away from unsafe, inefficient nursing homes. Through Holt’s mortgage insurance program at the Federal Housing Administration, and later the Department of Housing and Urban Development, she established nationally high standards for the care of the elderly and oversaw the construction of 1,000 modern long-term healthcare facilities with more than 100,000 beds, at no cost to the American taxpayer. Her work was so successful, she was reappointed by six subsequent presidents.

The late Sen. Robert Byrd said in tribute, “West Virginians are proud to claim Helen Holt. She is a very charming woman who wins friends and admirers wherever she goes.”

Holt will receive her honorary doctorate of humane letters from the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at 10 a.m. May 19 at the Creative Arts Center.

Jennie Hunter-Cevera

Dr. Jennie Hunter-Cevera is the founder of Hunter and Associates, a consulting firm that finds integrative solutions to complex problems in the life sciences arena such as sustainability issues.

Her 22 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries include work with E. R. Squibb and Sons, Cetus Corporation, GeoBiotics and Universal Foods. She founded both The Biotic Network and Blue Sky Laboratory and spent five years as the head of the Center for Environmental Biotechnology at the E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In addition, she served for 10 years as the president of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute. Most recently, she was executive vice president of discovery and analytical sciences, government relations, public relations and corporate development at RTI International.

Hunter-Cevera holds 15 patents and specializes in screen design for the discovery of natural compounds in the areas of human therapeutics, nutraceticals, biodefense, sustainable agriculture, bioremediation and biocatalysis for industrial processes in the food and clothing industries.

Her journey began at WVU, where she completed a bachelor’s in biology and a master’s in microbial ecology. She earned a doctorate in microbial physiology and biochemistry from Rutgers University. Because of her outstanding academic and professional achievements, she has been named a WVU Distinguished Alumni and Nath Lecturer.

She is currently on the board of directors for Entremed, an oncology discovery and clinical research company. She has previously served as president of the Society for Industrial Microbiology, the International Marine Biotechnology Association and the United States Federation of Culture Collections. Most recently, she was chair of the National Research Council’s committee on large-scale production of biofuels from algae. She has chaired two other National Research Council committees and served as senior editor of the Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology for 10 years.

She will receive her honorary doctorate of science from the Eberly College at 2 p.m. May 19 at the Coliseum.

Ken Kendrick

Computers, banking and baseball.

It’s lucky enough for one person to succeed in a career revolving around any of these fields, but for Princeton, W.Va., native Ken Kendrick, he’s aced all three.

Kendrick started his career with IBM in 1965 after receiving a business administration degree from WVU. In 1968, he founded Datatel, Inc., which has become the worldwide leader in the development of computer software for the management of infrastructure technology for colleges, universities and foundations.

In the 1980s and 1990s, he served as a banking industry executive in Texas. He is the principal investor in Woodforest National Bank, one of the nation’s largest privately owned financial institutions. In addition, he owns Bumble Bee Ranch, which is devoted to providing western lifestyle experiences to children’s charities throughout Arizona.

But nowadays Kendrick may be best known as managing general partner and principal owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks. He became part-owner with the team’s inception in 1995 and sought to establish fiscal discipline and profitability for the team, which won the 2001 World Series.

Kendrick is also chairman of the Arizona Diamondbacks Foundation and serves on the boards of numerous other charitable organizations.

Kendrick sits on the board of directors for the WVU Foundation and has established programs at WVU’s College of Business and Economics focused on free market research and at the WVU Eye Institute to support children’s vision outreach programs. He also funded the WVU Hall of Traditions, was inducted into the State of West Virginia’s Business Hall of Fame, the WVU Academy of Distinguished Alumni and the inaugural Roll of Distinguished Alumni at the College of Business and Economics.

Kendrick and his wife founded the Freedom Center at the University of Arizona, which endows the Kendrick Chair in Philosophy and Economics.

Kendrick and his wife, Randy, and their two children, Cal and Catie, make their home in Paradise Valley, Ariz.

He will receive his honorary doctorate of humane letters from the College of Business and Economics at 6 p.m. May 18 at the Coliseum.

For more information on WVU Commencement, including webcast information, see: http://commencement.wvu.edu/.

Visitors to http://honorarydegrees.wvu.edu/ can view the history of honorary degrees at WVU, from 1873, when the school’s first honorary degree was bestowed on Marmaduke H. Dent, to the present.

The site also includes background on the significance and history of honorary degrees, and the guidelines for nomination.

-WVU-

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