Elmira College to Award Honorary Degree to Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Ron Powers
Elmira, NY (03/28/2019) — Elmira College will award its highest honor, the Honorary Doctorate, to Ron Powers, Pulitzer Prize- and Emmy Award-winning writer and critic, at Elmira College's 161st Commencement Exercises on Sunday, June 2, 2019. Powers also will deliver the Commencement Address.
Powers is the author or co-author of 16 books, including Flags of Our Fathers (2000), a New York Times No. 1 bestseller. Born in Hannibal, Missouri - Mark Twain's boyhood home - Powers has written extensively on Mark Twain and his literature, including a biography, Mark Twain: A Life (2005), also a New York Times bestseller and finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award. His book, Tom & Huck Don't Live Here Anymore: Childhood and Murder in the Heart of America, was a finalist for the 2002 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the Current Interest category and a semifinalist for a Robert F. Kennedy Prize.
"It is only fitting that Ron Powers will play a part in celebrating our graduates at Commencement," said Dr. Charles Lindsay, president of Elmira College. "His extensive career in literature and strong connection to the life and works of Mark Twain are befitting to Elmira College and our own connections with the famous author."
Powers's book, No One Cares About Crazy People: The Chaos and Heartbreak of Mental Health in America (2017), was named a finalist for the 2018 PEN/E.O Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. The book also was named "Notable Book of the Year" by the Washington Post and one of the Top Ten books of the year by People magazine.
Powers's career over the years has included, in addition to writing, work in broadcast, playwriting, and teaching. In 1988, he hosted an 11-part series of hour-long programs produced for The Learning Channel and appeared in the 2002 Ken Burns PBS film, "Mark Twain." Powers's two-act play, Sam and Laura, based on the young life of Samuel Clemens, was performed around the country in 2010. He has served in various teaching roles at Castleton University, Middlebury College, and Salzburg Seminar in Austria. He is the winner of the 1973 Pulitzer Prize in Criticism, for work done at the Chicago Sun-Times; and a 1984 Emmy for his commentaries on CBS News Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt.
Powers holds an honorary degree from his alma mater, University of Missouri. He currently lives in Vermont with his wife Honoree Fleming, Ph.D., a recently retired educator.
About Elmira College
Founded in 1855, Elmira College is a private, residential, liberal arts college offering 30-plus majors, an honors program, 17 academic societies, and 20 Division III varsity teams. Located in the Southern Finger Lakes Region of New York, Elmira's undergraduate and graduate student population hails from more than 20 states and nine countries. Elmira is a Phi Beta Kappa College and has been ranked a top college, nationally, for student internships. The College is also home to the Center for Mark Twain Studies, one of four historically significant Twain heritage sites in the U.S., which attracts Twain scholars and educators from around the world for research on the famous literary icon. Proud of its history and tradition, the College is committed to the ideals of community service, and intellectual and individual growth.
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Elmira College will award its highest honor, the Honorary Doctorate, to Ron Powers, Pulitzer Prize- and Emmy Award-winning writer and critic, at Elmira College’s 161st Commencement Exercises on Sunday, June 2, 2019. Powers will also deliver the Commencement Address.