David Wenwold of the class of 1990 and Jodi Picoult, a bestselling author, are set to be awarded the Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree and Granite State Award, respectively. The annual commencement ceremony at Keene State will be happening at 1 p.m. on May 10.
Other awards, such as the Leo F. Redfern Outstanding Citizenship Award, will be given to a currently unknown student.
The Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree is defined as going to an “outstanding individual of national and/or international importance whose contributions have enhanced society or brought significant enrichment or benefit to a particular group,” according to the Keene State College press release.
The Granite State award, meanwhile, is defined as being “awarded annually to a person, agency corporation, or foundation that demonstrates outstanding achievement in their field and contributes significantly to the welfare or success of the state.”
According to a statement by President’s Office Executive Assistant Stacy King, “The Granite State Award and Honorary Doctorate are done through nominations from campus. A call for nominations is sent out to campus in January and followed up a couple of times to remind staff and students to submit their nominations. Once the deadline has passed the nominations are sent to the selection committee which is made of faculty, staff, past recipients, and alumni.”
“The committee is made up of 4 faculty, 2 students and 1 staff member. This year we received 4 nominations for the granite state award and five nominations for Honorary Degree,” King continued.
Wenhold currently holds the position of chief executive officer of the Kautter Wenhold Management group. He is also a co-partner for Miller/Wenhold Capitol Strategies and had been awarded the Call to Service award.
Picoult, meanwhile, has published 28 novels and short story collections, becoming a New York Times bestselling author and selling more than 40 million copies of her works. Some of her works include “Songs of the Humpback Whale” (1992), “Keeping Faith” (1999), “Salem Falls” (2001), “My Sister’s Keeper” (2004), and “Lone Wolf” (2012).
She also has had a hand in film and television adaptations, such as “My Sister’s Keeper” (2009) and “Salem Falls” (2011), both of which were film adaptations of her works. Four out of five of the media adaptations of her stories were Lifetime Original Movies.
Chloe Erno can be contacted at
