Paper director receives academic honour

A DIRECTOR of Thomas Crosbie Holdings, owners of the Irish Examiner, was one of five luminaries to receive honorary doctorates at University College Cork (UCC) yesterday.

Over half a century after Ted Crosbie received his bachelor’s degree at the university, yesterday’s return visit to his alma mater was mixed with nostalgia and pride.

“It is a great honour not just for me but for my family and staff. I’m very humbled,” Mr Crosbie said.

He added that as far as he was aware, it was the first honorary doctorate to be conferred on any member of his family.

He received a Degree of Doctor of Laws.

Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Richard Ford was conferred with a Degree of Doctor of Literature.

The Mississippi-born novelist who created the character, Frank Bascombe, won the prize in 1995 for his novel, Independence Day — the first novel to win both the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

Ted Murphy was conferred with a Degree of Doctor of Laws for his devotion to, and work with, the Winegeese Society.

He is best known for his 1990 RTÉ series on the Winegeese and their missionary work abroad. Through the series, the descendants of the original Winegeese were made more conscious of their Irish heritage.

Bertie Kelleher was conferred with a Degree of Doctor of Education for his contribution to the educational landscape; locally, regionally and nationally.

Mr Kelleher, who was appointed first lay principal of Colaiste an Spioraid Naoimh, Bishopstown in 1992, is a board member of the National Suicide Research Foundation and serves on the Boards of Management of five schools.

He has also been on several commissions for the Department of Education.

Loretta Brennan Glucksman is probably best known in Ireland as chairperson of the hugely influential American Ireland Fund which has raised in excess of $120 million (€89.8m) over the last five years.

She was presented with a Degree of Doctor of Laws.

Her late husband, Lewis, was also an honorary doctorate and it was the first time in UCC’s 162-year history that a husband and wife have received the same honour.