UAF to present honorary doctorates, Meritorious Service Award

April 16, 2018

The University of Alaska Fairbanks will present three honorary doctoral degrees and a Meritorious Service Award on Saturday, May 5, 2018, at its 96th commencement ceremony.

Honorary doctorates will be presented to business and civic leader Jacob Anaġi Adams Sr.; Oglala Lakota teacher and advocate Loretta Afraid of Bear-Cook; and Alaska musician James "Hobo Jim" Varsos. Former UAF alumni director and U.S. Senate aide Althea St. Martin will receive a Meritorious Service Award.

Honorary degree recipients are chosen for their lasting contributions to Alaska and the nation and for significant achievements in their disciplines.

Adams will receive a Doctor of Laws degree.

Adams grew up in Barrow, now know as Utqiaġvik, in a family of 12 children. After graduating from Mount Edgecumbe High School in Sitka and taking college classes at UAF and elsewhere, he returned to the North Slope. At 21, he was elected to the Barrow City Council and eventually went on to become both city mayor and North Slope Borough mayor. A lifelong participant in bowhead whale hunts, Adams helped establish the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission. His business career included service as chief executive for the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. from 1983 to 2006, guiding its growth into Alaska’s largest state-based company. Adams and his wife, Lucille, have six children and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Afraid of Bear-Cook will receive a Doctor of Humanities degree.

Afraid of Bear-Cook grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, where she was immersed in Lakota language, spiritual traditions and ceremonies. She has led classes, lectures and workshops around the world to share her knowledge of the Lakota culture. Afraid of Bear-Cook helped champion changes in federal policy that led to passage of the 1975 Indian Self-Determination and Educational Assistance Act, the American Indian Freedom of Religion Act of 1978, and amendments to AIFRA in 1994. She has been active in numerous tribal and nonprofit organizations, and participates in her husband Tom’s community, the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne, New York. Afraid of Bear-Cook serves on a doctoral degree committee for the UAF indigenous studies program.

Varsos will receive a Doctor of Fine Arts degree.

Varsos, better known as Hobo Jim, has shared his musical portraits of Alaskans and their lifestyles throughout the state, nation and world. He hitchhiked to Alaska from the Midwest as a young man, and in the 45 years since has become one of the state’s most well-known ambassadors. Varsos’ original songs about commercial fishing, sled dog racing, mining and logging have evoked life in the northernmost state, and he has performed at presidential inaugurations and for audiences around the world. The author of more than 600 songs, his work has been recorded by some of the most prominent musicians in the nation. Varsos has also produced dozens of albums for himself and other artists.

St. Martin will receive a Meritorious Service Award, which recognizes service to the local community or state.

St. Martin has been a prominent Fairbanks volunteer and professional since arriving in 1979 during a yearlong sabbatical from her job as a Michigan special education teacher. After varied early work as a waitress, mining camp cook and health club assistant manager, she served as president of the Greater Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce, UAF alumni relations director and as a local financial planner. St. Martin spent 15 years running the Fairbanks offices of both U.S. Sen. Frank Murkowski and Sen. Lisa Murkowski before retiring in 2014. During her busy professional career, she has also volunteered with the Rotary Club of Fairbanks, Festival Fairbanks, Big Brothers Big Sisters, United Way and many other organizations.

ADDITIONAL CONTACT: Marmian Grimes, 907-474-7902, mlgrimes@alaska.edu.