UF may soon be adding a little "Diddley bomp" to the "Pomp and Circumstance" graduation march come the next commencement ceremony for the College of Fine Arts.
UF's Board of Trustees is expected to approve an honorary degree for the late musician Bo Diddley at its Thursday meeting. Diddley died June 2 of heart failure at the age of 79.
David Denslow, chairman of the Faculty Senate's Honorary Degrees, Distinguished Alumnus Awards and Memorials Committee, said before Diddley died there was a strong effort made by the College of Fine Arts to push his nomination through the approval process quickly.
"He did not get fair compensation for a lot of the music he produced - for the rhythms in particular," Denslow said. "Unfortunately, he was recognized by some of us after he should have been - probably decades."
Denslow said the delay is attributed to a belated recognition of popular artists in an academic world where classic refers to Mozart, not Metallica.
"I don't think they're ready to rap yet, but they recognize his contribution," he said.
The only obstacle the chairman sees in the final approval is that recipients must accept degrees to receive them. Diddley will only be honored if his family accepts the award for him.
Janine Sikes, UF spokeswoman, said honors have been awarded posthumously in the past, and she does not expect the musician's death to play a role in the trustees' decision.
Two other nominees are also expected to be approved for honorary degrees.
Ann Lurie, a graduate of the UF College of Nursing, was endorsed by the college for an honorary degree for public service based on her philanthropic efforts.
Lurie's late husband, a wealthy Chicago investor, left her millions of dollars to donate as she saw fit. One of her bigger contributions was a $100 million check to the Children's Hospital in Chicago, her new hometown.
She has also spent months in Africa helping to bring modern medical treatment to the interior of the continent - something once thought impossible, Denslow said.
The College of Medicine nominated Dr. Hamilton O. Smith, whose father was a UF professor, for his work with genetics and genomics over the past 40 years.
In 1978, Smith received a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine as a result of his revolutionary work with DNA.
Smith's most recent success story came 30 years later when he and a team created a viable organism from scratch, Denslow said.
"They just put it together from nothing - they created life," he said.
