Honoring alumni “who embody a commitment to lifetime learning and active citizenship” the College of Arts and Sciences will honor geographer Brian J. L. Berry, ’56, ’58; Nobel Prize laureate Linda B. Buck, ’75; author David Guterson, ’78, ’82; and actor Richard Karn, ’79; with its 2005 Distinguished Alumnus Award at a Celebration of Distinction dinner at 6 p.m. May 17 in the HUB Ballroom.
Berry, a geography professor at the University of Texas, is credited with transforming the course of geography as a discipline. Most associated with spatial analysis and urban theory, he also served as editor-in-chief of geography’s leading journal, Urban Geography. He was the youngest social scientist ever elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Buck, a member of the basic sciences division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and a UW affiliate professor, shared the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. She was recognized for her discoveries involving olfactory receptors and her work’s implications on understanding the nervous system and cancer (see “A Nose for Science,”, Dec. 2004). She is also an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Guterson is the author of the 1995 novel, Snow Falling on Cedars—for which he received the 1995 Pen/Faulkner Award for fiction. He is also author of Our Lady of the Forest, East of the Mountains and the short-story collection The Country Ahead of Us, The Country Behind. His work has also appeared in Sports Illustrated, Harper’s and other magazines.
Karn is a Broadway veteran, screen producer, author and philanthropist and is best known for his television appearances. After graduating from the UW Professional Actor’s Training Program, Karn played Al Borland on the primetime sitcom Home Improvement and currently is host for the syndicated game show Family Feud. Every year Karn returns to the Pacific Northwest to host the Richard Karn Celebrity Golf Tournament benefiting cancer research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Overlake Hospital.
—James Fraser