Israeli leader to receive president’s medal
GW President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg will present the president’s medal to former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres June 26 at noon in the Betts Theatre.
Peres became prime minister following the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. He lost the race for re-election to Benjamin Netanyahu in 1996.
Peres will make remarks and take questions at the ceremony. Tickets are required for the event, which is free. Call 994-5440 for ticket information.
-Matt Berger
SMPA welcomes new Shapiro fellow
Education Week co-founder Martha Matzke will join the faculty of GW’s School of Media and Public Affairs as the fall semester’s Shapiro Fellow.
Matzke will assist SMPA faculty members in updating the school’s introductory reporting courses to include instruction in online reporting and new information technology. She also will teach a beginning reporting class.
During her journalism career, Matzke has covered education issues for U.S. News & World Report and worked as a reporter and editor at the Providence (R.I.) Journal Bulletin.
Matzke co-founded Education Week, an independent national newspaper that covers issues about precollegiate education.
She was a Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University and served as founding chairman of the Howard Simons Foundation for Native American Journalists.
-Becky Neilson
Math professor emeritus dies
GW professor emeritus of mathematics Hewitt Kenyon died of respiratory failure June 18 at the age of 77.
Kenyon joined GW’s math department in 1961 as an assistant professor. He became a full professor in 1966 and served as chairman of the mathematics department from 1967 to 1971. He retired and received emeritus status in 1991.
Kenyon received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California-Berkeley in 1942, and a Ph.D. in mathematics in 1954. During World War II, he served in the Navy aboard submarines in the South Pacific.
Kenyon also served on the GW Green University Initiative’s Health and Safety Committee.
-Helder Gil
