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St. Olaf to honor Oxford professor, administrator during annual Honors Day

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April 27, 2001

NORTHFIELD, Minn. ? The Rev. Dr. Ralph Waller is an internationally renowned theologian, a distinguished teacher and an acclaimed administrator at Oxford University in Great Britain. On Friday, May 4, he will become an alumnus of St. Olaf College, when the college presents him with an honorary doctor of humane letters degree in recognition of his many services to St. Olaf students and faculty as head of Oxford?s Harris Manchester College.

The degree will be presented at 10:10 a.m. in Boe Memorial Chapel during the college?s annual Honors Day ceremony.

Waller, who won the United Kingdom?s Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 1994, teaches and researches modern church history and religious thought. He is a Methodist minister who until recently chaired the Oxford University theology faculty, and in 1992 and 1997 was the select preacher to Oxford. He was a member of Oxford?s governing council, the Hebdomadal Council, until the reorganization of the university?s governance in 2000.

Oxford?s Harris Manchester College allows a limited number of junior students from the United States to study for a year at Oxford, with full access to that institution?s exceptional resources. St. Olaf students study at Harris Manchester/Oxford annually as part of the renowned St. Olaf international studies program. The Harris Manchester/Oxford program is the "jewel in the crown" of the St. Olaf College international studies experience, according to Patrick Quade, director of international and off-campus studies.

As principal of Harris Manchester, Waller has supported the St. Olaf program and has taken a special interest in St. Olaf students ? even serving as a tutor to a number of them.

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Honorary degree ? 2

Honors Day is the annual St. Olaf College celebration that recognizes academic honors attained by students. Started in the early 1950s, it cites full-time St. Olaf students who have earned a grade-point average of 3.3 or higher (on a 4.0 scale), as well as students who have won scholarships and fellowships, senior members of leadership and honor societies, and students elected to the national scholastic honor society Phi Beta Kappa.

The convocation, free and open to the public, will begin with a formal academic procession, followed by an invocation and recognition of the student honorees. This year one St. Olaf student has been named winner of a prestigious Marshall Scholarship, one has received a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship, four have been awarded Fulbright Scholarships, and many others have earned other scholarships and academic awards.

St. Olaf President Christopher M. Thomforde will introduce Waller for the honorary degree; Professor of English and Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs John Day will read the citation; and Quade and Professor of English Jonathan Hill will present Waller with the honorary hood. Both the award ceremony and a reception afterward are free and open to the public.

Before taking up his appointment at Harris Manchester, Waller was chaplain/tutor at Westminster College, and before that was minister of Elvet Methodist Church in Durham City and chaplain of St. Mary?s and St. Aidan?s colleges at the University of Durham. He holds degrees from Oxford (M.A.), London (B.D. and Ph.D.) and Nottingham (M.Th.), as well as a number of honorary degrees from U.S. colleges and universities.

St. Olaf College prepares students to become responsible citizens of the world, fostering development of mind, body and spirit. A four-year, coeducational liberal arts college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), St. Olaf has a student enrollment of 2,950 and a full-time faculty complement of approximately 300. It is one of Money Guide?s top 100 "elite values in college education today," and it leads the nation?s colleges in percentage of students who study abroad.

Contact Michael Cooper at 507-786-3315 or cooperm@stolaf.edu.