DURHAM, N.H.—In recognition of their achievements, the University of New Hampshire will award honorary degrees to its three commencement speakers as well as to an environmental pioneer and a federal judge at commencement ceremonies across its three campuses this May. Granite State Awards for outstanding contributions to the state will also be presented to JerriAnne Boggis, executive director of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire; the Huntington Family, owners of Pleasant View Gardens; and Laura Landerman-Garber, president of Holiday Cards 4 Our Military-NH Challenge.

Josephine Lamprey will be awarded an honorary degree during the Durham ceremonies for her contributions to climate research and education, philanthropy and volunteer service that have had an enduring impact on the university and the state. As the owner of Lamprey Brothers, a heating and cooling company her family founded in 1923, she watched the climate change documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” and it inspired her to refocus the company from just selling oil to helping customers explore cleaner energy solutions. She also helped launch the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation’s Climate Action Fund. In 2012, she established The Josephine A. Lamprey Professorship in Climate and Sustainability at the UNH Sustainability Institute. Additional gifts to UNH, where she serves on the foundation board of directors, have supported climate fellows in the Sustainability Institute and the green grid at the Shoals Marine Laboratory, as well as social innovation at the Carsey School of Public Policy. 

The Hon. Kathleen O’Malley, who retired from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, will be awarded an honorary degree at the UNH Franklin Pierce Law ceremony in Concord. Prior to her elevation to judge on the federal circuit, O’Malley was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio by President Clinton in 1994. Before her appointment to the bench, she served as first assistant attorney general, chief of staff and chief counsel to the attorney general for the state of Ohio, Lee Fisher. O’Malley was also in private practice with Jones Day and Porter, Wright, Morris & Arthur, practicing complex litigation. She began her legal career as a law clerk to the Hon. Nathaniel R. Jones, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She received her J.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Law in 1982, summa cum laude and Order of the Coif.

In addition, Kenya’s representative to the United Nations Martin Kimani ‘96, former president of a nonprofit serving people with intellectual, developmental and personal challenges Paul Boynton ’73, and partner-in-charge of the seventh largest law firm in the U.S. Kevyn Orr will deliver the commencement speeches in Durham, Concord and Manchester and receive honorary degrees.

Granite State Awards, for outstanding contributions to the state, will be presented to Boggis and the Huntington Family in Durham and to Landerman-Garber in Manchester.

Boggis is the executive director of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire, founder and director of the Harriet Wilson Project and formerly served as director of diversity programs and community at UNH. She began advocating on behalf of New Hampshire’s Black history after she discovered that Milford, where she lives, was also the home of Harriet E. Wilson, one of the first African Americans in North America to publish a novel. To commemorate Wilson’s achievement, Boggis established a nonprofit organization to erect a statue of Wilson, the first statue in New Hampshire to honor a person of color. She served on the advisory committee for New Hampshire Listens and currently serves on the board of the N.H. Charitable Foundation. She is skilled in nonprofit organizations, facilitation, fundraising, management and social justice initiatives, and has been recognized for her achievements throughout the state.

The Huntington Family started Pleasant View Gardens in 1976 and it is now one of New England’s largest wholesale greenhouse businesses with facilities that cover 40 acres. PVG is a founding partner of the Proven Winners cooperative, the top consumer plant brand in America. PVG is also a founding partner of WinGen, a genetic plant breeding business, and Ticoplant, a stock facility in Costa Rica. In 2017, PVG launched lēf Farms, a hydroponic greens business. Many family members are UNH graduates, and Huntingtons have served on the COLSA Development Board, the UNH Business Advisory Council and the UNH Alumni Association Board of Directors. They also helped create the UNH Center for Family Business. They established the Huntington Family Scholarship Fund, which supports students studying plant science, horticulture and/or sustainable agriculture; and the Eleanor Rippe Huntington Nursing Scholarship, which supports undergraduate and graduate students in nursing. 

In 2003, Landerman-Garber handed out holiday cards to her family at Thanksgiving asking them to write messages to our military heroes, calling it their “ticket to turkey.” In October 2017, when she was determined to send cards to a family friend aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt and to each member of that Navy aircraft carrier, then deployed and out to sea. After learning that there were 5,000 plus military personnel aboard, she created the Card Challenge and got word out through social media platforms, TV, newspapers and hundreds of phone calls. She promised a WWII Veteran that if she continued the Card Challenge in 2018, that she would send cards to all five branches of our military. A promise is a promise, and, in the spring of 2018, she formed a nonprofit corporation, Holiday Cards 4 Our Military-NH Challenge, which has delivered 500,000 cards to troops. She serves as president.

The University of New Hampshire inspires innovation and transforms lives in our state, nation and world. More than 16,000 students from all 50 states and 71 countries engage with an award-winning faculty in top-ranked programs in business, engineering, law, health and human services, liberal arts and the sciences across more than 200 programs of study. A Carnegie Classification R1 institution, UNH partners with NASA, NOAA, NSF and NIH, and received $260 million in competitive external funding in FY21 to further explore and define the frontiers of land, sea and space.

PHOTOS FOR DOWNLOAD:

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Josephine Lamprey, environmental pioneer and philanthropist, honorary degree recipient at UNH-Durham Commencement 

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The Hon. Kathleen O’Malley, retired judge from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, honorary degree recipient at UNH Franklin Pierce Law

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JerriAnne Boggis, executive director of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire, Granite State Award recipient, UNH-Durham Commencement 

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Members of the Huntington Family, owners of Pleasant View Gardens, Granite State Award recipient, UNH-Durham Commencement

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Laura Landerman-Garber, president of Holiday Cards 4 Our Military-NH Challenge, Granite State Award recipient, UNH-Manchester Commencement