FAYETTEVILLE -- Frank Broyles, former Arkansas Razorback coach and athletic director, and AIDS researcher James Hildreth will receive honorary degrees at the University of Arkansas' May 9 commencement, the university announced Thursday.
Broyles will receive an honorary doctorate of humane letters degree. He was the head coach for Razorback football for 19 seasons, first taking the job in December 1957. He also served as athletic director for 31 years before retiring from the position in 2007. Broyles, a Georgia native, attended college at Georgia Institute of Technology and earned a degree in industrial management.
"For five decades Coach Broyles has been the most prominent name in Arkansas sports," said Chancellor David Gearhart. "He built the Razorbacks into the state's team -- while taking Razorback athletics to national prominence. He did this with great integrity, never losing sight of the student-athletes in his programs, always working for the good of the University of Arkansas and the state."
Hildreth, born in Camden, will receive an honorary doctorate of science degree. He began researching the human immunodeficiency virus in 1986. He's the dean of the College of Biological Sciences at the University of California, Davis. Hildreth has had more than 100 scientific articles published, and received funding for his work from the National Institutes of Health.
Hildreth attended Harvard University and became the first black from Arkansas to be named a Rhodes scholar. He earned a doctorate from Oxford University and a medical degree from Johns Hopkins University.
NW News on 04/11/2015