Look who's graduating today!

MEDIA RELEASE

ALGOMA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

************ Convocation 2006

Algoma U is preparing for the 2006 Convocation Ceremony being held on campus at 2 p.m. today.

Algoma U will graduate 140 students.

(To see who's who in this year's graduating class, please follow the links at the bottom of this article.)

Algoma U is proud to have now graduated 4,291 students since its inception in 1967.

This year's Algoma U Honorary Degree (Doctors of Letters) – (honoris causa) is Mr. Frederick Griffith (shown).

Frederick Griffith (O.D., College of Optometry of Ontario, Waterloo; B.A. Laurentian @ Algoma) is a pioneer in Canadian health services.

He served in the Armed Forces during World War II and thereafter earned a Doctorate in Optometry in 1950.

In his three decades as Chief Executive Officer of the Group Health Centre in Sault Ste. Marie (1964-1990), he helped design a model of community healthcare that has been lauded and imitated the world over; this, at a time when medicare did not exist in the Province of Ontario.

He helped spearhead a new method of delivering health services – group practice – from the traditional solo, fee-for-service practice and in doing so, the Group Health Centre has become the envy of service providers across the country and the world.

His impact on health care legislation and delivery is unparalleled.

Today, the GHC is Ontario's largest and longest established alternatively funded healthcare organization.

This multi-specialty, ambulatory care health organization serves over 60,000 Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma District residents.

The principles upon which Mr. Griffith directed the GHC still remain today: group medical practice, consumer sponsorship and the prepayment of medical insurance.

These values express his lifelong commitment to excellence, innovative management, and community governance.

His impact on this community has been honoured with the Sault Ste. Marie Medal of Merit for outstanding contribution in the field of health care to the community, as well as the Dr. W. E. Hutchinson Memorial Award for exceptional contribution to health service in Algoma.

This year, the Algoma U Senate’s Honorary Member of Algoma U Award is being presented to Dr. Lou Lukenda.

Lou Lukenda grew up in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and worked his way through school working at Algoma Steel, on weekends.

He attended Soo Tech and lettered in both basketball and football.

Dr. Lukenda completed his undergraduate degree at LSSU in 1949 and was honored with LSSU's Outstanding Alumnus Award in 1983.

He attended the School of Dentistry at the University of Toronto and graduated in 1954, at the top of his class.

He returned to the Sault, thereafter, setting up a dental practice and went on to become a pillar of community service through his work in the Sault education and hospital boards.

Dr. Lukenda was chairman of the Sault Area Hospital board when he jumped into a second career.

The early 70s saw a real shortage of hospital beds for long-term care patients.

Patients were lined up on stretchers in the corridors.

Lukenda and two partners ventured into what was at the time relatively new long-term care nursing homes to relieve hospital crowding.

With a management agreement with a company called Extendicare, Tendercare built a nursing home that filled up in three weeks.

Thereafter, Tendercare acquired homes in Indiana.

Then, in 1989, Tendercare started negotiations for 42 homes in Michigan housing 7000 residents.

"One day I had a very busy dental practice in the Sault," recalls Lukenda.

"Almost the very next day we owned and operated about 4000 beds with 3500 employees."

Today, Tendercare provides long-term care services in Canada and the U.S.

The Sault-based company is the largest provider of long-term care in Michigan. "Not bad for a kid they called 'Lou from the Soo'."

Dr. Lukenda is a retired dentist and CEO of Tendercare Health Centers of Michigan.

He has served on the LSSU Foundation Board of Directors since its establishment.

Dr. Lukenda has been active in the twin Saults - since the time he has been a boy - in many community organizations and projects and has been a philanthropist for postsecondary educational institutions in the twin Saults.

His principal interests have been education and health, and this nomination is to recognize his lifelong impact in these areas.

New this year is the Distinguished Faculty Award, which will be presented to Dr. William Osei, Associate Professor Department of Geography and Geology, Liberal Science.

This prestigious award recognizes exceptional faculty contribution at Algoma U.

The recipient embodies the ideals of the University mission: teaching excellence and scholarship with a demonstrated commitment to community and institutional citizenship.

Look who just graduated:

Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of Social Work (Honours) Bachelor of Arts (General) Bachelor of Business Administration (Honours) Bachelor of Business Administration Bachelor of Science (Honours) Bachelor of Computer Science Bachelor of Science (General) Bachelor of Science (Liberal)