Macaulay Connections

–Daniel Blondell ’10, Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College, Selected as Senior Orator–

–Paul and Daisy Soros to Be Awarded Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degrees at Ceremony in Alice Tully Hall May 26, 2010, Introduced by N.J.Nicholas–

Ann Kirschner, University Dean of Macaulay Honors College at CUNY, announced that Robert Lawrence (R.L.) Stine, one of the best-selling children’s authors of all time, will be the Class of 2010’s Convocation speaker. The ceremony will be held from 5pm to 7pm on Wednesday, May 26, 2010, at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall.

At the same ceremony, Macaulay will honor Paul and Daisy Soros with honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees. The distinction salutes their leadership of The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, providing opportunities for continuing generations of able and accomplished New Americans to achieve leadership in their chosen fields. They will be introduced by N.J. Nicholas, Jr., investor and former President of Time Inc.

“This will be one of our most exciting and important Convocation ceremonies ever,” said Kirschner. “We have so much to celebrate. Leading our procession into majestic Alice Tully Hall will be our first-ever 5th-reunion class, the Class of 2005, who began at Macaulay when it was still named ‘CUNY Honors College.’ This spring, we admitted our tenth class, the Class of 2014, and that means we are kicking off our tenth-anniversary celebration as well. We will have a brief ceremony, introduced by graduating senior Penny Phillips of Queens College, to mark this wonderful moment in our history.”

R.L. Stine is one of the best-selling children's authors in history. His Goosebumps, Fear Street, and other book series have sold over 350 million copies around the world. Bob was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1943 to a homemaker and shipping clerk. When Bob was nine, he found an old typewriter up in the attic, which subsequently changed his life. After graduating from Ohio State University in 1965, he headed to New York City to become a writer. He wrote dozens of joke books and humor books for kids and created Bananas, a zany humor magazine which he wrote and edited for ten years. Fear Street was his first horror series, aimed at teenagers. Goosebumps began in 1992 and the book series quickly became a hit around the world. Translated into 32 different languages, it made Bob a worldwide publishing celebrity. Stine's book creations include: The Nightmare Room (also a TV series), Mostly Ghostly, a series about a boy whose house is inhabited by ghosts that only he can see; Rotten School, a humor series; and Beware!, a collection of his favorite stories, poems, comics and illustrations. These days, R.L. Stine is hard at work on a new Goosebumps series, called Goosebumps Horrorland. He lives in New York City with his wife Jane and King Charles Spaniel, Minnie. Click here to post a memory or message for R.L. Stine.

Daisy Soros grew up in Hungary and graduated from Ecole Hotelier in Lausanne, Switzerland. She came to the U.S. to study at Columbia University, attended New York School of Interior Design, studied at NYU School of Social Work, and worked extensively as a counselor to terminally ill patients and their families. She has been the recipient of the Fulbright Award, Lincoln Center Laureate Aware, Ellis Island Medial of Honor, International House Harry Edmonds Award, Casita Maria Gold Medal of Honor and The National Immigration Forum’s “Keepers of the American Dream Award.” Paul Soros, also born in Hungary, studied mechanical engineering in Budapest, but began looking for a chance to escape when a Communist government came to power, and in 1948, as a member of the Hungarian Olympic ski team in Switzerland, he defected. He took a master’s degree in engineering from Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, and in 1956, he founded Soros Associates, an international engineering firm with projects in over 90 countries. His is now active in Paul Soros Investments, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a board member of several corporations and non-profit organizations.

N.J. Nicholas, Jr., who joined Time Inc. in 1964, held a number of executive positions during his 30-year career with the company. He was named president of Time Inc. in 1986 and served as co-chief executive officer of Time Warner Inc. until February 1992. Nicholas is a director of the Boston Scientific Corporation, Xerox Corporation, and Time Warner Cable. He has served as a member of the boards of Turner Broadcasting, Bankers Trust Company, and Priceline; as member of the President’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations and the President’s Commission on Environmental Quality; and as chairman of the Advisory Board of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Nicholas is also chairman of the board of trustees of Environmental Defense Fund and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He attended Phillips Academy at Andover, Massachusetts, and received an AB degree magna cum laude in Economics from Princeton University in 1962 and an MBA degree from the Harvard Business School in 1964.