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Date: Tuesday, May 4, 2004
Contact: Jackie Pualani Johnson, (808) 974-7304
For Immediate Release
Bakken to keynote UH Hilo's spring commencement
Dr. Earl E. Bakken, picture taken by Sara Nealy
Dr. Earl E. Bakken, noted medical pioneer and philanthropist, will deliver the keynote address at the University of Hawai`i at Hilo’s spring commencement ceremony, to be held on Saturday, May 15, at the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium beginning at 9:00 a.m.
A total of 429 students representing the College of Arts and Sciences (389), College of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resource Management (15), and Ka Haka `Ula O Ke`elikolani College of Hawaiian Language (25) are candidates for degrees or certificates.
The University will mark a personal milestone when students majoring in the performing arts receive their degrees. Among the group of ten graduates are four students who will become the first to receive the new Performing Arts degree that was initiated in January 2003. The commencement ceremony will mark the occasion by highlighting some of their contributions in music, dance and drama.
Bakken was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1924 and educated in the Columbia Heights public schools. He served four years in the United States Air Force as a radar maintenance instructor until 1946 when he enrolled at the University of Minnesota. After earning a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree in 1948, he studied electrical engineering with a minor in mathematics at the University of Minnesota Graduate School.
He co-founded Minneapolis-based Medtronic, Inc., in 1949 along with the late Palmer J. Hermundslie. Medtronic is the world's leading medical technology company providing lifelong solutions for people with chronic disease and the major driving force behind the worldwide use of the implantable pacemaker for human heart stimulation serving markets in 120 countries. Bakken became Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board in 1957, the same year he developed the first wearable, external, battery-powered, transistorized pacemaker 1957 for University of Minnesota heart surgeon Dr. C. Walton Lillehei.
Bakken became senior Chairman of the Board in 1976 and held the position until his retirement as an officer in April 1989. As Founder and Director Emeritus, he remains active in company relationships involving customers and employees, focusing primarily on the company's mission in the bioengineering industry.
In 1975 he founded The Bakken, a nonprofit library, museum, and education center devoted to the history of electricity and magnetism and their uses in medicine and the life sciences. The Bakken's collection of rare books and antique instruments and devices has grown to be the finest of its kind in the world. The education programs of The Bakken are renowned for their integration of hands-on learning, history, and the arts.
After moving to Hawai`i in 1989, he joined the North Hawai`i Community Hospital board during its development phase and subsequently chaired it for seven years through the end of 1999. In addition, he is the founding board president of Five Mountains Hawai`i, which was formed in 1995 to stimulate economic vitality around a health and wellness industry on the Island of Hawai`i.
Bakken has authored several professional papers and delivered numerous speeches to medical, technical, educational and business groups throughout the world.
Francine Matthews, a psychology and communication major, will serve as the student speaker. Matthews was born and raised in Eugene, Oregon, graduated from Willamette High School in 1971 and moved to Hilo in 1991.
Matthews, who carries a 4.0 GPA, has made the Dean’s list in the College of Arts and Sciences each semester since the fall of 1999 and earned CAS tuition waivers for three years. She was selected for inclusion in “Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities & Colleges,” has been a member of the national communication honor society Lambda Pi Eta since 2002, and was named Outstanding Student of 2003 by the UH Hilo Communication Department.
She currently serves as President of Lambda Pi Eta’s UH Hilo chapter, and is a member of the University’s Psychology Club. Matthews co-founded and facilitated the 2003 Community Forum project “Dialogue in Action,” created to develop communication skills.
Her commencement address will focus on the human challenge of living a life that has meaning and purpose.
For more information, contact Jacquelyn Pualani Johnson at (808) 974-7394 or email pualani@interpac.net. For special accommodations, contact Susan Shirachi at (808) 933-0816 (V) or (808) 974-7335 (TTY). Requests for special accommodations should be made at least ten business days prior to the event.
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