Special Alumni and Alumni Awards
Honorary Degree Recipients
Wil Haygood, aside from being a prize-winning international reporter for the Boston
Globe, is a role model for first generation college students and African American young
men for exhibiting the highest standards of commitment, personal integrity, and competence;
his lifelong support of education and his expression throughout his career of the Ohio
Dominican mission statement that "truth can be found in all cultures and
traditions" have created a legacy that will linger in the minds of many for
countless years.
As a sophomore at Columbus East High School in the 1970's, Haygood won a spot in the
Upward Bound program at Ohio Dominican College (now Ohio Dominican University). He spent
3 summers on Ohio Dominican's campus reading and preparing for college. Of his experience
in the Upward Bound program, Haygood has said, "Upward Bound found poverty-stricken
students throughout Columbus and encouraged, planted the seed, for college." Haygood
did attend college and graduated from Miami University in 1976 with a Bachelor of Arts
degree in Urban Studies.
In 1993 he received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Ohio Dominican
and was appointed "Thurber Writer in Residence" at The Ohio State University
for the Fall and Winter Quarters of 1994-95.
Among his many literary recognitions, Haygood was the finalist for the 1991 Pulitzer
Prize and has received the New England Press Association Award, the National Association
of Black Journalists Award for International Reporting, and the National Headliner Award;
he has also received an award from the Sunday Magazine Editors Association and a grant
from the Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship.
Haygood has written countless articles for various occupations; additionally he has
written three books, Two on the River; King of the Cats: The Life and Times of Adam
Clayton Powell, Jr., which won Notable Book of the Year by New York Times; and The
Haygoods of Columbus: A Love Story.
