OU will give five honorary degrees at graduation in May.

Two health care advocates, an education advocate and a philanthropist will join commencement speaker Doris Kearns Goodwin in receiving an honorary degree, OU Public Affairs stated in a press release.

Aside from Goodwin, the most recognizable name to students is Lissa Noël Wagner. She and her husband Cy, from Midland, Texas, have a building named after them that houses University College.

Wagner and her husband have helped fund professorships in geology and geophysics in addition to improving the Laurence S. Youngblood Energy Library in Sarkeys Energy Center, the press release stated.

Fred W. Smith, from Las Vegas, worked his way up from classified advertising salesman to president and chief executive officer during his 42-year career at Donrey Media Group, one of the country’s largest privately held media companies.

On campus, Smith served as a director and trustee of the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation since its inception in 1954 and as the foundation’s chairman since 1992. Smith is accredited as the spearhead who expanded the organization’s countless charitable endeavors in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Nevada, the release stated.

Smith has played an active role in improving OU though many projects. Among them is the establishment of the Donald W. Reynolds Performing Arts Center on OU’s Norman campus and the Donald W. Reynolds School of Geriatric Medicine in the OU College of Medicine, along with the creation of 10 endowed professorships in that area of medical practice.

Libby Blankenship, of Oklahoma City, worked to improve support for Oklahoma’s students, teachers, academic programs, educational facilities and other endeavors. Along with her husband, G.T. Blankenship, she made possible a faculty chair on OU’s Norman campus in the history of liberty and a professorship in medical breast oncology at the OU Cancer Institute, in addition to providing essential leadership for other academic initiatives, the press release stated.

Public Affairs stated Blankenship supported medical advancement and research in the state of Oklahoma. For almost three decades, she has been a member of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation board of directors and is a supporter of the OMRF’s Fleming Scholars Program, an initiative to provide Oklahoma high school and college students the opportunity to obtain hands-on experience in biomedical research. While serving on the board of the Oklahoma division of the American Cancer Society, she founded Camp Live a Dream in 1987. This camp, sponsored by the society, serves as a place of healing for children whose lives are affected by cancer.

She serves on the boards of several organizations, including the Hough Ear Institute and the William K. Warren Foundation.

Michael Samis of Oklahoma City led the negotiating team on behalf of the state of Oklahoma in structuring the 1998 Joint Operating Agreement for teaching hospitals in Oklahoma City, a key agreement that kept medical education intact in Oklahoma City, preserved the ability to provide care to the undeserved and had an important impact on sustaining medical research programs. Samis currently serves as chairman of the governing committee of the resulting hospital system, known today as the OU Medical Center, the release stated.

Samis serves on the boards of the Dean A. McGee Eye Institute, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Presbyterian Health Foundation and the Oklahoma Health Center Foundation. In 1992, he was treasurer of the campaign for the state question to allow a $250 million bond issue for capital improvements at Oklahoma colleges and universities. He is a member of the Board of Trustees for the OU Foundation, where he serves as a member of the Executive Committee and chair of the Investment Committee. Samis is the chairman of Energy Financial Solutions LLC.

Samis is active in Oklahoma City community affairs, having served on the board of directors of the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce; Arts Council of Oklahoma City; Committee of 100, a civic organization established to support and fund needs of public safety personnel; Oklahoma City Museum of Art; Oklahoma Task Force on Volunteerism and the Allied Arts Foundation, among many other organizations, Public Affairs stated.