Three to Receive Honorary Degrees at Rider Commencement Activities
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During its 144th Commencement ceremonies on its Lawrenceville campus, Rider University will proudly bestow honorary Doctor of Laws degrees upon M. Nathaniel Barnes ’77, Liberian ambassador to the United States, and Anthony Dickson, the retired president and CEO of New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Company.
Barnes will be honored at Rider’s undergraduate ceremony on Friday, May 15, while Dickson will be honored the evening before at Rider’s Graduate and College of Continuing Studies ceremony on Thursday, May 14.
On Saturday, May 16, American organist, improviser and composer Gerre Hancock will receive the honorary Doctor of Music at Commencement exercises for the Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton.
A native of Liberia, Ambassador M. Nathaniel Barnes was appointed Minister of Finance for the Republic of Liberia in 1999. Before leaving his post in 2002, he became the chief architect of Liberia’s fiscal program, overseeing and implementing a new tax code for the nation.
Believing that Liberia truly needed a new breed of leaders far removed from traditional politicians, Barnes decided to run for president of Liberia in 2005. He founded a new political party, the Liberia Destiny Party, and claimed the party’s nomination. Once losing his bid for president, Barnes threw his full support behind Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf during the subsequent runoff elections, and remains proud to have played a small role in her becoming the first democratically elected female president of an African nation.
In May 2006, Barnes was appointed ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations from the Republic of Liberia, and more recently, was once again called upon to represent his country as Chief of Mission, becoming the ambassador to the United States in September 2008. In this role, Barnes has already initiated the establishment of the Liberian Diaspora Advisory Board for the purpose of effectively engaging the Liberian Diaspora in America to tackle the Liberia’s poverty reduction strategy. His fundamental goal is singular: to make a positive impact on the lives of Liberian people.
Barnes enrolled at Rider University in 1975 and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance in 1977, before obtaining an M.B.A. with a concentration in Finance and Banking at Pace University in New York City in 1979.
Anthony Dickson served as Counsel to the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation, where he directed probes into governmental corruption, fraud and abuse in governmental programs and organized crime. He joined the legal staff of New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Company (NJM) in 1976.
Dickson was elected president and CEO of the NJM Insurance Group in 1991 after working in the areas of workers’ compensation defense, corporate law and government affairs. Headquartered in West Trenton, the NJM Insurance Group has more than 2,300 employees and has returned dividends to its policyholders every year since 1918, totaling more than $179 million in 2008 and more than $4.6 billion cumulatively. In 1999, he took on the chairmanship of the newly created NJM Bank, a federally chartered savings bank. At the close of 2008, NJM Bank had deposits of $410 million and assets of $531.3 million.
A former vice chairman of the Board of Trustees of Rider University, Dickson also undertook board responsibilities with CoreStates Bank, NA, South Jersey Industries, Inc., the New Jersey State Safety Council, and various New Jersey insurance related bodies.
Since retiring from day-to-day management responsibilities, Dickson has continued to serve on the Boards of the NJM Insurance Group and NJM Bank. He also assists the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness by chairing the Financial Services Sector Working Group, which seeks to maximize the readiness of insurance companies, banks and the investment community to help New Jerseyans recover from terror or natural disasters.
Dickson is a graduate of Rutgers College in New Brunswick and Rutgers School of Law.
Gerre Hancock, a professor of Organ and Sacred Music at the University of Texas at Austin, has been called the finest organ improviser in America and has been heard in recital in many cities throughout the United States and worldwide. Hancock has served as assistant organist at Saint Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in New York, organist and choirmaster of Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati and organist and master of the choristers at Saint Thomas Episcopal Church in New York.
A fellow of the American Guild of Organists, Hancock has been a member of its national council and is a founder and past president of the Association of Anglican Musicians. He has been a faculty member of The Juilliard School and taught improvisation as a visitor at the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University and at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y.
Appointed a fellow at the Royal School of Church Music in 1981, Hancock was also named a fellow of the Royal College of Organists in 1995. In 2004, he had the Medal of the Cross of St. Augustine bestowed upon him by the Archbishop of Canterbury in a ceremony at Lambeth Palace in London.
Hancock’s compositions for organ and chorus are widely performed, and he has recorded for Gothic Records, Decca/Argo, Koch International and Priory Records. His text, Improvising: How to Master the Art, published by Oxford University Press, is studied by organists throughout the country.
Hancock earned a Master of Sacred Music from Union Theological Seminary in New York, where he later received the Unitas Distinguished Alumnus Awards, and a Bachelor of Music at the University of Texas – Austin.
