Lincoln University Honors Distinguished Alumni During Founder’s Day Weekend on May 3 at University’s Living and Learning Center

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Harvard University Professor Emeritus Martin Kilson and Baseball Hall of Famer Monte Irvin are among the Honorees.

Lincoln University, PA (www.lincoln.edu)—Lincoln University, the nation’s first Historically Black University, will celebrate its rich legacy by honoring six of its distinguished Alumni during the University’s annual Founder’s Day and Alumni Awards Banquet on Saturday, May 3 at the Thurgood Marshall Living and Learning Center at 6 p.m. A full weekend of campus activities will be culminated when the University honors six of its outstanding alumni during an evening awards dinner ceremony. Through the years, Lincoln has educated a growing list of alumni who have distinguished themselves in many fields and made a significant impact on the nation and world. In the tradition of the rich Lincoln legacy, the University’s will honor the following luminaries who exemplify the University’s ideals of leadership and service in their respective fields:

Lloyd E. Asparagus, Jr. ’68
A faithful and loyal Son of Lincoln University, Lloyd E. Asparagus, Jr. has worked in a variety of managerial positions at his Alma Mater shortly after leaving the U.S. Army in 1973. He graduated from Lincoln in 1968 with a bachelor of arts degree in business administration. Currently, he serves as University Bursar, responsible for student billing and collection of tuition and fees. Asparagus began his employment at Lincoln as an accountant in 1974. Two years later, he was promoted to the position of business manager. From 1989 to 1993, he served as vice president for Fiscal Affairs and Treasurer. He has also held the titles of administrative manager and financial aid director.

Charisse Carney-Nunes ’88
Charisse Carney-Nunes is a 1988 Lincoln University alumna. She began her education on campus as a member of the University's LASER (Lincoln Advanced Science and Engineering Reinforcement) program and ultimately graduated magna cum laude with a degree in physics. While at Lincoln, she was a member of Alpha Chi National Honor Society and a recipient of the White House Initiative Award for Excellence in Science and Technology, Lincoln University Ladies Auxiliary Award, and a national recipient of the Outstanding Young Woman of Delta Sigma Theta Award. Carney-Nunes works as an attorney for the National Science Foundation (NSF). She graduated in 1992 from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government with a master's degree in public affairs, and Juris Doctor from the Harvard Law School. 

Monford M. (Monte) Irvin, ex ’42
Elected to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973, Monford Merrill (Monte) Irvin, who played shortstop, was one of the Black pioneers of baseball to integrate the Major Leagues. A star professional player from the time he joined the Newark (N.J.) Eagles of the famed Negro Baseball Leagues in 1938, Irvin was a power hitter who led the league in hitting with a .395 average in 1941. He also joined the New York Giants organization in 1949 and remained on the team until he closed out his career as an active player with the Chicago Cubs in 1956. Irvin was a representative for the Reingold Brewery from 1957 to 1968. In 1968, he was appointed Special Assistant to the Baseball Commissioner, and served in that role until his retirement in 1984. In 1979, he was voted “New Jersey’s Greatest Athlete” and inducted into the Lincoln University Alumni Hall of Fame in 1988. 

William C. King, Esquire, ‘73
William C. King currently serves as Director of the Office of Departmental Equal Employment Opportunity, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in Washington, D.C. That office has nationwide responsibility for the Department’s Equal Employment Opportunity Programs designed to ensure the enforcement of Federal laws relating to the elimination of all forms of employment discrimination in the Department’s employment practices. King holds a bachelor of arts degree in political science from Lincoln University, Pa., and the degree of Juris Doctor from the Northern Virginia School of Law. In addition, he served as a member of the Lincoln University Board of Trustees from 1993 to 2002, serving as Parliamentarian and later as Vice Chairman

Dr. Martin L. Kilson, Jr. ’53
Dr. Martin L. Kilson, Jr. is the Frank G. Thomson Professor of Government Emeritus at Harvard University. Dr. Kilson received his bachelor’s degree from Lincoln University in 1953 was the valedictorian of his graduating class. From Lincoln, Dr. Kilson went on to earn his master’s degree and Ph.D., respectively, in political science at Harvard University. In 1968, Dr. Kilson, who recently retired, became the first African-American to be granted full tenure at Harvard University. A prolific writer who has authored numerous social and political articles on Black life in scholarly journals, Dr. Kilson has written several books including Political Change in a West African State: A Study of the Modernization Process (1966) and Crisis and Change in the Negro Ghetto (1973).

Dr. Clisson M. Woods ‘64
Dr. Clisson Maurice Woods, a 1964 Lincoln University graduate, is a radiologist from East Point, Georgia, near Atlanta. He specializes in nuclear medicine. On November 3, 2001, Dr. Woods established the Roslyn Woods Bogle Memorial Endowment Fund (named for his deceased aunt) with a gift of $20,000 to benefit the University's Langston Hughes Memorial Library. The fund established a special collection of literary books and contributed to general operating costs at the library. After earning his baccalaureate degree from Lincoln, Dr. Woods later graduated from Howard University Medical School in 1971. He completed his residency in radiology at New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry, in Newark, in 1975. The next year, he completed his residency in nuclear medicine at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia.

Lincoln University, the nation’s first degree-granting Historically Black College and University (HBCU), educates and empowers students to lead their communities and change the world. Lincoln offers a rigorous liberal arts education to a diverse student body of approximately 2,200 men and women in more than 35 undergraduate and graduate programs.