Newsmakers

Farewell to Robert Hill

Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg hosted a farewell party for Robert Hill (above right), Pitt’s vice chancellor for public affairs, who retired May 31 after serving as the University’s chief communications officer since 1999. The gathering, held in Alumni Hall’s J.W. Connolly Ballroom, featured heartfelt personal farewells from the podium by Chancellor Nordenberg; Larry E. Davis (far right), dean of the School of Social Work, Donald M. Henderson Professor, and director of the Center on Race and Social Problems at Pitt; Jeannette E. South-Paul, the Andrew W. Mathieson Professor and chair in the Pitt School of Medicine’s Department of Family Medicine; and John Harvith, Pitt senior associate vice chancellor in the Office of Public Affairs. Chancellor Nordenberg presented Hill with an official University of Pittsburgh armchair and wristwatch, and Assistant Vice Chancellor Diane Hernon Chavis presented Hill, on behalf of current and retired Office of Public Affairs staff, with an autographed first edition copy of Richard Wright’s classic 1940 novel Native Son. Public Affairs Associate Vice Chancellor Madelyn Ross served as master of ceremonies at the event.

Beautifying Bates Street

Pitt and several other organizations have joined forces to brighten up Bates Street, a major entryway into Oakland. The joint effort comprises Pitt, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, UPMC and the Oakland Planning and Development Corp., working under the  aegis of the Oakland Task Force. The three-year project is intended to enhance the Bates Street portal with natural plantings that are indigenous to western Pennsylvania. Above, Mark Rhodehamel, assistant director of Panther Club Operations, hauls materials as volunteers worked on the first phase of planting May 8 and 9.