Westley Moore, Max Weinberg, and Hyman Muss ’64 to Receive Honorary Degrees

At Lafayette’s 184th Commencement on Saturday, President Alison Byerly will award the following honorary degrees:

Hyman Muss ’64, Mary Jones Hudson Distinguished Professor of Geriatric Oncology at University of North Carolina School of Medicine and director of the geriatric oncology program at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Doctor of Science; musician Max Weinberg, Doctor of Music; and Wes Moore, head of the Robin Hood Foundation, Doctor of Public Service.

The following biographies will appear in the Commencement program.

HYMAN B. MUSS, member of the Class of 1964, is a pioneer in the treatment of breast cancer in older women.

He is Mary Jones Hudson Distinguished Professor of Geriatric Oncology at University of North Carolina School of Medicine and director of the geriatric oncology program at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center,

A chemistry major at Lafayette, Muss graduated with honors, a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his Doctor of Medicine degree at State University of New York Downstate Medical Center. As a captain in the Army he served in Vietnam and was awarded the Bronze Star. He completed his internship, residency, and research fellowship at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston. Before joining the University of North Carolina, he served at Wake Forest University and the University of Vermont.

Muss has been principal investigator in numerous clinical and translational trials. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. Among these are the Lane Adams Quality of Life Award from the American Cancer Society, Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction in Clinical Research from Susan G. Komen for the Cure, B.J. Kennedy Award for Scientific Excellence in Geriatric Oncology from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and Richard L. Schilsky Cancer and Leukemia Group B Achievement Award from the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology Foundation.

He was inducted into the Giants of Cancer Care. The award celebrates leading researchers and educators whose discoveries have propelled the field forward and established building blocks for future advances.

Among other leadership positions, Muss was co-chair of the Cancer in the Elderly Committee and Breast Cancer Committee of the Alliance Cooperative Group. He is former chair of the Subspecialty Board on Medical Oncology of the American Board of Internal Medicine and has been a director of the American Board of Internal Medicine, American Society of Clinical Oncology, and Conquer Cancer Foundation.

MAX WEINBERG, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, has been drummer for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band since 1974, performing on such classic albums as Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town, The River, Born in the USA, The Rising, and many others.

Weinberg served as music director and bandleader for The Max Weinberg 7 on NBC’s Late Night program (1993-2009) and The Tonight Show (2009-10).

He and his wife, Rebecca, have been married since 1981 and are the parents of Ali S. Rogin, a producer and journalist for PBS News Hour, and Jay Weinberg, who holds the industry-wide number-one spot for heavy metal drumming for his work with Slipknot.

Weinberg notes that although he was not accepted for admission by Lafayette, his first-choice college, he returned in 1974 to perform with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band to a sold-out crowd at Allan P. Kirby Field House.

WESTLEY W. MOORE is chief executive officer of The Robin Hood Foundation, New York City’s largest poverty-fighting organization and one of the largest anti-poverty forces in the nation.

Moore was raised by his mother, in Baltimore and the Bronx, after his father, a broadcast journalist, died from a rare virus when Moore was 3 years old. He attended Valley Forge Military Academy, then Johns Hopkins University, where he graduated a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, earning a Master of Letters degree in international relations in 2004.

A captain and paratrooper in the Army, Moore served a combat tour of duty in Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division. Then, as a White House Fellow, he was special assistant to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

In his bestselling book The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates, Moore tells how educational opportunities, strong parental influence, mentors, and a support network helped him transcend the fate of a man with the same name who lived just blocks away from Moore and took a path that led to prison.

Before joining Robin Hood in 2017, Moore founded BridgeEdu. Its goal is to remove barriers inherent in higher education for underserved students and allow these students to achieve success to their fullest potential. He also worked in investment banking in London and New York.

Author of four books, including The Work: My Search for a Life that Matters, Moore is a contributor to Huffington Post, The Times, and NBC News. He is host of Beyond Belief on Oprah Winfrey Network and American Graduate Day on PBS. He is executive producer of PBS’ Coming Back with Wes Moore, about the challenges facing veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and All the Difference, chronicling two African American teens from Chicago’s South Side pursuing their dream of graduating from college.