NewsWatch: 2009: University Medal

[Narrator:] From the University of California at Davis, this is NewsWatch.

[Paul Pfotenhauer:] Two Northern California giants, Pulitzer Prize winning poet Gary Snyder and painter Wayne Thiebaud, were recently honored with the UC Davis medal not only for their professional accomplishments but also for their years of service as faculty members at this UC campus. The two had never met before this event.

[Gary Snyder, UC Davis Pulitzer-Winning Poet:] The main reason I wanted to come to this was to meet you.

[Paul Pfotenhauer:] Remarkable parallels run through their lives. (Both Snyder and Thiebaud were farmers; they're early years were shaped by the Depression.Omit) Both emerged amid experimental art movements of the 1950s and 60s — Snyder during the Beat Generation poetry movement and Thiebaud alongside pop art.

[Paul Pfotenhauer:] Snyder says poetry has never had a mass audience.

[Gary Snyder:] But it always has a specific and somewhat trained audience that really follows it. Poetry is like that. And that is how it carries its influence through the centuries.

[Louis Warren:] Students who worked with Gary got to work with one of the great creative minds in the 20th and early 21st century. He is one of America's greatest poets and I do know that people who have been in his seminars that it was a truly fabulous experience.

[Paul Pfotenhauer:] Now 88 years old, Thiebaud still teaches art at UC Davis.

[Wayne Thiebaud, UC Davis Painter:] Teaching is the hardest thing I have ever done…next to painting. And never, I think feel that you know how to do it but it still is intriguing.

[Wayne Thiebaud:] And I feel very very lucky to be able to still do it.

[Paul Pfotenhauer:] The UC Davis medal recognizes individuals of rare accomplishment and is the highest tribute bestowed by the university. Paul Pfotenhauer, reporting from UC Davis.

[Narrator:] For more information please log on to broadcast.ucdavis.edu.