NINTH PRESIDENTIAL PORTRAIT TO BE UNVEILED

(Worcester, MA – September 15, 2003) The presidential portrait of the ninth president of Worcester State College, Kalyan K. Ghosh, Ph.D., will be unveiled at 3 p.m., Friday, September 19^th in the Ghosh Center for Science and Technology at the college.

This special ceremony is in keeping with a tradition begun in 1910, when the former State Normal School at Worcester received a portrait of the first president, Elias Harlow Russell (1874-1909), from the Graduates’ Association. From that time, upon the retirement of a president, a presidential portrait has been painted. All these paintings currently hang in the Foster Room of the Student Center.

The artist for the Ghosh portrait is Scott Holloway of Worcester, Massachusetts. Holloway is a realist painter using techniques and materials dating back to the Renaissance. His inspiration comes from the works by 15^th century Flemish and Italian artists and by the 19^th century artist William Bouguereau. He employs a compositional device known as the Golden Section or Divine Proportion used by Rafael. The portrait was funded through private donations from the India Society of Worcester and the Worcester State Foundation.

President Emeritus Ghosh served as WSC president from 1992 to 2002. Perhaps his most enduring legacy was his untiring work to improve the academic reputation of the college. He worked tirelessly to improve the campus grounds and provide state-of-the-art classrooms for instruction. The crowning jewel of the college today is the Kalyan K. Ghosh Center for Science and Technology. During his tenure, the college experienced unprecedented growth in not only its academic stature, but in its endowment.

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