Dr. Wein was his father, but if you want to use that title for festival impresario George Wein, go right ahead. On Sunday, May 15, at the 98th Commencement exercises at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center, Providence College presented Wein and four other recipients with honorary doctorate degrees.

World-renowned founder/producer of the Newport Jazz Festival, Newport Folk Festival, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and numerous other music events, Wein is chairman of Newport Festivals Foundation, Inc. As he approaches his 91st birthday (October 3), he has as much creative fuel as he did when he started the iconic Newport Jazz and Folk festivals in 1954 and 1959. His work with those festivals advanced the concept of live music, and he went on to produce titled events for Kool, JVC, Mellon Bank, Dunkin’ Donuts, Verizon, Ben & Jerry’s and others.

As a result of his diverse contributions to jazz and world culture, Wein has been honored by heads of state, educational institutions and leading publications.  In 2015 Wein took home the Grammy Trustees Award for his outstanding contributions to the music industry. He is an NEA Jazz Master (Jazz Advocate), and in 2013 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities and New Englander of the Year from the New England Council. In 2012 Wein was given the APAP Award of Merit for Achievement in Performing Arts for an individual “whose genius, energy and excellence has defined or redefined an art form.”

In addition, honors and awards have been bestowed upon him by Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, AARP, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the French Legion d’Honneur, Chile’s Order of Bernardo O’Higgins and other organizations around the world. Wein is also the recipient of honorary degrees from Boston University, the Berklee College of Music, Rhode Island College of Music, Five Towns College and North Carolina Central. He is a lifetime honorary trustee of Carnegie Hall and a member of the Board of Trustees at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

In addition to his work as a producer, Wein is an accomplished jazz pianist, whose group, Newport All-Stars, has toured around the world and has featured some of the greatest musicians in the history of jazz.

Wein’s autobiography, Myself Among Others: A Life in Music (DaCapo Press), was recognized by the Jazz Journalists Association as 2004’s best book about jazz. In addition to his life in jazz, Mr. Wein has a long history of involvement with philanthropy and the arts, including the establishment of the Joyce and George Wein Chair of African American Studies at Boston University, the Alexander Family Endowed Scholarship Fund at Simmons College and an annual artist prize given through the Studio Museum in Harlem in honor of his late wife and business partner, Joyce Alexander Wein.

Other recipients of Providence College’s honorary degrees are Heather Abbott, whose injuries in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing led her to establish a foundation to help amputees obtain prostheses; Robert Fiondella, Esq., private investor and founding principal of JEROB Enterprises, LLC; Timothy Flanigan, M.D., staff Physician at Rhode Island Hospital, professor at Brown University and infectious-disease specialist at The Miriam Hospital in Providence; and Rose Ella Weaver, a versatile actor and singer. Ms. Abbott presented the commencement address.

Celebrate George Wein’s life-long dedication to music at the Newport Folk Festival July 22-24 and the Newport Jazz Festival July 29-31. For more information, go to www.newportfestivalsfoundation.org.