May 9, 2002

On May 6, the 71-year-old legendary singer and 12-time Grammy winner, Ray Charles, received an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree from Albany State University (located in his hometown, Albany, GA) at its 83rd commencement ceremonies for which Charles was also a commencement speaker. This is his fourth doctorate.

Charles will also be awarded the school's "Friend of the University Award," as he has given Albany State University over $1 million in donations to date.

Charles' manager for the past 40 years, Joe Adams, who started his career as a successful network radio announcer and Broadway and television actor, is especially pleased that the school is also planning a new 3,000-seat concert hall, the area's largest, for which the drama theatre is to be named in honor of Charles' late mother, Retha Robinson.

The world-famous singer, who lost his sight to glaucoma at the age of six, never attended college himself, beginning his extraordinarily successful show-business career while still a teenager.

"I was born with music inside me," he says.
"My eyes are my handicap, but my ears are my opportunity."

While in Georgia, Charles will also film a commercial for the state's lottery games, in which he'll reprise his oft requested "Georgia on My Mind," now an official anthem of the state of Georgia.

One of the charter inductees into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, Charles continues to tour the world, performing hundreds of concerts across the globe every year.

Fifteen years ago, he formed a foundation, the Robinson Foundation for Hearing Disorders, to assist needy children with hearing disabilities.

Each year, the foundation helps a number of these youngsters to hear for the first time in their lives through a new hearing implant procedure.

In other Ray Charles news, his first new CD in six years, Thanks for Bringing Love Around Again, was released May 7. And actor/comedian Jamie Foxx will star as the legendary musician in Crusader Entertainment's Unchain My Heart: The Ray Charles Story, for which Mark Rydell (For the Boys, On Golden Pond) is in talks to direct. Written by newcomer Jimmy White, the script follows Charles' rags-to-riches story from his poor beginnings in Albany, Ga., to his rise through the music industry while battling racism, drug use, and problems in love.