Larry L. Biddle, Daniel T. Cooper and Marilyn J. Fore will receive honorary degrees at Coastal Carolina University's fall commencement ceremony, scheduled for Dec. 15 at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center at 10 a.m.. Each will receive the degree "Doctor of Public Service."

Lifelong educator and businessman Larry Biddle is president of the Burroughs Company in Conway. A native of Denver, Colo., Biddle earned a bachelor's degree in Spanish from St. Mary's College of California and a master's degree, in Spanish, from Middlebury College. From 1966 to 1974 he was assistant director of Coastal Carolina College, where he also coached basketball and baseball and helped organize the School of Education. After eight years as headmaster of a private school, he became assistant principal of Conway High School, which he led to national prominence as a model school for his Renaissance program, a system of rewards and incentives for students, teachers and administrators. In 2005, Biddle and his wife Ginny were instrumental in the establishment of the Biddle Center for Teaching and Learning, an outreach of the CCU's Spadoni College of Education, where he chairs the Board of Visitors. He serves on the board of directors of Burroughs and Chapin Company Inc.

Cooper, a certified insurance counselor of Piedmont, is chairman of the Ways & Means Committee in the South Carolina House of Representatives, where he has served continuously since 1990. A native of Greenville, Cooper earned a bachelor's degree from Clemson University. During his career in the statehouse he has been a member of the Medical, Military and Municipal Affairs Committee, the Education and Public Works Committee and the Joint Bond Review Committee. Cooper has had an instrumental role in securing state support for CCU. He received the honorary degree Doctorate of Humane Letters from the Medical University of South Carolina in May 2006.

Fore is senior vice president for academic affairs at Horry-Georgetown Technical College. A native of Ohio, Fore joined HGTC in 1974 and has held many important academic and administrative positions at the college, including instructor, coordinator of cooperative education, director of international education, dean and associate vice president. She has worked closely with Coastal in developing programs that enable students to transfer from HGTC to CCU. Fore earned a bachelor's degree from Fairmont State College in West Virginia; master's degrees in education administration and in economics from the University of South Carolina; and a doctorate in education from USC. She has held leadership positions in professional education associations at the regional and state levels, and she is very active in community affairs.