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Description
Carmelo Urza was born in the Basque Country near Bilbao immigrating, with his mother Maria Luisa Larrauri Goicoechea and brother Enrique, to the U.S. in 1953. They spent the next 11 years at the Nicholson Sheep Ranch, managed by his father Anastasio, off the Snake River while attending Melba Schools. Urza founded the University Studies Abroad Consortium (USAC). He remained the CEO and President of USAC until his retirement in 2017. He was a member of the organizing committee of the National Monument of the Basque Sheepherder of Reno, Nevada. He wrote a book about the National Basque Monument titled: Solitude: Art and Symbolism in the National Basque Monument (1993). He also wrote a book about Basque handball in America: Historia de la Pelota Vasca en las Américas (1994). In 1995, the local government of Donostia awarded him with the Golden Drum.
Education
- MA: University of Nevada, Reno
- PhD: University of Iowa, 1977
William Anthony Douglass, between 1963 and 1965 conducted field research in the villages of Etxalar, Navarra and Aulesti, Bizkaia on the causes and consequences of emigration for his doctoral dissertation. In 1967, he was contracted to create a Basque Studies Program for the Desert Research Institute. He directed it for the next 33 years until his retirement at the end of 1999. He has authored more than two dozen books and 200 articles, the majority of which deal with Basque topics. Douglass is a Reno native and the son of a pioneer Nevada gaming entrepreneur. Bill was himself part-owner of three Reno casinos and his most recent publication is a novel entitled The Starlight Hotel-Casino.
Education
- MA: University of Chicago, 1965
- PhD: University of Chicago, 1967