Honorary Degrees
WHEN seven celebrated men and women representing a broad spectrum of contemporary accomplishment received honorary degress from the College at last month's Commencement, they joined a distinguished array of some 2,250 honorary members of the Dartmouth fellowship.
Along with, possibly, a few scoundrels, their predecessors include hundreds of men and a handful of women who have had a profound impact on the course of American history. Among them are six U. S. Presidents: two, James Monroe and Dwight Eisenhower, as incumbents; three, John Adams as Ambassador to Holland, Woodrow Wilson as president of Princeton University, and Herbert Hoover as retired World War I food ad- ministrator, before their elections; and one, Franklin Pierce, as a former chief executive. A notable omission from the list was Abraham Lincoln, whose proposed degree was disapproved by Dartmouth President Nathan Lord, soon to resign as a result of his controversial espousal of the biblical sanction of slavery.
Alexander Hamilton was an early recipient as Secretary of the Treasury in 1790. Nathan Hale, journalist nephew and namesake of the man who had only one life to give for his country, was honored in 1810; his brother-in-law, Harvard President Edward Everett, whose eloquence at Gettysburg was later to overshadow, in the view of his contemporaries, the disappointingly simple words of President Lincoln, in 1849; and his son, Edward Everett Hale, author, cleric, and chaplain of the U. S. Senate, in 1901.
A trio of Earls of Dartmouth - the 4th, the 6th, and the current 9th - have received honorary degrees from the College, in 1860, 1904, and 1969. Other notables in arts and letters, science and engineering, the military and the law, education and exploration have included Dartmouth's own Daniel Webster in 1823, Supreme Court Chief Justice-to-be Salmon P. Chase in 1855, Robert Frost, in 1933 and 1955, and Nelson Rockefeller in 1942, 1-957, and 1969; General William Tecumseh Sherman, who is reputed to have muttered to his neighbor as the seemingly interminable termingraduation exercises wore on and on and on. "War may be hell, but it can't match a Dartmouth commencement," in 1866; Booker T. Washington, in 1901 his first honorary doctorate; torate; Alexander Graham Bell in 1913 and canal-builder George Washington Goethals, in 1920; Andrew Mellon, then Secretary of the Treasury, in 1922; and Admiral Richard Byrd, in 1937.
In 1922, author Dorothy Canfield Fisher became the first woman on whom the College conferred an honorary degree. A decent interval was allowed to elapse - perhaps to let the shock wear off - before pundit Dorothy Thompson was awarded the Litt.D. in 1938. The early lists of honorees ran heavily to clerics. The tradition was inaugurated with Dartmouth's third Commencement in 1773 when 19 - men ten of them minister and five Trustees of the College - received the recognition heavily outnumbering the six baccalaureate graduates.
Although not honorary in the strictest sense, there is another category of unearned degrees which the College occasionally grants, more or less to rectify what appears in retrospect to be early injustice. A notable example of this institutional compassion was the A.B. degree for Edward Jenner Warren of the Class of 1846, approved quietly by the Trustees in 1870, after he had served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina and shortly before he was to become president of that state's senate. Young Mr. Warren's undergraduate career had been abruptly terminated after the faculty discovered that:
... Soph. Warren from evidence appears to have been the leader of a party of students in disguise who broke open a citizens house, threatened the inmates with death & finally, not proving successful in gaining possession of the house, threw large stones through the windows & doors to the manifest danger of the lives of those within, & .. the said Warren is reported to have carried a loaded pistol on the night of the above-mentioned attack.... The humanity of error, the divinity of forgiveness - and the blessed balm of forgetfulness - seem amply illustrated by the closing lines of his obituary, as it appeared in The Dartmouth of July 11, 1877:
"His purity of character and high legal talents were never called in question."
Man of the mountains, prolific writer, world traveler, educator, naturalist and conservationist, you have served on the Supreme Court longer than any man in history.
You were born in Maine, Minnesota, and raised in Yakima, Washington. As a child you had to wage a continual battle against poverty and to overcome the aftereffects of polio. You early learned the meaning of earning a living with your hands. And to overcome your physical weaknesses you turned to the mountains.
After graduating from Whitman College and teaching English and Latin in school, you chose a unique means of reaching Columbia Law School. We doubt that many Columbia students arrived having herded sheep on a freight train and having spent nights at hobo camps. After completing your apprenticeship as a lawyer, you entered upon a career of teaching law. You found the Columbia of Nicholas Murray Butler not to your liking, but found the young dean of Yale Law School, Robert Hutchins, highly congenial.
Your first service for the federal government was on the SEC. As chairman you were instrumental in bringing about a signifiant reorganization of the Stock Exchange. When you were nominated to fill the seat vacated by Justice Brandeis, the only votes against confirmation cast in the Senate were by those who feared that you would be a tool of Wall Street. You have served during a period of turbulence and vast change in our nation's history. You have throughout been the most consistent spokesman for the rights of individuals, defender of the downtrodden. and protector of our natural environment. A lover of solitude, you have crossed the Himalayas alone and have often been a lone dissenter.
A firm believer in the supremacy of the First Amendment, you have written: "[Free speech] is essential to the very existence of a democracy. The airing of ideas releases pressures which otherwise might become destructive. When ideas compete in the market for acceptance, full and free discussion even of ideas we hate encourages the testing of our own prejudices and preconceptions."
In speaking of your love for your alma mater you have quoted certain famous words by Daniel Webster. There must be a close affinity since the history of Webster's "small college has been influenced by the beauty of the out-of-doors as much as has been your own life. We ask that you join the Dartmouth Fellowship by accepting the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.
You composed your first serious ragtime tune, "Charlestown Rag," in 1899. Today, 75 years later, you are more in demand than ever.
You were born in Baltimore, the son of freed slaves. Since you were the only one of 11 children to survive, you received all the love and support of your parents. When at age six you sat down — ninivited — at an organ and started to play it, your mother arranged to buy the organ at 25 cents per week, and decided that music lessons were in order.
One of the finest ragtime pianists in the country, for 20 years you supported yourself by playing at private parties, in bars, nightclubs or at any other establishment that would pay for your music. A turning point came when you met a lyricist called Noble Sissle and a casual handshake established a partnership that produced great music for more than half a century.
In 1921, Sissle and Blake opened new opportunities for black artists by bringing to Broadway the first all-Negro musical. "'Shuffle Along" ran for 18 months and then toured the entire country. It was so full of great songs that you almost decided to leave out the song "I'm just wild about Harry." That decision would not only have lost you one of the all-time great hits, but it might have changed the outcome of the '48 Presidential election.
The years until World War II were filled with successes on Broadway and in vaudeville. During the war you were musical conductor for the USO. After the war you retired and decided to 20 to college. You received your degree in composition from NYU at age 66. But the tremendous revival of interest in our musical heritage has summoned you out of retirement. Once more you are thrilling audiences with your magic music, with tales of a great musical age, and with your incomparable zest for life.
It is a pleasure and a privilege to be able to award you Dartmouth College's honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.
It was at age 13 while watching a performance by Pavlova that you fell passionately in love with the dance. This passion would carry you on to become a great ballerina, a revolutionary influence on the American theater, and the most articulate spokesman for your favorite art form.
You were born in Harlem, but soon your family moved to a small country town in California, called Hollywood. With a special talent for being present when great changes occurred, you watched the growth of the movie industry and attended UCLA just as it was being transformed into a great university. But neither the fascination of Hollywood nor the objections of your parents could deter you from your special destiny.
You experienced triumph and failure and constant frustration until you found an outlet for your genius. You danced and devised dances in New York, often under impossible conditions. You moved on to London where you helped to organize the London Ballet. You gained recognition as a great dancer, and yet you were dissatisfied even after your return to the States.
The event that changed your life was the decision of the Ballet Russe during the war to perform an American ballet written by an American. You wrote and starred in "Rodeo," your first attempt to capture the spirit of native American dance. From there it was a short step to "Oklahoma" which established the American folk ballet as an integral part of the popular theater. Your many masterpieces, including "Carousel. "Brigadoon." and "Fall River Legend," permanently changed the musical theater.
As no one else has, you have captured our cultural heritage in the idiom of the dance. Your dances reflect the spirit of a nation continually in motion. And your books expound the spirit of the dance with singular eloquence. Most recently you have formed a dance company to preserve our national heritage. It is your hope that through our heritage we will grow to understand ourselves and once more learn to like one another and be proud again.
Dartmouth College is privileged to pay tribute to a great artist by awarding you her honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.
Born in Budapest, educated in Berlin and Vienna, you have been fascinated by technology since childhood. You came to the United States with a cello and $250 and went on to become head of CBS Laboratories and to influence the lives of all of us.
Ever since you picked up a BBC experimental TV broadcast on a homemade set in Vienna, you were intrigued by the potential of television. You developed the first practical color television system. You modified this for use by medical schools and even developed a camera to show what went on inside the stomach. Your fascination with the quality of pictures made possible the remarkable views of the moon sent back by the lunar orbiter.
A devoted and talented musician, you once became greatly disturbed by the number of record changes necessary to play a piece by Brahms. So you went on to invent the long-playing record. Worried about the lack of choice in TV viewing, you invented video casettes which are likely to revolutionize both entertainment and education. You have invented a computerized ultra-high-speed printing system. And you cannot resist striving for excellence in technology whether you are inventing the perfect stereo system for your home or repairing a friend's car.
You are a tireless worker and your collaborators became quite used to being summoned to the lab at 5 a.m. You expect the same high standards of everyone that you impose on yourself. It is rumored that you have been known to have outbursts of temperament, but that is not possible since it is well known that Hungarians never lose their temper.
After your retirement from CBS you turned down a lucrative consultantship to be able to pursue a dream. Greatly worried about ever increasing crowding in metropolitan areas with the resulting decline in the quality of life, you are determined to build a new rural society. You are convinced that modern communications technology can bring to small towns the needed jobs as well as the best of culture, entertainment, and medical care. You foresee a migration back to the country which will reverse the trend to long hours of commuting, pollution, and wasteful use of energy. You want everyone to have a free choice of where they wish to work. This is a far-fetched dream, but you know how to make dreams come true.
We take great pleasure in welcoming you into the Dartmouth family by awarding you the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.
You happened to be born in France, but your work belongs to the entire world.
You have written a memorable study of D. H. Lawrence, a number of prose poems, short stories and novels, and a unique continuous novel. Your fiction is notable for its dreamlike quality and its exploration of subconscious depths. Never one impressed by conventions or current fads, you had great difficulty in having your novels published. But no commercial publisher would stop you from publishing your poetic prose. You bought your own printing press and have yourself printed several of your books.
Your Diary began as a gift of love to a father who deserted you. It became an essential part of your life, and as your life was translated into the Diary the Diary transformed your life. You learned that liberation comes from within and can be achieved in spite of all obstacles and all patterns imposed from the outside. And you achieved this liberation not by removing yourself from the world but through involvement in love and friendship.
Your greatest artistic achievement is your life. You started as an artist's model, a Spanish dancer, and a practitioner of psychoanalysis. You enriched the lives of many of the great figures of the world of literature and art, as they helped to transfigure you. You have always given generously of yourself and have transcended the shortcomings of the world you happen to live in.
It is a great pleasure to recognize a remarkable writer and a very special person by awarding you the degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa.
Born in Milwaukee and educated at Harvard, you have made major contributions to science, government, industry, and higher education.
You started your career at Woods Hole, served on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, and then joined the Brown University faculty. A late bloomer, you did not attain the rank of full professor until age 31. Next you went to Princeton where you were chairman of the Chemistry Department until President Kennedy named you as his science adviser the week before his death. You served as President Johnson's adviser for five years, then became vice president of Eastman Kodak, and in 1970 Brown University chose you as its 14th president
As a chemist you combine the art of the experimentalist with the capability of using powerful theoretical tools. You have made basic contributions to the study of molecular and crystal structures infrared spectra, and the subject of shock waves. You have been successful in making measurements that others considered impossible and your theories have stimulated far-reaching research.
You have shaped scientific policy under four U.S. Presidents. You have been a strong voice in support of basic research, arguing that "the only alternative to knowledge is ignorance." You advocated a policy that balanced the need for public accountability of research with the need for freedom of inquiry. Yours was one of the first voices in government to raise concern for the environment.
You have provided firm leadership for Brown University during a turbulent period. You became the first college president i calm a student demonstration by playing the kazoo. Notable among the many achievements of your administration is the highly imaginative new M.D. program.
We welcome you into the Dartmouth family with all rights pertaining to such membership, including the right to sit on the Dartmouth side during football games. Dartmouth College is proud to honor a distinguished scientist and statesman by awarding you the honorary Doctorate of Laws.
You were born in Haverhill. Massachusetts, and came to Dartmouth College where your great-grandfather had been a member of the class of 1795. The Class of '26 remembers you as an extraordinary clarinet player and an outstanding member of the Dartmouth Band.
After earning a doctorate in genetics from Harvard it took you only a few years to find your permanent home in Bar Harbor. Maine, where the Jackson Laboratory provided you with the opportunity for 40 years of distinguished research. You tackled one of the most difficult and important problems in biology: why a transplant from one member of a species is rejected by another member of the same species. Through your years of painstaking and dedicated work you have literally pinpointed the cause on the chromosome map.
Your own ingenious experiments were performed on mice and it is our good fortune that the basic genetic principles you discovered proved of equal importance to mice and men. Recognizing your position as the world's leading authority on the genetic of transplant reactions, the second International Congress of the Transplantation Society was dedicated to you. A member of the National Academy of Sciences and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, you have received many awards recognizing the importance of your work. Dartmouth College would like to add to these her own gratitude for all the lives that will be saved thanks to the research of one of her own sons, and we award you the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa.
WILLIAM ORVILLE DOUGLAS Jurist DOCTOR OT LAWS
EUBIE BLAKE Ragtime Pianist DOCTOR OF HUMANE LETTERS
AGNES DE MILLE Choreographer MX TOR OF HUMANE LETTERS
PETER CARL GOLDMARK Inventor DOCTOR OF HUMANE LETTERS
ANAIS NIN Author DOCTOR OF LITTERS
DONALD FREDERICK HORNIG Scientist and Educator DOCTOR OF LAWS
GEORGE DAVID SNELL '26 Biologist DOCTOR OF SCIENCE
