COMMENCEMENT
June 8, 1986
From the stirring trumpet processional to the final ringing of Baker's bells, the College's 216 th commencement was a fitting addition to a historic succession
President McLaughlin conferred degrees on more than 1,500 undergraduates and graduate students. A brief disruption in the proceedings occurred when one of the students involved in the Baker Tower occupation last April, who was not granted permission to graduate with his class, refused to leave the procession. He and the mother of another Baker protester were arrested and charged, respectively, with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, and with simple assault on a police officer.
Throughout the commencement ceremonies, umbrellas popped up and down as showers periodically threatened then retreated. Addresses were delivered by 1986 valedictorian Erik Hagerman (page 45); keynote speaker Stephen Bosworth '61, U.S. ambassador to the Philippines (page 44); and President McLaughlin (page 43).
Commencement was also marked by presentation of a newly-established alumni honor to Orton Hicks '21 (page 46). The previous day, in Class Day ceremonies in the Bema, student awards were presented to many seniors, including Hagerman's twin, Kristof (the Brrett Cup for all-round achievement); Mary Beckman (the Class of 1936 Award for the outstanding woman); and Dierdra Brown (the Dean's Prize for the most significant contribution to the quality of student life). Before the traditional breaking of clay pipes over the Old Pine stump, the seniors heard an address by Associate Professor of English David Kastan (page 47), whom they'd elected their Class Day speaker. That marked a break from the usual tradition of asking a retiring faculty member to speak at Class Day, but Dartmouth traditions among which commencement weekend must number one of the best in anyone's accounting was the subject of his talk.
STEPHEN WARREN BOSWORTH '61
U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Honorary Doctor of Laws
After winning a "citation" of special praise for your undergraduate work in diplomatic history, you were accepted into the Foreign Service of the United States ... In 1977, for your distinguished work in international economic affairs, you were singled out as one of ten outstanding younger public servants . . . And in 1984, you descended into the maelstrom of Filipino politics, and into the not-inconsiderable cross-currents of American government, by becoming our ambassador in Manila ... It is, above all, for your record of service in the Philippines that we salute you; your commitment to free elections and the rule of law; your consummate professionalism; your knowledge, judgment, integrity, discretion, and courage.
EDWARD JAMES "TED" KOPPEL
Host of ABC News's "Nightline" Honorary Doctor of Letters
Guided by a personal code of values emphasizing integrity and excellence, you established early a reputation as both an articulate reporter and a dependable authority. In 1971 you became chief diplomatic correspondent of ABC News, and that same year received the first of four Overseas Press Club Awards . . . During the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979 you initiated an experimental late-night news program that was transformed into the format for "Nightline," one of the most provocative and respected news programs in the history of television. We at Dartmouth are grateful that you agreed to serve as a moderator for the nationally televised debate in Hanover between the leading Democratic contenders for the 1984 Presidential nomination.
Excerpts from the Valedictory Address
by President McLaughlin
Men and women of the Class of 1986: You stand on the threshold of a longawaited adventure about to depart the shelter of this College, to engage new challenges and to enter into new relationships. Although your learning at Dartmouth has been pursued within a collegial context and has been reinforced and enlarged through friendships and other close associations, after four short years you leave this special place in the same manner in which you came: as individuals - as individuals who will be primarily responsible for your own actions and personally accountable both for your achievements and for your failures. The environment that you as college graduates now enter is one of highly different (and often very divergent) cultures, an arena wherein the sciences have brought the humanities of the world into neighborly proximity. Your active involvement, your tolerance and understanding, and your appreciation of the unfamiliar and the foreign these will help determine the well-being of the society you share with others. It has been Dartmouth's mission to help prepare you for both effectiveness and for worthiness in that life which now lies ahead of each of you.
RALPH STEINER '21 Photographer
Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts
Even as an undergraduate you took pictures of this campus that were of such quality that it was said of them, "while other photographers have shown us how Dartmouth College looks, Mr. Steiner gives us understanding of how it lives." ... A great artist is frequently also a great teacher, and you are a revered mentor and inspiration to younger and eager generations of aspiring photographers. By example, you provide them with an appreciation of the fact that the worth of a photographer derives more from the unique qualities of the person looking through the lens than from the subject. Your pictures have given us a rewarding insight into an individual generous, witty, unpretentious, acutely sensitive, and gently human.
CHARLES TIGNOR DUNCAN '46
Attorney Honorary Doctor of Laws
In your application for admission to Dartmouth, you wrote of your desire "to bring back the fruits of my collegiate labor to the uneducated Negro." . . . You earned your baccalaureate degree, as well as membership in Phi Beta Kappa, in three years, followed by graduation in 1950 from the Harvard Law School. Almost immediately you became a member of the team of NAACP lawyers arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court the school-desegregation cases that marked the beginning of a better chance for black Americans. Then you were appointed the first black to hold a major post in the office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. And you went on to a career in law and public service that has been truly distinguished.
GEORGE ROBERT STIBITZ
Applied Mathematician and ProfessorEmeritus, Dartmouth Medical School Honorary Doctor of Science
When, in 1983, you were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame the citation proclaimed you to be "internationally recognized as the pioneer of the modern digital computer." Dartmouth is proud of the fact that your Model I "Complex Numbers Calculator" was first publicly demonstrated at a national meeting of mathematicians on this campus in 1940 . . . In 1964, you forged what has been an enduring and immensely beneficial link to Dartmouth, by joining the Physiology Department of our Medical School. Your role here as a researcher and professor has involved a seemingly endless and wide-ranging series of fruitful results, through the application of your diverse skills and ingenuity.
HELEN WOLFF
Editor and Publisher Honorary Doctor of Letters You, your husband, Kurt, and your son, Christian [now a professor of music and classics at Dartmouth], arrived in New York City in 1941, refugees from Hitler's Germany. You and your family added new meaning to the word perseverance, when you established in your own living room an enterprise, Pantheon Books, which emerged as a major, positive force in international publishing . . . Among your many achievements one might cite such widely acclaimed best sellers as Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago and Jung's Memories, Dreams, Reflections ... You serve as an inspiration today for all who would embrace the deep and timeless values of literature, as well as the dedicated practice of intellectual integrity and excellence.
Excerpts from the Commencement Address by Stephen Bosworth '61 U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines
While I was here as an undergraduate, I developed some skepticism toward anything presented to me as an absolute value or a fundamental truth. I learned the magic word why. I've retained some of that skepticism over the years. But it does seem to me that there are some values in our national experience which not only have shaped our own society, but which also affect strongly our attitude toward the rest of the world and how we as a nation should relate to it.
Most Americans believe: that governments derive legitimacy from the freely given consent of sovereign individuals; that governments should meet certain basic tests of transparency and accountability in their procedures; and that our political and economic systems should seek some sort of equilibrium between equity and efficiency.
These values did not originate with us, nor are they unique to us. We do not always achieve these high standards in practice. They serve as a standard of measurement of the gap between what we are and what we believe we should be. We also have a pronounced tendency to use these moral values as a standard of measurement for our conduct of foreign policy.
We have difficulty in working closely and supportively with non- democratic regimes, particularly those which stay in power through repression. Yet our strong interest in stability and our global competition with the other world superpower do not permit us the luxury of non-involvement or nonchalance.
There has been no more graphic example of this dilemma for American foreign policy in recent years than the Philippines . . . For many years, the Philippines were regarded - rightly as the Asian showcase for democracy.
Yet, democracy slipped away in the Philippines with the imposition of martial law in 1972 . . . But "constitutional authoritarianism" failed in a devastating fashion. Faced with that failure, the Filipino people drew on their collective memory of functioning democracy. Through sacrifice, commitment, and great courage they were able to recover democracy.
The return to democracy was a distinctly Filipino accomplishment ... Filipinos took the personal risks and displayed the moral courage. But we, for our part, did the right things. Our support for the democratic agenda helped to create the political opening which the democratic opposition was able to exploit . . .
The experience of the Philippines does not provide a detailed blueprint for how to approach the problems of political change and discontinuity in the rest of the developing world. The Philippines was certainly not Iran nor Nicaragua. But the example of the Philippines does provide some lessons for our foreign policy. First, I think it confirms that what some have considered a major handicap to our exercise of world responsibility the need to incorporate our own values and ideals in our policy - can in fact be an element of strength. We have also learned that our own national interests in stability and harmony in the crisis areas of the third world are best served through the strengthening of democratic forces in those countries.
But we have also learned that we cannot expect quick results . . . For all our power and influence, we do not write national agendas for other countries . . . But once that national agenda begins to take form, our support can be crucial . . .
A few of you may seek a career in foreign affairs; most will not. But all of you will have some weight in determining how our country relates to the rest of the world. In international affairs, as in our individual existence, we will continue to find tension and even conflict between interests and ideals. Perhaps the real lesson is provided by those millions of committed and courageous Filipinos who demonstrated that, in the final analysis, fidelity to ideals and values meets the final test of self-interest.
Eleazar Wheelock Award Orton Havergal Hicks '21
"The Trustees have established the 'Eleazar Wheelock Award' as a means of recognizing outstanding service to this College. Given only in reflection of truly exceptional merit, this award is presented by the Trustees of Dartmouth College in special expression of the Trustees' own sense of the institutional indebtedness and appreciation that are due the recipient by reason of the extraordinary contribution he or she has made in furthering the quality and well-being of Dartmouth.
"The award will be tangibly represented by a physical object, to be designed and approved by the Board, featuring the seal of the College and carrying appropriate text to record and commemorate its bestowal upon the recipient.
"The inaugural award is bestowed upon a true and loyal son of the College, Orton Havergal Hicks '21, vice president emeritus of the College."
