A Soggy Commencement

Rain or shine, Commencement would be held on the Green. The plan didn't sound bad on paper, especially during the long run of glorious weather in May, but the soggy reality of June 14's steady downpour made more than a few participants, from graduates to grandmothers, wish for an indoor venue big enough to accommodate the 1,014 newest alums and their guests. Even though valedictorian Lazar Dimitrov '98 dispensed with the traditional honor of addressing his classmates to save them time in the rain, more than a few of the attendees bailed out of the two-hour ceremony early to retreat to drier ground.

But those who stayed or managed to squeeze into the few campus venues with closed-circuit TV saw soon-to-be-emeritus President James O. Freedman and his wife, Bathsheba, receive surprise honorary degrees. Dartmouth also bestowed honorary degrees on civil rights lawyer and North Carolina Central University chancellor Julius Levonne Chambers, Southern and African-American historian John Hope Franklin, president and founder of Habitat for Humanity Millard Fuller, virologist and childhood immunization advocate Samuel Katz '48, DMS '50, geneticist and breast cancer researcher Mary-Claire King, and author and educator Grace Paley.

And those who stayed were treated to an energetic speech by the also newly-minted Dartmouth honorary degree recipient Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer-Prize winning biographer of Lyndon Johnson, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, the Kennedys, and chronicler of her own lifelong passion for baseball. From a dying LBJ, she told the crowd, she learned a secret of how to live. "Amonth before he died, he spoke to me with immense sadness in his voice. He said he was watching the American people absorbed in a new President, forgetting him, forgetting even the great civil rights laws that he had passed. He was beginning to think his quest for immortality had been in vain, that perhaps he would have been better off focusing his time and attention on his wife and his children...." The story, she said, reinforces a central wisdom she learned from Harvard psychologist Erik Erikson: "the richest and fullest lives attain an inner balance of work, love, and play, in equal order."

Seek work, Goodwin told the graduates, that is "imbued with meaning, work that provides enjoyment on a daily basis. Ifyou choose a career for money or prestige or security but dislike going to work more days than not, it will never be worth it in the long run."

As for balancing work with love and play, she said: "When the boys were toddlers I was approached about being the head of the Peace Corps, a job I would have relished a decade before. But there was no way I could be away from home as much as it entailed. When I talked to the people in the White House to explain why I couldn't consider it, they understood perfectly about the family obligations, but when I added, 'And you see we also have season tickets to the Red Sox, and I think this is the year, sol can't be out of Boston,' there was this huge silence at the other end. I'm sure they were saying, 'Thank God this woman didn't take the job. 'But the point is, even if some opportunities were lost by the choices made when the children were little, there's still plenty of time now to move in new directions. It was just a matter of trusting in the choices that were made."

In his final Commencement address, President Freedman's prescription for fulfillment centered on the liberal arts. "A liberal education that lasts a lifetime will inspire you to strengthen the foundations of your moral identity and to explore the ordeal of being human the drama of confronting the darker side of the self; the responsibility of imposing meaning on your life and society; the challenge of transcending the ambiguity-entangled counsel of arrogance and modesty, egotism and altruism, emotion and reason, opportunism and loyalty, individualism and conformity.

"My fervent hope is thatyou will find in your liberal education the basis for a life of idealism and joy—a life notable for noble ambitions pursued, worthy battles joined, public services rendered, family journeys traveled."

Reflecting on his own journey, Freedman said, "As I conclude my 11-year tenure as president of Dartmouth, I cannot help but wonder how my stewardship will be judged. It will fall ultimately to the historians, taking a longer view than we can now, to make that assessment. I can do no more than to adopt the words of my mentor, Justice Thurgood Marshall, who hoped that history would remember him as one who 'did the besthe could with what he had.

While the speeches played well on TV, out on the Green they were largely drowned out by the rain and the chattering teeth of drenched and shivering grads. But by the time the '9Bs had received congratulatory handshakes from the deans, smiles had returned to their faces. All they had to do now was pick up their diplomas from several indoor locations and, with a final glance backward, head out into the world.

From top left: Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin left Dartmouth with an honorary degree; Umbrellas and rain gear were commencement essentials; President Freedman congratulated wife Bathsheba; Irving "Tut" Tuttle '48 marched with the 50-year class; Waterlogged mortarboards shed the rain and hid the tears; Camera crews broadcast the ceremony to indoor televisions; Former Trustees came to Hanover to honor President Freedman.