Parade of Honor

At its 144th Commencement, in June of 1913, Dartmouth conferred honorary degrees on 11 men, including an inventive wizard who never graduated from college. "Alexander Graham Bell, through whom the deaf now hear and the dumb do speak and a man's voice shall carry to the ends of the earth, I admit you to the degree of Doctor of taws," President Ernest Fox Nichols declared at the Webster Hall ceremony. Marching in the Commencement procession are (left to right) the white-bearded Bell, trustee and 1878 graduate Lewis Parkhurst, Greek and classical philology professor Richard Husband and economics professor Frank Dixon. For Dartmouth President Emeritus James O. Freedman's essay on honorary degrees, see page 39. Photograph courtesy of Dartmouth College