Bunting, Ball Head Degree Award List

Mary I. Bunting, past president of Radcliffe, and George W. Ball, a high-ranking diplomat under Presidents John F. Kennedy '40 and Lyndon B. Johnson who voiced objections to the Vietnam War, headed a list of 12 honorary degree recipients at today's 322nd Commencement Exercises in Tercentenary Theater.

Bunting, who retired last year, was joined by two other women in receiving honorary degrees. Georgia O'Keeffe, the artist, and Margaret Mead, the anthropologist, were also honored.

In addition to Ball, the other men who received degrees were: George F. Bennett '33, the retiring treasurer of Harvard College; Robert Penn Warren, the novelist and critic; Theodore M. Hesburgh, the president of Notre Dame University; and John Bardeen, who has won two Nobel Prizes in Physics.

Also honored were: William G. Bowen, the president of Princeton University; Rudolf Serkin, the concert pianist, Masao Maruyama; a Japanese historian; and Lloyd C. Elam, a nationally known psychiatrist.

Bunting was the widely-admired president of Radcliffe from 1960 to 1972. She previously served as dean of Douglass College from 1955 to 1959, and as a member of the Atomic Energy Commission from 1964 to 1965.

Among her many accomplishments as Radcliffe President was the establishment of the Radcliffe House system, which included the construction of Currier House and the combination of the older Quad dorms into North and South Houses.

Bunting said last year that the switch helped "the Houses develop as educational communities with more happening in them."

Aside from Bunting's effective and aggressive stewardship of Radcliffe during years of turbulence and change, she was also a warm and friendly person--a friend to many women and men undergraduates.

She never lost a sense of the humorous aspect of her job. Once, for example, Bunting was meeting with some alumnae and a phone call interrupted her. As a trained biologist, she kept bee hives in her home, and the call was to warn her that some of the bees had escaped.

"Excuse me," she told the alumnae. "I really must leave. I have a swarming bee hive to tend to." To which one of the women replied, "Oh my, what are the students protesting now."

Bunting presently works for one of the other honorary degree recipients, William G. Bowen, president of Princeton, as a special assistant for special projects.

Her degree citation--a Doctor of Laws--awarded by President Bok, read: "With good heart and quiet strength she set Radcliffe on a new course, persistently advancing the role of women in higher education."

Ball, who also was awarded a Doctor of Laws, was an early opponent of the war in Vietnam, first within the upper levels of government and later increasingly vocal outside the policy-making circles.

He served from 1961 to 1966 as Undersecretary of State under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and many students of the period credit him with opposing the Vietnam escalation each time it notched upward.

Ball served briefly in 1968 as American representative to the United Nations.

Ball is currently a partner in the Lehman Brothers investment banking firm in New York City. He holds the U.S. Medal of Freedom and in 1968 authored The Discipline of Power: Essentials of a Modern World Structure.

His degree citation describes him as: "The wise, courageous veteran of a turbulent era in American foreign policy, now urging reassessment of the obligations and limitations of our national power."

Margaret Mead, who received a Doctor of Science today, is perhaps the best known anthropologist in America. Mead has been associated professionally with the American Museum of Natural History in New York since 1926. She has since 1969 been curator of ethnology emeritus, but has continued an active life of lecturing and writing.

Her most well-known books are, Coming of Age in Samoa, published in 1928, and Male-and Female, released in 1949. Both books are an attempt to bring anthropological methods to the study of human growth and its problems.

Her latest book, Blackberry Winter, published last year, deals with her childhood and early career.

Mead's citation read: "Through her lively and illuminating studies of faraway peoples she has brought us better understanding of ourselves and of the continuum of the human adventure."

George F. Bennett '33, who retired this year as Harvard's treasurer, will receive a Doctor of Laws. He had served as treasurer since 1965, and as deputy treasurer for 20 years before that.

Bennett has been a central figure in the campus disputes of the past few years regarding Harvard's stands on proxy battles against corporations in which the University holds sizeable blocks of stock.

He has always sided with management in the disputes, explaining that it alone has the expertise to look out for the welfare of the company.

His citation read: "For twenty-five years our steward, skillful, prudent, steadfast; he used his talents for Harvard's welfare--and wondrously multiplied her inheritance.

Georgia O'Keeffe, a well-known artist for the past 50 years, was awarded the only Doctor of Arts degree. Her best-known paintings--starkly beautiful prairie landscapes--are displayed in the leading museums and galleries of the United States.

Her citation: "In nature and common objects, free air and open space, she finds inspiration for bold expression--realistic or abstract--an intimate view of 'the wideness and wonder of the world.'"

Robert Penn Warren, the widely respected novelist and critic, received the only Doctor of Letters. Warren is perhaps best known for his 1947 work, All the King's Men, a semi-fictional book describing the Louisiana of Huey Long, a senator from that state.

Warren, presently a professor of English at Yale, has also published poetry, plays and short stories. He has won the Pulitzer Prize for both fiction and poetry.

His citation read: "To his own distinguished writing and teaching he brings the same high quality he demands of others--'intelligence, tact, discipline, honesty and sensitivity.'"

Theodore M. Hesburgh, the Commencement speaker, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws. Hesburgh, president of the University of Notre Dame, has been associated with that University since 1945.

He also served as a member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission from 1957 to 1972 (and as its chairman in 1969). He was ousted from the Commission earlier this year by President Nixon. Observers speculated the ouster was prompted by his constant demands that civil rights laws be enforced.

His citation: "A priest and teacher devoted to faith and freedom; an educator vigorous, high-principled; a national voice consistently courageous and respected."

Bowen, the president of Princeton, received a Doctor of Laws this morning. His citation: "An economist of education and the arts who has placed his talents and gift for leadership at the service of our sister university."

Another Doctor of Laws was presented to Masao Maruyama, a Japanese intellectual historian who has studied, among other subjects, the theory and psychology of Japanese militarism in the years prior to World War II.

His citation read: "A profound scholar, a warm and friendly teacher; his brilliant contributions to intellectual history have fashioned the scholarship and thought of Japan's postwar generation."

Lloyd C. Elam, a nationally-known psychiatrist who is president of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn., was awarded a Doctor of Letters. His citation: "For the medically underprivileged this selfless physician has resourcefully employed modest means to gain large ends."

John Bardeen, a double Nobel Prize winner, was awarded the only Doctor of Science degree. He is a professor of Physics at the University of Illinois, and is one of the world's outstanding solid-state theorists. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956 for his work in developing the transistor, and again in 1972 for his contribution to the development of a microscopic theory of superconductivity.

His citation: "Twice honored with a Nobel Prize, his scientific genius and imagination have had profound effects upon the physical world."

Rudolf Serkin, the concert pianist and recording artist, received the only Doctor of Music awarded today. His citation: "A many-sided artist--teacher, interpreter, performer; his deep knowledge and passionate devotion to his calling encompass the generations and happily affect both listeners and learners."

The Winners

The following have won honorary degrees:

George W. Ball, former Undersecretary of State, a Doctor of Laws.

John Bardeen, professor of Physics at the University of Illinois and a double Nobel Prize winner, a Doctor of Science.

George F. Bennett '33, retiring treasurer of Harvard, a Doctor of Laws.

William G. Bowen, president of Princeton, a Doctor of Laws.

Mary I. Bunting, former President of Radcliffe College and now assistant to Bowen at Princeton, a Doctor of Laws.

Lloyd C. Elam, president of Meharry Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., a Doctor of Laws.

Theodore M. Hesburgh, president of the University of Notre Dame, a Doctor of Laws.

Masao Maruyama, professor of Political Science at the University of Tokyo, a Doctor of Laws.

Margaret Mead, renowned anthropologist, a Doctor of Science.

Georgia O'Keeffee, a well-known painter of landscape, a Doctor of Arts.

Rudolf Serkin, an accomplished concert pianist, a Doctor of Music.

Robert Penn Warren, novelist and critic, a Doctor of Letters.