Nine Honorands Named

Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun '29, Former Kirkland House Master Mason Hammond '25 and Yale President Richard C. Levin and six others will receive honorary degrees at this morning's Commencement exercises.

Other degrees will go to:

* Musician, composer and conductor Bennett L. Carter;

* Vice President Al Gore '69, the Commencement speaker;

* President Clinton's Special Envoy to Haiti William H. Gray III;

* U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata;

* Carnegie Institute President Maxine F. Singer; and

* Former Shattuck Professor of Government James Q. Wilson.

This year's group of honorands is the smallest since 1991, when nine people received honorary degrees. Last year, 14 were honored; in 1992, 11 received honorary degrees.

Most of the honorands arrived in Cambridge this week, and all stayed at the Ritz-Carlton in Boston, sources said. Last night, they dined in Memorial Hall chicken and seven jewels terrine and striped bass.

Harry A. Blackmun '29

Blackmun, appointed to the Supreme Court by Richard M. Nixon in 1970, may be most noted for writing the majority opinion in Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1972 case that legalized abortion.

Although Nixon appointed Blackmun because the thought the justice would bolster the Court's conserving wing, Blackmun eventually came to be considered perhaps the court's staunchest liberal.

Even this term, Blackmun, 85, was still making news on the Court. Citing years of torment over the issue, Blackmun announced that he opposed the death, penalty, calling it cruel and unusual punishment.

Asumma cum laude graduate in math, Blackmun later graduated from Harvard Law School in 1932.

Blackmun announced earlier this year that he will retire from the nation's highest court at the end of this term. Judge Stephen G. Breyer of Boston has been nominated to replace him. Bennett L. Carter

Carter, commonly known as Benny, is a musician,composer and conductor. Carter, 86, played with avariety of bands in his early career and led hisown band for 13 years. He composed and conductedmusic for many movies, including StormyWeather (1943),Guns of Navarone (1961), andSnows of Kilimanjaro (1952), in which healso appeared.

Carter received a Silver award from Esquire in1943 and a Gold award in 1946. He was a visitinglecturer at Princeton University in 1973, and hebecame a member of the music advisory panel forthe National Endowment of the Arts in 1976.

Albert H. Gore '69

Gore is in town both to give the Commencementaddress and to celebrate his 25th reunion.

Gore, 46, lived in Mower Hall and Dunster Houseas an undergraduate concentrating in government.He wrote his honors thesis on the impacttelevision on politics.

Immediately after graduating, Gore said he feltdisillusioned about politics and volunteered toserve in the Vietnam War in order to prevent hisfellow classmates and friends from fighting for acause in which they did not believe.

In Vietnam, Gore became a reporter, and when hereturned to the United States, he covered localpolitics for the Nashville Tennesseean.

In 1976, he was elected to his first term inCongress, winning a seat formerly held by hisfather, Albert A. Gore Sr. In 1984, Gore waselected to his first term in the Senate. InCongress, Gore took special interest inenvironmental policy, arms control, andinformation technology.

In 1988, Gore ran for president but failed towin the Democratic nomination. Declining to runagain in 1992, Gore was picked by PresidentClinton as his vice presidential nominee. As vicepresident, Gore has made much of "reinventinggovernment."

William H. Gray, III

Gray, the president of the United Negro CollegeFund and a former member of Congress fromPennsylvania, was recently named PresidentClinton's special envoy to Haiti. Gray, 52replaced Lawrence A. Pezzulo, who was forced toresign in April after efforts to return deposedPresident Jean- -Bertrand Aristide failed.

Gray, a Democrat, is assigned the task ofdevising plan to restore Aristide to power.Aristide, who was democratically elected, iscurrently living in exile in Washington, D.C.after being forced out of the country by a Haitianmilitary coup two years ago.

In Congress, Gray was the head of theCongressional Black Caucus and was the Housemajority whip. Gray, who served in the House for12 years, was the highest-ranking Black member incongressional history.

Gray left the House in 1991 to assume the Fundpresidency. Prior to his political career, he wasa Baptist minister and a lecturer. Gray willundertake his new government positions as aprivate citizen and will received no pay.

Mason Hammond '25

Hammond, the first head tutor of Lowell Houseand master of Kirkland House from 1945 to 1955,has had a long, distinguised career as a professorof classics. He is the Pope Professor of the LatinLanguage and Literature emeritus.

Hammond, 91, was a Rhodes Scholar. His manybooks on the classics include The City in theAncient World, Notes on the History of Sicily andAeneas to Augustus: A Beginning Latin Reader forCollege Students.

Richard C. Levin

Levin, 46, was named the 22nd president of YaleUniversity last spring.

The Beinecke professor of Economics at Yale,Levin has been at the New Haven school more than24 years as a student and faculty member.

Levin took his undergraduate degree at StanfordUniversity in 1968 and studied politics andphilosophy at Oxford University, where he earned abachelor of literature degree. He received his Ph.D. from Yale in 1974 and was named to theeconomics faculty that same year.

The first Jewish president of Yale Levin hassaid his priorities include balancing theuniversity's budget, improving the physicalcondition of the campus and obtaining increasedpublic funding for the sciences.

In recent weeks, the president has increasedYale's financial commitment to the city of NewHaven, where he currently resides.

Sadako Ogata

Ogata, the United Nations high commissioner forrefugees, has emphasized support for humanitarianaid programs since her appointment in 1990.Recently, she has arranged several airdrops offood in Bosnia.

Other accomplishments of Ogata during herthree-year tenure include forming a plan forWestern nations to share the burden of the Haitianrefugee crisis, studying starvation in six Africancountries and tackling human rights issues in Iraqand Burma.

Ogata, a U.S. trained Japanese professor and aspecialist in human rights, was appointed highcommissioner by then-Secretary General JavierPerez de Cuellar.

Maxine F. Singer

Singer, a biochemist and president of theCarnegie Institute of Washington, is noted for herstudy of the human genome, the genetic blueprintof a human being.

A member of the Human Genome Organization,Singer Headed as a section on nucleic acidenzymology at the National Cancer Institute until1979, when she became the chief of the Laboratoryof Biochemistry there.

Singer, who graduated from Swarthmore andreceived her Ph. D. from Yale University, is theauthor of two books on molecular biology.

Singer was awarded an honorary degree fromRadcliffe College in 1990. She has also previouslyreceived honorary degrees from Williams, Dartmouthand other Schools. In addition, she has served astrustee of Wesleyan University and as a member ofthe Yale Corporation.

James Q. Wilson

Wilson, who was the Shattuck professor ofgovernment from 1961 to 1986, is currently aprofessor of management at UCLA.

Wilson is the another of more than a dozenbooks, including The Moral Sense (1993),Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and WhyThey Do It (1989), and a popular introductorytextbook called American Government.

He is the former chair of the National AdvisoryCouncil for Drug Abuse Prevention and a formermember of the Attorney General's Task Force onViolent Crime.Crimson File PhotoBENNETT L. CARTER

Carter, commonly known as Benny, is a musician,composer and conductor. Carter, 86, played with avariety of bands in his early career and led hisown band for 13 years. He composed and conductedmusic for many movies, including StormyWeather (1943),Guns of Navarone (1961), andSnows of Kilimanjaro (1952), in which healso appeared.

Carter received a Silver award from Esquire in1943 and a Gold award in 1946. He was a visitinglecturer at Princeton University in 1973, and hebecame a member of the music advisory panel forthe National Endowment of the Arts in 1976.

Albert H. Gore '69

Gore is in town both to give the Commencementaddress and to celebrate his 25th reunion.

Gore, 46, lived in Mower Hall and Dunster Houseas an undergraduate concentrating in government.He wrote his honors thesis on the impacttelevision on politics.

Immediately after graduating, Gore said he feltdisillusioned about politics and volunteered toserve in the Vietnam War in order to prevent hisfellow classmates and friends from fighting for acause in which they did not believe.

In Vietnam, Gore became a reporter, and when hereturned to the United States, he covered localpolitics for the Nashville Tennesseean.

In 1976, he was elected to his first term inCongress, winning a seat formerly held by hisfather, Albert A. Gore Sr. In 1984, Gore waselected to his first term in the Senate. InCongress, Gore took special interest inenvironmental policy, arms control, andinformation technology.

In 1988, Gore ran for president but failed towin the Democratic nomination. Declining to runagain in 1992, Gore was picked by PresidentClinton as his vice presidential nominee. As vicepresident, Gore has made much of "reinventinggovernment."

William H. Gray, III

Gray, the president of the United Negro CollegeFund and a former member of Congress fromPennsylvania, was recently named PresidentClinton's special envoy to Haiti. Gray, 52replaced Lawrence A. Pezzulo, who was forced toresign in April after efforts to return deposedPresident Jean- -Bertrand Aristide failed.

Gray, a Democrat, is assigned the task ofdevising plan to restore Aristide to power.Aristide, who was democratically elected, iscurrently living in exile in Washington, D.C.after being forced out of the country by a Haitianmilitary coup two years ago.

In Congress, Gray was the head of theCongressional Black Caucus and was the Housemajority whip. Gray, who served in the House for12 years, was the highest-ranking Black member incongressional history.

Gray left the House in 1991 to assume the Fundpresidency. Prior to his political career, he wasa Baptist minister and a lecturer. Gray willundertake his new government positions as aprivate citizen and will received no pay.

Mason Hammond '25

Hammond, the first head tutor of Lowell Houseand master of Kirkland House from 1945 to 1955,has had a long, distinguised career as a professorof classics. He is the Pope Professor of the LatinLanguage and Literature emeritus.

Hammond, 91, was a Rhodes Scholar. His manybooks on the classics include The City in theAncient World, Notes on the History of Sicily andAeneas to Augustus: A Beginning Latin Reader forCollege Students.

Richard C. Levin

Levin, 46, was named the 22nd president of YaleUniversity last spring.

The Beinecke professor of Economics at Yale,Levin has been at the New Haven school more than24 years as a student and faculty member.

Levin took his undergraduate degree at StanfordUniversity in 1968 and studied politics andphilosophy at Oxford University, where he earned abachelor of literature degree. He received his Ph.D. from Yale in 1974 and was named to theeconomics faculty that same year.

The first Jewish president of Yale Levin hassaid his priorities include balancing theuniversity's budget, improving the physicalcondition of the campus and obtaining increasedpublic funding for the sciences.

In recent weeks, the president has increasedYale's financial commitment to the city of NewHaven, where he currently resides.

Sadako Ogata

Ogata, the United Nations high commissioner forrefugees, has emphasized support for humanitarianaid programs since her appointment in 1990.Recently, she has arranged several airdrops offood in Bosnia.

Other accomplishments of Ogata during herthree-year tenure include forming a plan forWestern nations to share the burden of the Haitianrefugee crisis, studying starvation in six Africancountries and tackling human rights issues in Iraqand Burma.

Ogata, a U.S. trained Japanese professor and aspecialist in human rights, was appointed highcommissioner by then-Secretary General JavierPerez de Cuellar.

Maxine F. Singer

Singer, a biochemist and president of theCarnegie Institute of Washington, is noted for herstudy of the human genome, the genetic blueprintof a human being.

A member of the Human Genome Organization,Singer Headed as a section on nucleic acidenzymology at the National Cancer Institute until1979, when she became the chief of the Laboratoryof Biochemistry there.

Singer, who graduated from Swarthmore andreceived her Ph. D. from Yale University, is theauthor of two books on molecular biology.

Singer was awarded an honorary degree fromRadcliffe College in 1990. She has also previouslyreceived honorary degrees from Williams, Dartmouthand other Schools. In addition, she has served astrustee of Wesleyan University and as a member ofthe Yale Corporation.

James Q. Wilson

Wilson, who was the Shattuck professor ofgovernment from 1961 to 1986, is currently aprofessor of management at UCLA.

Wilson is the another of more than a dozenbooks, including The Moral Sense (1993),Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and WhyThey Do It (1989), and a popular introductorytextbook called American Government.

He is the former chair of the National AdvisoryCouncil for Drug Abuse Prevention and a formermember of the Attorney General's Task Force onViolent Crime.Crimson File PhotoBENNETT L. CARTER