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Posted 06/09/02
YUAN-TSEH LEE
(Doctor of Science)
Chemist, academic leader, second baseman, and Nobel Laureate, your work in molecular reaction dynamics - first at the University of Chicago and subsequently at the University of California, Berkeley - has defined a field. You have been called the "Mozart of chemistry" in recognition of your imaginative and pioneering work in both chemistry and molecular physics. And you have mentored a generation of young scientists, encouraging them to challenge your own work and that of others.
In 1994 you returned to your native Taiwan to head the Academia Sinica, a distinguished and venerable center for scholarship. You have transformed the Academia into an internationally recognized research institution that promotes scholarly exchanges and international cooperation, and one that has raised the standards of research in Taiwan. You have excelled there, as you have excelled at all places in all tasks. Small wonder that last year there was a movement to appoint you prime minister of Taiwan - in reflection of your accomplishments and your personal stature.
Never bounded by academic disciplines, stymied by problems, or confined by institution or country, you have continually expanded our vision of what is possible. Today we are honored to call you a member of this community by bestowing upon you the degree Doctor of Science.
GERDA LERNER
(Doctor of Letters)
Born in Vienna, you were jailed by the Nazis because you protested their policies. Escaping from Austria just one week before Kristallnacht, in 1939 you came to the United States. Although English was your second language, you quickly began writing fiction and non-fiction in English - and with a flair.
A foe of McCarthyism and of racism, at age 38 you began your college education, and in 1966 Columbia awarded you a Ph.D. in American history. As a historian you found your voice, never compromising your passion for justice. You played a central role in shaping the field of women's history and the feminist movement, moving women to the center of intellectual discourse. You founded the nation's first master's program in women's history, at Sarah Lawrence College, and a Ph.D. program in the field at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. You helped organize both the National Organization of Women and Women's History Month, and in 1981 you became the first woman in 50 years to serve as president of the Organization of American Historians.
Your many books span from your 1967 study of the Grimké sisters to your recently-published autobiography, Fireweed . The latter you named after the plant with small red flowers that is often the first growth to return following a fire. You are just such a survivor, and you have spoken of your own particular obligation "to keep memory alive." To our benefit, you have expanded our memory. We are delighted to welcome you here as a holder of the degree Doctor of Letters.
ARTHUR MITCHELL
(Doctor of Arts)
Born in Harlem during the Great Depression, you shined shoes to help your mother and siblings. You also learned tap at the Police Athletic League, and you have been dancing ever since.
Following studies with New York City's High School of the Performing Arts, the Katherine Dunham School of Dance, and the New York City Ballet's School of American Ballet, in 1955 you joined the New York City Ballet Company - the first African American man to be a permanent member of a major classical ballet company. You once said that you hoped to do for dance what Jackie Robinson did for baseball. You did - and as he stilled critics by excelling as a ballplayer, you did it by excelling as a dancer.
Following Martin Luther King's assassination, you resolved to extend to the young people of Harlem the opportunities you had had, saying, "I could no longer wait for others to change things . . . . I believe in helping people in the best way you can, my way is through my art." The resulting Dance Theatre of Harlem, with its school for young people and accompanying professional ballet company, stands as a significant contribution to our cultural life. Because of your vision and commitment, other Harlem youngsters - and, indeed, children from around the world - have had the liberating experience of art.
Last year the board of the Dance Theatre of Harlem renamed that group Arthur Mitchell's Dance Theatre of Harlem. Surely, any institution that can identify with you is the stronger, which Dartmouth happily acknowledges as we now welcome you into this company, with the degree Doctor of Arts.
EVELYN STEFANSSON NEF
(Doctor of Humane Letters)
Welcome back to the North Country. For you, of course, Hanover is but the gateway to THE north country, the fascinating arctic north about which you have written with passion. Together with the distinguished Vilhjalmur Stefansson, you put together one of the best collections on the arctic consisting of some 25,000 books and 40,000 offprints. In 1951 you moved the Stefansson Collection to Dartmouth, where it continues to serve faculty and students as the scholarly gateway to the polar regions. You served as the librarian and curator of this resource and you taught in the Polar Studies Program and the Arctic Seminar.
In 1963, you moved to Washington D.C. to work with the American Sociological Association and there you met and married John Nef. Together, you enjoyed friendships with some of the most significant artists and intellectuals of the twentieth century.
Explorer and writer, teacher and puppeteer, librarian and singer, you have always looked for new challenges; and at age 60 you went back to school to become a psychotherapist. You are, moreover, a major patron of the arts and supporter of organizations ranging from the Corcoran Gallery to the Lourie Center for Infants and Young Children.
As one of the first women to teach at Dartmouth, you noted in your recent autobiography your delight, forty some years ago, in walking with the faculty in your first academic procession on this Green. With your inimitable touch, that day you adorned your black gown with a colorful Thai silk stole. Today we complete your ensemble with a hood, one that signifies your enduring place in our company, as the holder of the degree Doctor of Humane Letters.
FRED McFEELY ROGERS
(Doctor of Humane Letters)
You have devoted your life not to denying the complexity of our lives, but to reminding us, gently and persistently, of the enduring importance of the simple things: love, caring, sharing, and the special strength of children.
A person who has known you for a long time has said that you respect children "for their intellect, their inherent sense of right, and their penchant for honesty." While you have regularly been a voice on behalf of children, your message surely has been to all of us.
You have devoted yourself to this good work for over a half-century. The host and creator of "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood," you are also the Chairman of Family Communications Inc., the non-profit company you established to produce that television program and to have a still broader role in encouraging and supporting children and their families. As a pioneer in children's television and advocate of public television, you have been an articulate foe of prejudice and an effective teacher.
We are pleased to join the long list of those who have honored you. Over a half-century ago, you spent two years here on the Hanover Plain, as a member of the Class of 1950, and we are delighted to have you once more in this neighborhood, and pleased, finally, to celebrate your so-worthy accomplishments with the degree Doctor of Humane Letters.
E. JOHN ROSENWALD, JR.
(Doctor of Laws)
Your friends call you "Rosie." The designation is not simply a familiar or flippant play on your surname, it is also very decidedly a description of the optimism that marks your world and the warm glow you bring wherever you go.
A member of the Dartmouth Class of 1952 and a graduate of the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration, you joined The Bear Stearns Companies in 1954. As an investment banker and corporate-finance specialist, you did well. But that was never enough. You also did good - over and over and over again. You embraced and in fact embodied the principle that giving is the best measure of a life well lived. Moreover, encouraging others to join you in giving, made the life well lived more fun still.
The New York Times wrote of you as possessing "a knack for getting others to give away their money, often in prodigious amounts." The Times calculated that you had helped raise $2.3 billion for Mount Sinai, New York University Medical Center, the Central Park Conservancy, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Deerfield Academy, and Dartmouth. And that was as of a year and a half ago!
You have served your college well, as a Trustee and as Chair of that Board, as a volunteer, as a stalwart friend. You have made us the stronger - and you have been a remarkable example of the best of President John Sloan Dickey's hopes for our graduates. On this occasion and in this special company, which includes your fellow members of the 50-Year Class, Dartmouth, in token of its fond regard for you, its pride in your achievements, and its ongoing indebtedness to you, with pleasure bestows the degree of Doctor of Laws.
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