|
Posted 06/12/05
Honorary degree citation to Tom Brokaw (Doctor of Humane Letters)
Tom Brokaw
|
It is a long way from Webster on the high plains of South Dakota to the NBC studios at New York City's Rockefeller Center. The distance and the difference between these locations never complicated who you were. You knew from an early age that you would be a broadcast journalist, but you have never forgotten your Great Plains roots.
Over a period of decades you have brought to your audience news of events great and small. You have talked us through the crumbling of the Berlin Wall, the first American interview with Mikhail Gorbachev, presidential elections, Watergate, and September 11, 2001. Known for possessing an easy persona coupled with unflinching professionalism, you earned the trust of millions of nightly viewers. You observed first hand much of the history of the last forty-five years. And you have brought us along as companions, explaining patiently and engaging us warmly. We affirm here that you have more than met your lifelong goal of being the best at what you do.
In addition to your work as journalist and newscaster, you are a writer who has given voice to the generation that grew up during the Great Depression and went to war in the 1940s - "the Greatest Generation." By telling their stories of sacrifice and service so simply and eloquently, you awakened a renewed sense of gratitude for all that they did.
With this degree, you join your daughter Jennifer, a 1993 graduate of our Medical School, as members of the Dartmouth community. For all that you have achieved over your worthy and successful career, we now take special pleasure in conferring upon you the degree Doctor of Humane Letters.
- James Wright
Return to Commencement 2005
|
