A rain-soaked crowd of 1,509 degree recipients concluded their Dartmouth careers June 14 with advice and reflections from Pulitzer-prize winning biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin and College President James Freedman.
Goodwin, presidential biographer and assistant to former President Lyndon Johnson, told her audience of graduates, their families and Dartmouth alumni to strive for "not perfection of work alone but perfection of life" and said any measure of success will "not be worth it in the long run" if students do not enjoy their daily routine.
She said students should avoid the situation Johnson, who was intent on the acquisition of political power, encountered during the last year of his life, when "the realm of his power was taken from him" and "he was drained of all vitality."
Instead, she suggested graduates follow the examples set by Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. President Roosevelt, she said, had an "ability to relax at the end of the day," and Eleanor Roosevelt was dedicated to "providing a voice for people who did not have access to power."
Goodwin said she has also struggled to balance family life and her work, resigning as a professor to spend more time with her family, turning down a position of leadership with the Peace Corps and taking 10 years to complete a biography.
"Even if some opportunities were lost," she said. "there's still some time now to move in a new direction."
In his 11th and final Commencement address, College President James Freedman spoke about the College's commitment to liberal education and the goals of its graduates.
"Just as it is Dartmouth's task to achieve its fullest destiny, so, as you leave this special place, it is yours," Freedman told the graduates.
Freedman said he hoped a Dartmouth education would provide the graduates with a basis for self-reflection and a sense of their personal destiny.
"My fervent hope is that you will find in your liberal education the basis for a life of idealism and joy -- a life notable for noble ambitions pursued, worthy battles joined, public services rendered, family journeys traveled," Freedman said.
Freedman concluded his speech by reflecting on his 11 years as president of the College, a tenure he said would ultimately be judged by historians.
"I can do no more than to adopt the words of my mentor Justice Thurgood Marshall, who hoped that history would remember him as one who 'did the best he could with what he had,'" Freedman said.
Valedictorian Lazar Dimitrov, an economics and mathematics double major who boasted a 3.99 GPA, was asked to stand during the ceremony but did not address his classmates.
Goodwin, who was awarded an honorary doctor of letters degree, said the ceremony fulfilled her childhood dream of receiving a Dartmouth degree.
Other honorary degree recipients were lawyer Julius Levonne Chambers, scholar John Hope Franklin, philanthropist Millard Fuller, virologist Samuel Katz '48, geneticist Mary-Claire King, author Grace Paley, College President James Freedman and Senior Lecturer in Psychology Bathsheba Freedman.
College trustee Kate Stith-Cabranes '73 praised Bathsheba Freedman's "thoughtfulness and attention to detail" and President Freedman's commitment to gender parity and diversity.
