Dartmouth will award seven honorary degrees during today's graduation ceremonies to recipients involved in careers and service ranging from professional athletics to research science.
Receiving degrees will be Commencement speaker and theoretical physicist Shirley Jackson, baseball hall-of-famer Hank Aaron, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, president of the Dr. Seuss Foundation Audrey Stone Geisel, the author of the "Harry Potter" series of children's books J. K. Rowling, chairman of the Hallmark Cards Corporation Donald Hall '50 and Norman "Sandy" McCulloch '50, Chairman of The Rhode Island Foundation, one of the nation's largest community foundations.
Geisel, Rowling and Aaron will receive honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees. Hall, McCulloch and Rubin will be awarded Doctor of Laws degrees, and Jackson will receive the Doctor of Science degree.
Robert Rubin
A member of the Cabinet and head of the Department of the Treasury from 1995 through 1999, Robert Rubin will deliver the investiture address marking the 100th anniversary of the Tuck Business School.
Prior to entering government service in 1993 as the director of the National Economic Council under President Bill Clinton, Rubin worked for the Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs for 26 years, rising to become the company's co-chairman.
As director of the Treasury Department, Rubin received much credit, along with Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, for the continued growth of the U.S. economy, growth that has now become the longest peacetime economic expansion in the nation's history.
After Rubin announced his resignation in 1999, Greenspan called him "one of the most effective secretaries of the Treasury in this nation's history" and "one of, if not the, brightest economists of his generation."
Hank Aaron
The owner of the Major League Baseball record for most career home runs, Henry "Hank" Aaron hit 755 long shots during his 23 years as a professional ballplayer. But he wasn't a one trick-player -- the right fielder received three Golden Glove awards, holds the record for most runs-batted-in, and appeared as an All-Star a record 24 times.
Aaron, one of the best all-around ball players ever, played most of his career for the Braves, first in Milwaukee and then in Atlanta, leading his team to the national championship in 1957.
When Aaron bested Babe Ruth's home run record at the beginning of the 1974 season, he was swimming against a flood of hate mail and threats from racists angered by the fact that an African American was about to break the Babe's record.
"The Hammer" persevered, however, and smashed number 715 on April 8, 1974, to take sole possession of one of the most coveted records in baseball.
Since retiring from baseball in 1976, Aaron has been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982 and been recognized by President Clinton, Congress and the MLB. ESPN named him the 14th best athlete of the 20th century, while Sports Illustrated selected him as one of the six top baseball players.
"I can't even begin to tell you what it means to me to be receiving the degree from Dartmouth," Aaron said during an interview with The Dartmouth last month. "I am ecstatic and proud and I can't even wait for that day to come."
J. K. Rowling
The author of the tremendously popular series of children's stories about the adventures of boy wizard Harry Potter, Joanne Kathleen Rowling has come a long way in just four years.
She wrote the first Harry Potter story, released in 1997, while unemployed and on public assistance in her native England, often working at a caf table while her young daughter napped beside her. Today she will receive an honorary degree from a prestigious university, alongside a former Cabinet member.
All three of the Potter stories published thus far remain on the New York Times best-seller list, entrancing young and old alike. Last September, the three books occupied the top three spots on the list.
"Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone," the first in the series, won the British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year honor, the prestigious Smarties prize and rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic -- as did Rowling's second and third books. Perhaps even more prestigious, the book has been added to the reading list for a class at Dartmouth.
Norman McCulloch
Recently elected chairman of the Rhode Island Foundation -- one of the largest community foundations in the country -- Norman "Sandy" McCulloch '50 has a long history of public service, including service to Dartmouth.
McCulloch served as the president of the Alumni Council and was a member of the Dartmouth Board of Trustees and was its chairman for a period. McCulloch is also the chairman of Microfibres Inc., a textile company founded by his father.
The Rhode Island Foundation has assets totaling approximately $400 million, allowing grant giving on the order of $15 million per year, money that goes to a wide variety of charities in Rhode Island.
In addition to the honorary degree he will receive today, McCulloch's dedication to service inspired the Board of Trustees to name the new dorm in the East Wheelock Cluster -- scheduled to open this fall -- McCulloch Hall in his honor.
Audrey Stone Geisel
Widow of Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel '25, President of Dr. Seuss Enterprises and the Dr. Seuss Foundation Audrew Stone Geisel keeps busy as the head of the corporation that owns the rights to the images from some of the best known children's books.
Geisel's philanthropic activities have included work in education, medicine and the arts, as well as contributions by the groups she leads to literacy advancement projects such as the National Education Association's Read Across America.
Geisel serves on the advisory board of the National Hospice Association and is a board member of the Scripps Foundation for Medicine and Science.
Donald Hall
Grandson of Hallmark Cards founder George Hall, Donald Hall '50 is the chairman of one of the first companies that people turn to for birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, Valentine's Day -- nearly every holiday and event.
During Hall's time as Hallmark chairman, the company was listed as one of "The Best Companies to Work for in America." Hall also began the tradition of donating five percent of the company's pre-tax profits to charity.
Winner of the 1985 National Medal of Arts, Hall is also the head of the Hall Family Foundation, which currently has assets valued at more than $215 million.
