The members of the Class of 2001 will not be the only degree recipients this June. A former Secretary of State, the discoverer of the double helix and the former chairman of the board of directors for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People will be among those honored in today's Commencement exercises.
Nobel Prize winner James D. Watson of the famed Watson and Crick duo is slated to receive an honorary Doctorate of Science. The pair's 1953 discovery of the shape of the DNA molecule as a "gently twisted ladder," or "double helix," revolutionized the study of biology and genetics, making possible the recombinant DNA techniques used by those working in the field of biotechnology.
Watson, who entered college at just 15 years-of-age, has dedicated his entire life to scientific academia, subsequently serving as senior research fellow at the California Institute of Technology, professor of biology at Harvard University, director and president of the Cold Harbor Laboratory, and the first director of the National Center for the Human Genome.
Watson has been honored for his contributions to the scientific community with myriad honorary degrees and celebratory decorations, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
As former chairman of the board of the NAACP, Myrlie Evers-Williams became the first woman to lead the nation's oldest civil rights organization and will be receiving a Doctorate of Human Letters at Commencement.
Evers-Williams and her late husband, Medgar Evers together opened and managed the first NAACP Mississippi state office. In the face of incessant threats, the pair strove to bring about voting rights, fair housing, equal education and commensurate justice for people of color.
Evers was assassinated in 1963 while Evers-Williams and their three young children watched in horror from the front door of their Jackson home. After enduring two hung jury trials of her husband's murderer, Evers-Williams would not see justice done until three decades later. Meanwhile, she sought to use the experience to further her humanitarian cause, chronicling her husband's life and visionary struggle for civil rights in both print and film.
Donald Hall, who will be awarded the Doctorate of Letters, is a well-known poet and literary scholar.
He has published 14 books of poetry, the most recent of which is entitled "Without: Poems," as well as literary analyses, short stories and plays, and has edited more than two dozen textbooks and anthologies.
Hall's writing has met with wide critical acclaim, earning him two Guggenheim fellowships, the Poetry Society of America's Robert Frost Silver Medal, a Lifetime Achievement award from the New Hampshire Writers and Publishers Project and nomination for the Pulitzer Prize.
I. Michael Heyman '51 will be presented with a Doctorate of Laws, his second Dartmouth degree.
Heyman, a former secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, is currently emeritus chancellor, professor and interim director of the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California at Berkeley, where he has spent the bulk of his academic career.
The Dartmouth grad served as editor of the Yale Law Journal, chief law clerk for then-Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren and has published numerous academic journal articles, papers and legal documents involving constitutional law, environmental law, civil rights and affirmative action.
Phyllis Lambert, who will be receiving a Doctorate of Arts, is not only a famed municipal architect, but strives to make architecture a public concern both nationally and internationally.
As founding director and chair of the board of trustees for the Canadian Center for Architecture in Montreal, Lambert created a major architectural museum and study center.
Her work includes the Seagram Building in New York and the Saidye Bronfman Center in Montreal, both of which earned her multiple prestigious national awards. Her work on the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, Egypt won her the Hadrian Award of the World Monuments Fund for the preservation of international cultural heritage.
As the 64th Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, who will be receiving an honorary Doctorate of Laws today, was the highest-ranking woman in U.S. government history. During her time in office, Albright worked to influence policy from Northern Ireland to North Korea, as well as in Kosova, Russia, China and the Middle East.
Albright, who is today's keynote speaker, also mainstreamed efforts to improve the lives of women and girls both at home and abroad, leading the American delegation to Beijing for the United Nation's Fourth World Conference on Women.
Honorees are nominated by graduating students and faculty and then selected by a committee of faculty from all divisions of the College.
"We choose people who are leaders in their field ... who will be an inspiration to our graduates," College spokesperson Sue Knapp said.
