By John BibermanThe Dartmouth Staff
Nine public figures will receive honorary degrees at the Class of 2011's Commencement ceremony, including former President George H.W. Bush, MacArthur "Genius" fellow Elouise Cobell and Commencement speaker and comedian Conan O'Brien.
George H.W. Bush was the 41st President of the United States and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from current U.S. President Barack Obama. Before becoming president, Bush also served as a World War II naval pilot, a U.S. representative from Texas, ambassador to the United Nations, chair of the Republican National Committee, director of the Central Intelligence Agency and vice president of the United States under President Ronald Reagan.
A group of 80 Dartmouth faculty members have signed a letter expressing unhappiness with the selection of the former president as an honorary degree recipient, The Dartmouth previously reported. The letter voiced the professors' concerns that giving the former president an honorary degree endorses his political policies and values, which may be perceived in a negative light by the rest of the world, according to the letter's author and history professor Walter Simons. Other faculty members, such as anthropology professor Sergei Kan, have dismissed the letter as "misguided and partisan," The Dartmouth previously reported.
Actress Ruby Dee will also receive an honorary degree. Dee won an Emmy Award for her role in "Decoration Day," received the Screen Actor's Guild Lifetime Achievement Award and the John F. Kennedy Center Honors in 2004 and has been inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame and NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame.
Howard Hiatt, the former Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, will also receive an honorary degree. A former member of the board of directors of Partners in Health, Hiatt has worked with Paul Farmer and College President Jim Yong Kim to improve global health services by founding the Brigham and Women's Hospital's Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities.
Native American activist Elouise Cobell will also be among the honorary degree recipients. Cobell, a 1997 MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant" winner, is noted for bringing light to the U.S. government's mismanagement of Individual Indian Trust Accounts. She is also the executive director of the Native American Community Development Corporation.
Joel Klein, another honorary degree recipient, is the executive vice president of News Corporation and a former chancellor of the New York City Department of Education. As chancellor, Klein oversaw an education system that included over one million students and launched a reform called Children First, which resulted in higher graduation rates within the system. Klein was lauded for his efforts by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
Roz Chast, a cartoonist for "The New Yorker," will also receive an honorary degree. A Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth in 2008, Chast has drawn cartoons for almost 50 magazines, including "Mother Jones" and "Town and Country" and has illustrated several children's books including "Too Busy Marco," which was published in 2010.
Two members of Dartmouth's class of 1961 will also be among the honorees. Michael S. Gazzaniga '61, a scholar of cognitive neuroscience, was formerly Dartmouth's dean for the faculty of arts and sciences and currently teaches psychology and brain sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Gazzaniga was also elected to the National Academy of Science on May 3, The Dartmouth previously reported.
Russell Boss '61 is the other alumnus degree recipient. An active supporter of the College, Boss served as the chairman of A.T. Cross Co., a Rhode Island-based pen manufacturer, until 1993, and has served on the boards of several corporations, schools and charitable organizations.
Comedian Conan O'Brien, the Commencement speaker for the Class of 2011, will receive an honorary degree as well.
Since winning an Emmy Award in 1989 for his comedy writing on Saturday Night Live, O'Brien hosted the show, "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" from 1993 to 2009, winning another Emmy in 2007. O'Brien currently hosts the late-night TBS comedy show "Conan."
Honorary degree recipients are selected by the College's Committee on Honorary Degrees. To be nominated, candidates must have "attained intellectual distinction at national and international levels, reached professional achievement of the highest order, or made contributions of genuine significance in areas of public service or Dartmouth College involvement" according to the Office of Alumni Relations' website.
