Kudos: Political Color

In an election year, the chance to honor a big-catch politician with a degree often lets a university push forward a favorite son, influence the vote, win cubits of reflected prestige, or give a statesman a platform. President Johnson inaugurated the kudos season by accepting a Doctor of Civil Laws degree at the University of Michigan, then got an LL.D. from Texas (see below). But if politics promised to color the commencements, honors were also going as usual to artists, inventors and scholars. Last week’s:

BOB JONES UNIVERSITY George Corley Wallace, Governor of Alabama—LL.D. You have demonstrated in the showing which you have made in states long dominated by cheap demagogues and selfish radicals that there is still in America love for freedom, hard common sense, and at least some hope for the preservation of our constitutional liberties.

OTIS ART INSTITUTE (LOS ANGELES) William L. Pereira, architect—Arch.D.

UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA Howard Hanson, composer, conductor and director of the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music—Litt.D.

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Clarence L. (“Kelly”) Johnson, vice president for advanced development projects, Lockheed Aircraft Corp., designer of the U-2 and A-ll—Eng.D.

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA John Presper Eckert Jr., co-developer (at Penn in 1942) of ENIAC, first electronic digital computer—Sc.D.

William Warren Scranton, Governor of Pennsylvania—LL.D. To the manor born and to American politics also, your statesmanlike vision has ranged over this country as well as this commonwealth. Your energetic and determined leadership has caught the imagination of your fellow citizens everywhere in the nation.

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS

Lyndon Baines Johnson—LL.D. A native Texan who has remained in private life and in public career a devoted Texan, without boast and without apology.

Claudia Taylor Johnson—Litt.D. As the wife of a leading citizen of the world, she has accompanied him with grace and wisdom.