Honorary Degrees

The Honorary Degree Recipients Include:

David McCullough: biographer and journalist

Biographer, historian, lecturer and teacher, David McCullough is the author of six widely acclaimed books, including Truman, one of the most popular American biographies of all time and the winner of the Pulitzer Prize. To millions of television viewers, McCullough is also known as the host of "The American Experience," and narrator of numerous PBS documentaries including "The Civil War." A gifted public speaker, he has lectured in all parts of the country and abroad, as well as being a part of the White House presidential lecture series. He is also one of the few private citizens ever invited to speak before a joint session of Congress, during its bicentennial.

Helen Vendler: scholar, literary critic

One of America's most respected poetry critics, Helen Vendler has published 10 major books and received 16 honorary degrees. The New Republic described the Harvard English professor as "the best poetry reviewer in America." In an interview last winter, Vendler said: "Poetry is one of the fields which can be pressed to its utmost imaginative freedom, to reconceive reality and reconceive the way words go together. Poetry will always continue to offer surprise, exhilaration and unpredictability."

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