Ten outstanding individuals were awarded honorary degrees at the Commencement ceremony on May 27. The names of this year's honorands, a short biography and their award citations follow:
Jeanne Quint Benoliel
Doctor of Medical Science
Jeanne Quint Benoliel has been a pioneer in the field of nursing research and thanatology, the study of death and dying, whose work has transformed the care of patients, especially at the end of life. Professor Emerita of Psychosocial and Community Health Nursing at the University of Washington, she served on that faculty for over 20 years and was the first Elizabeth Sterling Soule Professor of Nursing. As a nurse, researcher and teacher, Benoliel brought a special perspective to her work, focusing both on patients and their families and on the medical professionals who care for them. Through her study of the interactions between terminal cancer patients and their doctors and nurses, she transformed the education of health care providers, establishing one of the first graduate programs in the nation to train nurses to launch community-based services for advanced cancer patients and their families. Her work has addressed the needs of entire families in confronting death and dying, emphasizing the role of the family in caring for loved ones. Her six books include "The Nurse and the Dying Patient" and "Death Education for the Health Professional." Benoliel was the first nurse to chair the International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement. In 2000, she was named a Living Legend by the American Academy of Nursing.
Through your pioneering studies of death and dying, you have helped society understand that death is a part of life. Your work has shown us the value of providing community-based care to those who are dying and the value of comfort when the body will not heal. With an influence felt world-wide, you have encouraged the inclusion of the family in caring for the dying, and you have advocated support and care for the bereaved. In recognition of your contributions, we honor you with the degree of Doctor of Medical Sciences.
Ela Ramesh Bhatt
Doctor of Social Science
Ela Ramesh Bhatt is founder and head of India's Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) and the SEWA Cooperative Bank. Inspired by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, Bhatt has been an advocate for women in the fight against poverty, exploitation and injustice. A former lawyer and social worker, Bhatt became acutely aware of the conditions of India's poor self-employed women while working for the Textile Labour Association. These women were not entitled to protection by labor laws and could not get credit from commercial banks. Recognizing that these workers needed collective, organized strength, Bhatt established SEWA in 1972. Today, it has over 421,000 members and is India's largest single primary trade union. The SEWA Cooperative Bank, created in 1974, encourages savings and provides micro-loans to women workers at favorable rates. It also helps women develop market strategies and acquire benefit packages. With over 125,000 accounts and a repayment rate of 96%, the bank has become a widely emulated model. Bhatt became a founding member and chair of Women's World Banking in New York in 1980, and chairs several international organizations of the working poor. Her honors include being nominated by India's president to the nation's parliament, where she served 1986-1989.
Inspired by your teacher Mahatma Gandhi, you have worked to lift poor working women out of poverty and oppression in your native India. You have created the Self-Employed Women's Association, now India's largest single trade union, and its affiliated bank which supports village entrepreneurs through programs of micro-lending. Recognizing that poverty is a political issue, you have confronted the oppression of poor women and have helped provide the means for dignity, security, and freedom from want for thousands of women and their families. We honor your intrepid spirit and enterprise for others with the degree of Doctor of Social Science.
Robert L. Carter
Doctor of Laws
Robert L. Carter is U.S. district judge for the Southern District of New York and a pillar of the civil rights movement. As a counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Carter was part of the legal team that argued the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education, which outlawed segregation in public education. During his 24 years with the NAACP, Carter won an unprecedented 21 of 22 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. He was appointed to the federal bench in 1972 by President Richard Nixon. As a judge, Carter has written and spoken widely about discrimination in the United States, particularly in public education and in the state and federal justice systems, and about his longtime colleague, Thurgood Marshall. An adjunct member of several law school faculties, he is a cofounder of the National Conference of Black Lawyers. He was a delegate to both the United Nations Conference on Crime and Treatment of Offenders in Stockholm in 1965 and the Conference of African Jurists on African Legal Process and Individual Rights in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1971. The recipient of numerous awards, he served on the New York State Special Commission on Attica, which investigated the 1971 prison riots.
As an attorney for the NAACP, your successful arguments in Brown v. Board of Education changed the face of the nation. In that landmark case and others that followed, you were a major force in dismantling segregation and promoting equal opportunity. Now, as a judge yourself, you extend that legacy, through wise decisions, an unflinching commitment to equality and fairness, and a deep and abiding sense of personal integrity. We are honored to grant you the degree of Doctor of Laws.
William Sloane Coffin '49 B.A., '56 B.D.
Doctor of Divinity
William Sloane Coffin's principled but controversial stands against injustice made him a role model for generations of young people. Coffin interrupted his undergraduate studies at Yale to work in military intelligence for the U.S. Army 19431947. His decision to obey orders concerning the repatriation of anti-Stalin Soviet defectors, despite his concern about their fate, helped him realize years later that "the responsibility of those who take orders is as great as those who give them." After earning his B.A. at Yale in 1949, Coffin entered Union Theological Seminary, but left to serve in the CIA during the Korean War. He earned a B.D. degree (equivalent to today's M.Div.) at the Yale Divinity School in 1956, and became an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. As Yale Chaplain 19581976, Coffin became deeply involved in the civil rights movement and the opposition to the Vietnam War. He was arrested for his work as a "freedom rider" and his anti-war activities. After leaving Yale, Coffin continued to fight against discrimination and the nuclear arms race as pastor of the Riverside Church in New York City. In 1988, he became president of SANE/FREEZE, an organization dedicated to world peace. Retired since the early 1990s, Coffin continues to preach, teach and publish. His most recent book is "The Heart is a Little to the Left."
Pastor, prophet, friend: your legacy at Yale and around the world is enduring. Here at your alma mater, you changed the shape of college chaplaincy and inspired a generation of young people to challenge injustice. From the Battell pulpit, from the Riverside pulpit and from the bully pulpit, you urged, in the civil rights and anti-war movements, adherence to the highest moral principles. You have lived a life of service for God, for country and for Yale. We are delighted to name you Doctor of Divinity.
Robert Fagles '59 Ph.D.
Doctor of Letters
Robert Fagles is the Arthur W. Marks '19 Professor of Comparative Literature at Princeton University, teaching in a department that he founded. He is internationally renowned for his translations of ancient Greek lyric poetry, epic and drama. After earning his doctorate at Yale in 1959, he served for a year as an instructor of English at Yale before joining the Princeton faculty, where his courses on tragedy and epic literature became an institution. His translations include the poems of Bacchylides, Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey," the three Theban plays by Sophocles and Aeschylus' "The Oresteia." In addition, he has published original poetry, including "I, Vincent: Poems from the Pictures of Van Gogh." In his translations, Fagles says, he tries to capture as much of the original voice as possible, while also making the work accessible and compelling to a modern audience. The late Yale professor Maynard Mack once said of Fagles' "Iliad": "Better than any translator of our time, Fagles catches the relentless sweep of the original." Fagles' translation of "The Oresteia" was nominated for a National Book Award in 1977, and he has received many other honors, including being named a Commander of the Order of the Phoenix by the Greek government.
With careful ear and poetic touch, you have given us fresh expressions of the great works of antiquity. By listening deeply to Homer and Virgil, Sophocles and Aeschylus, you have helped make these ancient writings speak to our times in a fashion both accessible and artful. Faithful to the original voice of centuries past, attentive to the linguistic nuances of modern meaning, you are able to capture the timeless wisdom of the classics. You are gifted as a teacher, a scholar and a poet. We take great pleasure in conferring upon you the degree of Doctor of Letters.
Gordon E. Moore
Doctor of Science
Gordon E. Moore is the cofounder of Intel, which perfected the technology of the microchip. Since retiring, he has been active in environmental protection and philanthropic ventures. Trained as a chemist and physicist, Moore and his associate, Robert Noyce, expanded their research on transistors with the development of the integrated circuit, or microchip. The two started their own company in 1968 and named it Intel. Early on, Moore was convinced of the potential to manufacture chips with millions of transistors per chip. His 1965 prediction that the number of transistors that could be built into a chip would double every year became known as Moore's Law. Within a decade, advances in technology required him to revise his "law" to predict doubling every two years. Moore was chief executive officer of Intel 19751987 and chair for
10 years before retiring. As a member of the board of Conservation International, he has worked to preserve the Brazilian rainforest. He and his wife have created the Gordon E. and Betty I. Moore Foundation, which provides grants for conservation purposes and promotes scientific research within colleges and universities. Moore has received the National Medal of Technology and the Founders Award from the National Academy of Engineering, among other honors.
As the founder of Intel, you have made your mark on the world by having big ideas about small things. In revolutionizing the design and fabrication of computer chips, you opened the way for products and processes never before imagined. There is Intel inside the tools of our daily life and work. Now, you have moved from the world of business to the business of the world, becoming an advocate for science, the environment, and preservation of biodiversity. We are pleased to welcome you to our number with this degree of Doctor of Science.
Steven Spielberg
Doctor of Humane Letters
Steven Spielberg is a leading figure of American film, with a long list of credits as a writer, director and producer. A film buff from childhood, Spielberg secretly haunted the sound stages and back lots of Universal Studios while still in high school. As a college student, his film "Amblin'" attracted the attention of Universal, which hired him to direct for television, making him the youngest director ever signed to a long-term contract by a major studio. His many films have included "Jaws," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," "Jurassic Park," "Amistad" and the forthcoming "Minority Report." He won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director for "Schindler's List," and garnered a third Oscar for directing "Saving Private Ryan." His company, Amblin Entertainment, and the multi-media company DreamWorks SKG, which he established with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, have spawned many acclaimed television shows and films. Spielberg has received three Directors Guild Awards, the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Directors Guild, the American Film Institute and the National Board of Review. A noted philanthropist, Spielberg established the Righteous Persons Foundation and Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, which has recorded over 51,000 testimonies of Holocaust survivors. He also chairs the Starbright Foundation for seriously ill children.
Beginning with a home movie camera, you have become our most famous filmmaker. With a visual style that encompasses and transcends words, you have captured the imagination of an entire generation -- young and old alike, around the world. From "Jaws" and "Indiana Jones," to "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "E.T.," to "Schindler's List" and "Amistad," your movies entertain, engage and enlighten. With creative genius, you have preserved memory of the Holocaust by establishing the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. For your artistry and imagination, we honor you with this degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.
Claude Mason Steele
Doctor of Social Science
Claude Mason Steele, a social psychologist, is the Lucie Sterns Professor in the Social Sciences at Stanford University. His groundbreaking research addresses pressing contemporary problems in American society. For more than three decades, Steele has focused his studies on three areas: addictive behaviors, especially alcohol abuse; the effects of threats to self-esteem on behavior; and the experience and impact of being negatively stereotyped. His theory on "stereotype threat," which holds that people's awareness that they are being stereotyped can erode their performance in competitive settings, has helped explain the allegedly poorer achievements of ethnic minority groups in certain academic fields and of women working in mathematics. This work has prompted debate about how to encourage minority achievement and implement affirmative action policies. Steele and his colleagues also have developed an important theory of alcohol abuse and stress-induced drinking called alcohol myopia. Steele is president of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology and serves on the board of directors of the American Psychological Society. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Education and the American Psychological Association.
Your pioneering work has helped us to understand the terrible effects of stereotyping, and in that understanding, to undo some of the damage. Your findings have been applied in educational settings to help minority and non-minority students alike achieve more of their full potential. You have also shed light on alcohol abuse and addiction and factors affecting self-esteem. For your contributions to understanding our human condition, we are honored to award you the degree of Doctor of Social Science.
Lawrence Henry Summers
Doctor of Social Science
Lawrence Henry Summers is the 27th president of Harvard University and former U.S. secretary of the treasury. The son of a Yale professor, Summers is a "scholar-practitioner" who has combined his academic work with a distinguished career in public service. He both studied and taught at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before serving on the President's Council of Economic Advisers during the Reagan administration. As vice president of development economics and chief economist at the World Bank, he led efforts to assist developing countries. As the 71st secretary of the Department of the Treasury, he helped engineer a historic pay-down of the national debt, extended the life of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds and helped enact the most sweeping financial deregulation in 60 years. He also helped focus the work of the government on securing debt relief for some of the world's poorest nations, combating international money laundering, and reforming the International Monetary Fund. At the end of his term, he was awarded the Alexander Hamilton Medal, the Treasury Department's highest honor. He served briefly at the Brookings Institution in Washington before assuming the presidency of Harvard. A prolific author, Summers' many honors include being the first social scientist to receive the National Science Foundation's Alan T. Waterman Award for outstanding scientific achievement.
The leading economist of your generation, a distinguished Secretary of the Treasury and the 27th President of Harvard University -- any one of these accomplishments would merit the recognition we confer upon you today. We admire the relentless intellectual curiosity that led you to question received economic theories and confront them with fact after fact. We applaud your leadership in reducing the national debt, managing the Asian financial crisis and protecting Social Security and Medicare. And we watch with great expectations as you bring these qualities to the stewardship of the nation's oldest university. With great pleasure, we award you the degree of Doctor of Social Science.
Shirley M. Tilghman
Doctor of Science
Shirley M. Tilghman is the 19th president of Princeton University and the first woman to hold that office. A native of Toronto, Canada, Tilghman taught high school in Sierra Leone, West Africa, before returning to North America, where she made a number of groundbreaking discoveries while participating in the cloning of the first mammalian gene at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She went on to work at the Institute for Cancer Research in Philadelphia and to teach human genetics at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1986, she joined the Princeton faculty, later becoming an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and founding director of Princeton's multidisciplinary Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics. She became Princeton's president in June 2001 and still serves as professor of molecular biology there. Tilghman's work on the parental imprinting of genes has advanced understanding about the inheritance of certain genetic diseases. She was a founding member of the National Advisory Council of the NIH Human Genome Project. A national leader on behalf of women in science, Tilghman is a fellow of the Royal Society of London and a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States. In 2000, she was named Senior Woman Scientist of the Year, an international award from the American Society for Cell Biology.
From participation in cloning the first mammalian gene to groundbreaking discoveries about the nature of genetic determinism, you have made a lasting mark on the progress of science. Through research into imprinting and the molecular mechanisms underlying gene silencing, you have deepened our understanding of the origin of the species. You bring a distinguished record as a teacher, scientist, and advocate for science to the Presidency of Princeton University. We celebrate your career and the ties between our campuses by bestowing upon you the degree of Doctor of Science.
C O M M E N C E M E N T
2 0 0 2
Yale Celebrates 301st Graduation
Baccalaureate Address
Honorary Degrees
Senior Class Day
Teaching Prizes
Scholastic Prizes
David Everett Chantler Prize
Roosevelt L. Thompson Prize
Elliott and Mallory Athletic Awards
Robert E. Lewis Award for Intramural Sports
Wilbur Cross Medals
Other Undergraduate Awards and Honors
Graduate Student Awards and Honors
Commencement Photos
T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S
Yale Celebrates 301st Graduation
Biodiversity expert named new director of Peabody
Renowned architect Maya Lin elected to Yale Corporation
Two faculty members named to Sterling professorships
Drama School/Yale Rep to receive 2002 Governor's Arts Award
Two pioneering researchers are elected to the NAS
Peptide promotes nerve growth in damaged spinal cords
Exhibit shows how publisher 'cooks up' his books
Yale to join Elm City in celebration of world's arts & ideas
Nursing school marks retirement of its former dean
Center honors former director Dr. Donald Cohen
Divinity dean Rebecca Chopp steps down
Schools of Medicine, Nursing host class reunions
Library's Franklin Papers and Fortunoff Archive win NEH grants
Undergraduates named Dean's Research Fellows
City's downtown will heat up with 'hot sounds' this summer
Yale professor granted award to study TSC
Bulldogs aim to out-row Crimsons in 150th regatta
Artist who portrays black life in the rural South to discuss his work . . .
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