Solzhenitsyn, Giamatti, Nine Others Receive Honoraries at Commencement

President Bok this morning conferred honorary degrees on ten men and one woman, including Commencement speaker Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn and A. Bartlett Giamatti, president-elect of Yale University.

The recipients also include President Seretse M. Khama of Botswana and former President Ephraim Katchalski-Katzir of Israel.

The award to Giamatti prompted University administrators to break with tradition, planning to allow the 40-year-old Renaissance scholar to march at the head of the Commencement parade next to Bok.

Two prominent civil rights activists also received degrees this morning at Harvard's 327th Commencement. Vernon E. Jordan, executive director of the National Urban League, and Roy Wilkins, former executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), both received Doctor of Laws citations.

James D. Watson, Nobel laureate and co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, was awarded a Doctor of Science degree.

The only woman in the group is Helen H. Gilbert '36, former president of the Board of Overseers, who received a Doctor of Laws citation.

The other recipients were: John Cheever, prominent novelist and author of the recent best-seller Falconer; Erik H. Erikson, professor of Human Development Emeritus; and Beumont Newhall '30, photographic historian.

In making one of his rare public appearances to speak at Commencement exercises this afternoon, Solzhenitsyn again enters the glare of publicity that he so obviously finds distasteful. He is a man who wishes to let his books and his other accomplishments speak for themselves. Winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970, he was prevented from leaving the Soviet Union because of his staunch anti-Communist beliefs, yet still managed to create a worldwide audience for his views. Solzhenitsyn's criticism of the Soviet government and his advocacy of a return to imperial absolutism earned him expulsion from his home country in 1974, and widespread publicity for his views; his subsequent denunciations of Western nations for what he sees as their failure to act against Soviet abuses of human rights have received less attention, however.

Solzhenitsyn's novels reflect the intense brooding sadness of the Russian people, expressed through events similar to those of his own life. His eight-year stay in Stalinist labor camps, as well as his recovery from cancer, clearly contributed to the characterizations and intense emotional power of Cancer Ward, The First Circle, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, and The Gulag Archipelago.

Solzhenitsyn's citation reads: The clear contemporary voice of a great literary tradition, like his heroic predecessors a courageous exponent of the unfettered human spirit.

Giamatti's sensational rise to the presidency of Yale after less than 12 years on the faculty there has made him a figure of national interest almost rivalling that of his predecessor, Kingman Brewster. A professor of English and comparative literature at Yale, he emerged into the spotlight as the likely choice to become that school's 19th president in December, after Henry Rosovsky, Harvard's dean of the Faculty, apparently rejected an offer from the Yale Corporation to assume the post. Well-liked by students, Giamatti served a two-year stint as master of Ezra Stiles College, one of Yale's 12 undergraduate residential colleges. He established his reputation as something of an iconoclast by refusing to allow his portrait to hang in the college's dining hall, alongside those of previous masters. Undergraduates instead hung a moose head there, where it remains to this day, a symbol of Giamatti's endearing non-conformism.

On educational matters, however, he remains a conformist, having gained a reputation as a scrupulous scholar and a demanding, though stimulating, professor. His studies of medieval and Renaissance literature established him as one of the most influential members of Yale's English department. He will take office next month.

Giamatti's citation from Harvard reads: Harvard hails the next leader of her sister institution, and wishes him well. To the travails of university administration, he brings the tenacity of a bulldog and the brio of a Renaissance man.

Khama, who has served as Botswana's president since the country gained independence from Britain in 1966, has earned a reputation as a staunch foe of the apartheid policies of South Africa. Although continuing trade relations with that nation, Botswana has, under Khama's leadership, established itself as one of the foremost opponents of apartheid, frequently sponsoring and supporting United Nations resolutions condemning South Africa and its racial policies.

Khama came to prominence, before Botswana's independence, as leader of the Bechuanaland Democratic Party, and was later the nation's first prime minister and minister of home affairs. Since independence, he has sat as a member of the British House of Lords.

His inscription reads: Harvard honors his eloquence, acuity and respect for human rights, and salutes the achievements of a multi-racial democracy in a rapidly changing continent.

Katchalski-Katzir has continued his original calling as a scientist since retiring as Israel's president earlier this year. Throughout his involvement in his country's politics--which culminated in his five-year term in the largely ceremonial office of president--he has continued his research in biophysics. He has been a visiting professor at the Rockefeller Institute since 1961. Born in Russia in 1916, Katchalski-Katzir worked as a research assistant at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and Columbia University before emigrating to Israel.

His citation reads: Not only an inventive and influential scientist, but a paradigm of the man of learning as man of action.

Jordan, who has served as executive director of the National Urban League since 1972, has for years been one of the nation's most vocal proponents of economic revitalization for American cities, as a means of increasing the economic opportunities of blacks across the country. A native of Atlanta, Ga., Jordan worked as an attorney for the Atlanta Office of Economic Opportunity before taking on duties with the United Negro College Fund, and later the leadership of the National Urban League. As one of the leading spokesmen for urban blacks, he has been active in policy advising in Washington--to the point of a well-publicized rift with President Carter over the allocation of federal funds for the nation's cities.

Jordan's citation: A vigorous mind, voice and body breaching barriers to equal opportunity.

As one of the most famous of the civil rights leaders of the '60s, Wilkins has preserved his image as a proponent of moderate means of attaining racial equality in the United State. One of the main organizers of the massive civil rights march of Washington in 1963, he led the NAACP along a path of gradual but continuing struggle through 12 years of turmoil--a moderate course that earned him the derision of many more militant black leaders, as well as the steadfast opposition of segregationists. The 77-year-old Wilkins, who retired from his post as executive director of the NAACP last year, also has a background in journalism, having edited the NAACP's monthly magazine, The Crisis, for 15 years in the '30s and '40s.

Wilkin's citation: For almost half a century, he as worked with quiet zeal to realize the constitutional promises of our nation.

It has been quarter of a century since Watson and his colleague, Francis Crick, first published the results of their research into the molecular structure of DNA, but his name remains permanently associated with the mysteries of genetic replication. His research earned him a Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine in 1962, while he was still in his 30s, and the book we wrote with Crick--The Double Helix, the story of their joint research in molecular biology--became a best-seller. His notoriety has followed him from his post at Harvard as Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences--a chair from which he retired last year--to his current work as director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York.

Watson's citation reads: Precocious investigator, uninhibited author, inspiring teacher: Harvard celebrates a modern biological discovery that ranks with those of Darwin and Mendel, and heralds as new and revolutionary era in the life sciences.

As a pioneer in developmental psychology, Erikson has witnessed many of his own works develop into classics in that field within his own lifetime. A native of Germany, he initiated study into the human life cycle and the manner in which whole societies respond to differing phases of personal development; his psychoanalytical research led him to author Gandhi's Truth, a psychological biography of the Indian leader, that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1969. His Childhood and Society has also become a classic text. Erikson taught at the Medical School before joining the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as professor of Human Development--a post from which he retired eight years ago.

Erikson's citation: Humane theorist and teacher, his wisdom illuminates the stages of life through which we all must pass.

Cheever's novels and short stories, while statements of traditional morality, explore universal themes within the setting of latter-day America. A master of satire, Cheever most often studies the effects of modern pressures on the contemporary morality of the suburban middle-class, yet he never loses a sense of warmth and compassion toward his subjects. He sharpened his ear for dialogue in years of short-story writing for The New Yorker, among other publications, and has since graduated to novels, including The Wapshot Chronical and last year's impressive best-seller, Falconer.

His citation reads: A master chronicler of his times, he perceives in the American suburb a microcosm of the divisions, tensions and incongruous ecstasies of twentieth-century life.

Throughout her association with the University, Gilbert has remained a staunch supporter of women's education. A member of the Radcliffe Class of '36, she served as the school's acting president from 1964 to 1965, and later became the first woman ever elected president of the Board of Overseers--the larger of the University's two governing boards. Although she retired from that position in 1975, she has remained active on a number of visiting committees, and remains a Radcliffe trustee, which she has been since 1950.

Gilbert's citation reads: A woman of independent mind and great good humor, a loyal daughter of Radcliffe whose capricious heart goes out to Harvard.

A former director of the International Museum of Photography, Newhall is best known for his study of the progression of photography as an art form and a medium of communication. His books include History of Photography, The Daguerrotype in America, and Airborne Camera. The 70-year-old Newhall has also been involved with photographic study at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

His citation: His life's work, ever in focus, records the striking growth of the youngest of the visual arts.

President Bok this morning conferred honorary degrees on:

John Cheever, novelist--Doctor of Letters;

Erik H. Erikson, psychologist, educator and professor of Human Development Emeritus--Doctor of Laws;

Helen H. Gilbert '36, former president of the Board of Overseers--Doctor of Laws;

Vernon E. Jordan Jr., executive director of the National Urban League--Doctor of Laws;

Ephraim Katchalski-Katzir, former president of Israel and biochemist--Doctor of Science;

Seretse M. Khama, president of Botswana--Doctor of Laws;

Beaumont Newhall '30, author and photographic historian--Doctor of Arts;

James D. Watson, molecular biologist and discover of the structure of DNA--Doctor of Science;

Roy Wilkins, former executive director of the NAACP--Doctor of Laws;

A. Bartlett Giamatti, Renaissance scholar and president-elect of Yale University--Doctor of Laws; and

Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, exiled Soviet novelist--Doctor of Letters.