Borges and Wilson Likely To Receive Honoraries

With commencement day 24 hours away, indications are strong that the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges and the physicist Kenneth G. Wilson '56 will receive honorary degrees this year.

"I'm not authorized to mention anything about him." Juan Marichal, Smith Professor of Fench and Spanish Languages and Literatures, said yesterday of Borges. "I think that someone has acted in an improper way because it should have remained silent," he added.

According to ancient University tradition, the identities of recipients of honorary degrees are kept secret until the moment they are conferred at the commencement exercises.

Several professors said yesterday that they had received notices from the committee on Latin American and Iberian Studies inviting them "to a reception for an honorary degree recipient," but they all either did not know who the recipient was or refused to comment.

Maybe

In Ithaca, New York, where Wilson is a professor of physics at Cornell University. Alison Brown, who said she had been living with Wilson "for a long time," would not confirm that he will receive an honorary degree but said. "I think he'd be extremely displeased if I said anything." She added, "I think it's extremely silly of Harvard to keep these things such a secret."

Wilson's father. E. Bright Wilson, Richards Professor of Chemistry Emeritus, said yesterday. "I'll be glad to speak about it after it happens, if it happens." He added, "This is a game I have to play by the rules. I think I won't say anything."

Calling Wilson a leader in the field of phase transitions, Roy J. Glauber, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics, said Tuesday. "He's the kind of chap whom it wouldn't surprise us to win the Nobel someday." He did not know whether Wilson would receive an honorary degree, he added.

Wilson himself, reached at his home on Monday, would neither confirm nor deny whether he had been notified that he would receive an honorary degree. Yesterday, Brown said that Wilson was not on hand to comment.

Sources close to the Board of Overseers' Standing Committee on Honorary Degrees said yesterday that the list of recipients included a French woman, prompting speculation that the novelist Simone Well, president of the European Parliament, or Marguerite Yourcenar will receive an honorary. Yourcenar was recently elected to the Academie Francaise, the first woman ever to be honored by that center of the French intellectual establishment.

The photographer Ansel Adams and Oscar Zariski, Robinson Professor of Mathematics Emeritus, both confirmed yesterday that they will receive honorary degrees Thursday. In addition, representatives of the opera singer Leontyne Price indicated yesterday that she is also a recipient.

Former Secretary of State Cyrus Vance remained unavailable yesterday to comment on reports that he is slated to receive an honorary