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After their traditional march through Harvard Yard, the seniors graduating Phi Beta Kappa assembled in Sanders Theater yesterday morning for the elite academic society's annual Literary Exercises.
With several hundred proud parents and siblings in attendance, a fifteen-minute address by a Freeman Dyson, a physicist and noted author highlighted the society's 200th annual Commencement-time gathering. Dyson's remarks, which drew on the writings of William Blake and of 17th century author Richard Hakluyt, concerned man's tradition of exploration and the implications of that tradition for the use of space.
Sixty-four men and 36 women had been inducted into Phi Beta Kappa only a few hours earlier. Seventy-two graduating seniors had already been inducted into the society last semester or during the spring of their juniors year. Elections are based primarily on grades.
At yesterday's event, the society also awarded three teaching prizes and inducted twelve honorary members.
Teaching prizes went to Diana L. Eck, professor of caomparative religion and Indian studies; Jan M. Ziolkowski, Loeb associate professor of the humanities; Sonya Michel, lecturer on history and literature and social studies.
New honorary members included Dyson, university chaplain Larry M. Hill, University Health Services physician Loring Conant, renowned-architect Gordan Gund, William D. Von Edges John J. Slocum, Professor of English and Folklore Joseph C. Harris, Master of Cabot House Myra Mayman, Frances Fergusson, Jeanne Leonard Wasserman '36, Judith Wilson Rogers '61, and Beverly Helbling Wood '61.
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