Five men and three women received honorary degrees at Commencement. University provost Alan M. Garber introduced the honorands in the following order, and President Drew Faust read the citations, concluding with the recipient’s name and degree. For fuller background on each honorand, see https://harvardmagazine.com/2014/05/honorary-degree-recipients.
Seymour Slive. Cabot founding director of the Harvard University Art Museums emeritus and Gleason professor of fine arts emeritus, an authority on seventeenth-century Dutch art. Doctor of Arts: A living portrait in ebullient erudition and humane inspiration, he has masterfully illumined the works of Dutch masters, his own career a rare work of art.
Patricia King, J.D. ’69. Carmack Waterhouse professor of law, medicine, ethics, and public policy, Georgetown Law Center, and fellow of the Harvard Corporation, 2005-2012. Doctor of Laws: Bridging disciplines and overcoming barriers, elucidating ethics and embracing beneficence, a trusted trustee whose sagacity and tenacity always bend the arc toward justice.
Joseph E. Stiglitz. University Professor, Columbia University, and co-winner of the Nobel Prize in economic sciences, 2001, a prominent critic of inequality and globalization. Doctor of Laws: Demarking the limits of markets, discerning global discontents, a paramount progenitor of information economics who bestrides the spheres of theory and policy.
Peter H. Raven. President emeritus, Missouri Botanical Garden, and Engelman professor of botany emeritus, Washington University, a scholar of biodiversity, species evolution, and conservation. Doctor of Science: A grand sycamore in the garden of science, he has nourished our knowledge of the phyla of flora and cultivated care for the precious diversity of life.
Isabel Allende. Author of 20 books, including The House of the Spirits. Doctor of Letters: Conjuring memories blown by winds of exile, leavening realism with dashes of magic, she fills her splendrous house of stories with spirits and shadows, anguish and love.
Aretha Franklin. The “Queen of Soul,” winner of 18 Grammy Awards. Doctor of Arts: With sweet passion, almighty fire, and amazing grace, she reigns sublime as the electrifying empress of soul; for this, our highest honor, she is a natural woman.
Michael R. Bloomberg, M.B.A. ’66. Entrepreneur, philanthropist, and 108th mayor of New York City. Doctor of Laws: From Hopkins to Harvard, Wall Street to City Hall, a resolute leader and fervent philanthropist whose entrepreneurial spirit and zeal for innovation have helped our nation’s biggest burg to bloom.
George H. W. Bush. Forty-first president of the United States. Doctor of Laws: With faith, courage, and service true, his eyes ever fixed on points of light, he piloted our nation through changeful skies; his cap was Blue, his house was White, and now his robe is Crimson.
