Jon Meacham and Barbara Bush to Receive Honorary Degrees

            The graduation ceremonies of 2010 signify the joyous liberation of senior students from the classrooms of the Domain.  The degrees they will receive when they walk the stage are more than hard-earned pieces of paper.  The degree is the embodiment of everything accomplished here and is a testament to the attainment of a higher education.  However, it is a long-standing tradition, of Sewanee and other institutions of higher learning, to give degrees to individuals who have not met the University's normal requirements.  These degrees are given to people outside of the community as a way of honoring their distinguished contributions to a specific academic field or to society in general.  So it is with respect and admiration that Sewanee will award honorary degrees to seven venerable individuals.

            In order to receive an honorary degree, the candidates must go through a long selection process.  The list of possible candidates features individuals that have been nominated by members of the Sewanee community months, if not years, ago and their names are kept confidential until they are selected to receive a degree.  The committee that finalizes these recipients is made up of members of the Board of Regents, the Faculty Senate, and the Vice Chancellor.  Typically, the recipients are people who have some kind of connection with the University.  If that is not the case, they are almost always associated with the Episcopal Church or philanthropic organizations.

            On May fourteenth, during the Commencement for the School of Theology, three honorary degrees will be given.  The recipients are: Rt. Rev. Jean Zaché Duracin, Rev. Barbara Cawthorne Crafton, and Rev. Joseph N. Green Jr.  The three reverends will be awarded honorary doctorates because of their affiliation and involvement with the Episcopal Church.  

            On May fifteenth, during the Baccalaureate service, there will be four honorary degrees awarded.  The recipients are: David M. Beckman, Barbara Pierce Bush, Elizabeth Taylor Smith, and Jon Meacham.

            David M. Beckman is, in every sense of the adjective, a man hungry for positive change.  He is currently a Lutheran pastor living in Des Moines, Iowa.  His beneficiaries, however, live in every corner of the world.  Beckman is president of Bread for the World, a Christian service organization that works through churches and college campuses to end world hunger.  He is also the founder of the Alliance to End Hunger and co-chair of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network, both of which are coalitions to make American foreign aid more effective in reducing worldwide hunger and poverty.  He has written multiple books and articles on the topic of ending world hunger, including, Transforming Politics of Hunger and Grace at the Table: Ending Hunger in God's World.  Before making it his life's goal to bring food to those who are starving, Beckman worked as an economist with the World Bank and oversaw projects to the make the Bank more effective in fighting poverty.  He has earned degrees from Yale, Christ Seminary, and the London School of Economics.  Beckman will receive an honorary Doctorate of Civil Law.

             Barbara Pierce Bush is a former first lady of the United States.  Aside from her role as wife of the president, she has led a life dedicated to helping the less fortunate.  Bush, who serves as the ambassador for AmeriCares, is a firm supporter of many well-known organizations, including but not limited to, the Leukemia Society of America, Ronald McDonald House and the Boys and Girls Club of America.  Her main concentration, however, is to promote literacy in America.  In 1989, she founded the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy.  The foundation works to develop literary programs where illiterate parents and their children learn to read together.  It has awarded over thirty million dollars in grants to almost eight hundred literary programs throughout America.  Bush, in yet another attempt to promote literacy, has also written four books.  Two of which, C. Fred's Story and Millie's Book, were written about her two dogs.  Every bit of profit from these books went into literary programs affiliated with the Barbara Bush Foundation.  Her other two books, Barbara Bush: a Memoir and Reflections, are autobiographies.  Bush will receive an honorary Doctorate of Civil Law.