Departments
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Week of 11 June 1999 |
Vol. II, No. 35 |
Feature Article
BU honors five with doctoral degrees
President Jon Westling conferred honorary degrees on five individuals at Boston University's 126th Commencement.
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Stephen J. Trachtenberg (from left), Henry Kissinger, Provost Dennis Berkey, and President Westling make their way to the platform. Photo by Kalman Zabarsky |
Henry A. Kissinger was born in Fürth, Germany, in 1923. His family immigrated to the United States in 1938. He became an American citizen in 1943 and that same year joined the U.S. Army, where he served until 1946. After graduating summa cum laude from Harvard in 1950, Kissinger earned a master of arts degree in 1952 and a doctor of philosophy degree in 1954, both from Harvard.
His first book, Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy (1957), revealed Kissinger's expertise in international relations and strategic policy, which led to service as advisor to government agencies in the administrations of Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson. President Nixon appointed Kissinger assistant for national security affairs in 1969, and he was sworn in as the 56th secretary of state in 1973.
Kissinger's accomplishments include organizing the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks with the Soviet Union in 1969, helping establish U.S. diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China in 1972, initialing the cease-fire agreement that led to the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam in 1973, negotiating a cease-fire between Israel and Egypt that same year.
For negotiating peace in Vietnam, Kissinger received the 1973 Nobel prize for peace.
Kissinger was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the Medal of Liberty in 1986. From 1984 to 1990 he served on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. At present he is chairman of Kissinger Associates, Inc., an international consulting firm. His syndicated column appears in leading newspapers at home and abroad.
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Henry Kissinger, Brenda Carlin, James Carlin, and Chancellor Silber come together at a post-Commencement reception. Photo by Vernon Doucette |
James F. Carlin -- who since 1968 has been the chairman and chief executive officer of Carlin Consolidated, Inc., an investment and management firm -- has applied many of his skills from the private sector to his work for the commonwealth of Massachusetts.
He was the Massachusetts commissioner of commerce from 1979 to 1981 and secretary of transportation and chairman of the MBTA from 1981 to 1983. Appointed receiver for the city of Chelsea, Carlin worked to restore the city's decaying fiscal base, and with the Boston University/Chelsea Partnership, its school system. Governor William Weld appointed him chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education in 1995, and in that position he has been committed to providing affordable, high-quality education, especially in the state and community college system.
Carlin earned a B.S. in business administration from the University of Florida in 1961. He serves as director of several organizations and businesses and received the Paul Tsongas Award for Outstanding Public Service in 1988 and Inc.'s Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1990.
Geena Davis, Doctor of Fine Arts
One of today's most sought-after actresses, Geena
Davis received an Academy Award in 1988 as best supporting
actress for The Accidental Tourist. Her newest film, an
adaptation of Stuart Little, is due to be released later
this year.
After beginning her studies at New England College in New Hampshire, Davis transferred to the School for the Arts at BU. She acted in student productions and helped pay for college by working as a projectionist for BU's Media Services and as a saleswoman at Ann Taylor on Boylston Street.
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Academy Award-winning actress and honorary degree recipient Geena Davis puts on her robe prior to the main Commencement ceremony. The BU alumna spoke at the School for the Arts convocation. Photo by BU Photo Services
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SFA honored Davis last year with its Theatre Arts Division Distinguished Alumni Award.
The Reverend Dr. Ray Hammond II,
Doctor of Humane Letters
Ray Hammond is the founder and pastor of the
Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Jamaica Plain,
where he has continued his long history of work with youth
and the community.
Hammond earned an A.B. in Near Eastern languages and literature from Harvard in 1971 and went on to earn his M.D. from the Harvard Medical School. He worked as an emergency room physician at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis from 1978 until 1993. He earned an M.A. in religion from Harvard in 1982.
Hammond is chairman of the Ten Point Coalition, an ecumenical group of Christian clergy and lay leaders working to mobilize the Christian community around issues affecting black youth. He also holds leadership positions in numerous other community and church programs, including the Black Ministerial Alliance, the Boston Plan for Excellence, the Minuteman Council of the Boy Scouts, and Catholic Charities of Boston.
Stephen J. Trachtenberg, Doctor of
Humane Letters
Stephen J. Trachtenberg -- who in two books has
expressed incisive and forceful analyses of what needs to be
done to deal with the challenges of higher education at the
end of the century -- has served as president of George
Washington University since 1988. For the previous 11 years
he had been president of the University of Hartford.
Trachtenberg began his career as an attorney with the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, later serving as a legislative assistant to Congressman John Brademas and a special assistant to the U.S. Education Commissioner in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (now Health and Human Services). He came to Boston University in 1969 initially as associate professor of political science, became associate dean and then academic dean of CAS, associate vice president and co-counsel, and finally vice president for academic services.
Trachtenberg holds a B.A. from Columbia University, a J.D. from Yale, and a master's in public administration from Harvard. He has been given several honorary degrees and awards.