Honorary Degrees to Recognize Distinguished
Careers
A pioneering Supreme Court justice, two distinguished
academics and a groundbreaking entertainer will be awarded
honorary degrees of doctor of humane letters from The Johns
Hopkins University at commencement ceremonies on May 20.
The degrees will be conferred upon Ruth Bader
Ginsburg, J.G.A. Pocock and Hamilton O. Smith during the
universitywide commencement ceremony, which begins at 9:15
a.m. on Homewood Field. William H. "Bill" Cosby Jr. will
receive his degree later that day at the diploma award
ceremony for graduating seniors in the Krieger School of
Arts and Sciences and the Whiting School of Engineering;
Cosby also will speak at that ceremony, which will take
place at 1:45 p.m. on Homewood Field. (For details on all
commencement ceremonies, see story, "Ceremonies put cap on
128th year," this issue.)
The awards will bring to 418 the number of honorary
degrees conferred by Johns Hopkins since the first were
given in 1880 to Henry Rowland, the first Johns Hopkins
professor of physics, and in 1881 to President Rutherford
B. Hayes.
The citations to be read to the 2004 honorary degree
recipients, in alphabetical order, are as follows:
William H. Cosby Jr., entertainer
Citation to be read by Daniel H.
Weiss, James B. Knapp Dean of the Zanvyl Krieger School of
Arts and Sciences
William H. Cosby Jr.
PHOTO BY ERINN
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With reality TV dominating prime time, we long for the
days when your brand of entertainment ruled the tube.
You first appeared on the Tonight Show in 1963, after
years spent perfecting your act in front of your first fan,
your mother. Soon you were entertaining the rest of us,
too, with shows like I Spy and the Saturday cartoon Fat
Albert and the Cosby Kids. There were comedy albums, films,
TV specials and best-sellers. Yours is a particularly keen
and compassionate humor, full of riffs on family life and
tall tales of grade school pals like Old Weird Harold.
Your gift lies not only in making us laugh, but also
in making us feel like we are in on the fun. That was the
case with The Cosby Show, for which you are best known by
the class of 2004. Our graduates grew up with Cliff
Hux-table's kids. As our student newspaper put it, they
were hooked on the show because they wanted to be a part of
the Huxtable family.
You are, however, far more than an extraordinary
entertainer. You are a social force, a groundbreaker. Both
on stage and off, you emphasize achievement and the value
of positive role models. You stress that which unites us
rather than that which drives us apart. You are untiring in
your advocacy for education at all levels, preschool
through postgraduate. You are a generous supporter of
predominantly black colleges and of many social service and
civil rights organizations.
William H. Cosby Jr., entertainer, family man and
ardent champion of a better society, The Johns Hopkins
University is proud to confer upon you the degree of Doctor
of Humane Letters, honoris causa.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, associate justice, Supreme Court of
the United States
Citation to be read by Jessica
Einhorn, dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced
International Studies
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
PHOTO BY STEVEN PETTEWAY, SUPREME
COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
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As a young mother, wife and recent graduate of
Columbia Law School, where you tied for first in your
class, you came face to face with the 1950s reality of the
status of women in America: No law firm would hire you.
That personal experience underscored for you the
importance of transforming the widespread attitudes and
laws that allowed insidious discrimination against women
and minorities. You recognized that deep-seated beliefs
about gender roles would not disappear overnight, and that
patience and tenacity would be required. In fact, your
efforts to overcome gender bias spanned many years. You
argued a half-dozen landmark cases before the Supreme Court
of the United States, establishing the unconstitutionality
of sex-based discrimination. Your commitment, skill and
hard work opened the doors of equal opportunity.
You have also been an outstanding educator and, even
before you were appointed to the Supreme Court in 1993, a
distinguished jurist. You are only the second woman to
serve on the high court, and your tenure there has been
widely noted for its independence and integrity.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in recognition of your
extraordinary contributions to American law, and to the
Constitution and the rights it protects, The Johns Hopkins
University is proud to confer upon you the degree of Doctor
of Humane Letters, honoris causa.
J.G.A. Pocock, Harry C. Black Chair of History Emeritus,
Johns Hopkins
Citation to be read by Daniel H.
Weiss, the James B. Knapp Dean of the Krieger School of
Arts and Sciences
J.G.A. Pocock
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You are one of the most important historians of the
past several decades. Your many influential works have
opened new pathways that other historians have eagerly
followed; you also have inspired the work of countless
philosophers and political scientists.
Upon your retirement a decade ago, it was said of you,
"He is probably one of the most famous members of our
faculty." Even more important, it was said, "Professor
Pocock has vastly contributed to the sophistication and
depth of historical studies, and he has trained an entire
generation of scholars."
Your interests span great chronological and
geographical distances, from classical Greece and Rome to
early modern Europe, as well as to your native New Zealand
and the United States. Thematically, your inquiries are
every bit as diverse, covering custom, law and
constitution; political and theological thought;
republicanism and corruption; and even the history of
history itself.
And you have transformed our understanding of every
subject you have touched. It has been said, for instance,
that you gave us "a new way to understand the thoughts that
were alive in the minds of the men who founded the American
republic more than 200 years ago."
John Greville Agard Pocock, friend, colleague and
Harry C. Black Chair of History Emeritus, in recognition of
your vast and influential scholarship and teaching, The
Johns Hopkins University is proud to confer upon you the
degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.
Hamilton O. Smith, professor emeritus of molecular biology
and genetics, Johns Hopkins
Citation to be read by Edward D.
Miller Jr., the Frances Watt Baker, M.D., and Lenox Baker
Jr., M.D., Dean of the Medical Faculty
Hamilton O. Smith
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During a remarkable life in pursuit of knowledge, you
have ignited a revolution in genetic engineering and played
a key role in assembling the biological blueprint for human
life.
Your curiosity and keen intellect were apparent at an
early age. Growing up in a Midwestern university community,
you and your older brother spent your paper-route earnings
to stock a basement lab filled with test tubes, beakers and
radios.
You earned a medical degree at Johns Hopkins, then
went elsewhere, but your fascination with DNA and the link
between genes and disease brought you back in 1967. In your
laboratory, you made the stunning discovery of restriction
enzymes — molecular "scissors" that could cut and
manipulate DNA. That unlocked the doors of modern molecular
biology, releasing a flood of research into new ways to
prevent and treat illness. For this, you, along with Johns
Hopkins colleague Daniel Nathans and Swiss scientist Werner
Arber, received the 1978 Nobel Prize in medicine.
Your curiosity pushed you to explore further
scientific frontiers, including the use of computers to
help decode the genetic foundation of living organisms. You
played a leading role in sequencing the human genome, a
landmark project completed, appropriately enough, in the
year 2000.
Notably, you have scaled these career heights and
endeared yourself to colleagues with a quiet, self-effacing
personality.
Hamilton O. Smith, alumnus and colleague, for your
distinguished lifelong contributions to science and
biomedical research, The Johns Hopkins University is proud
to confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters,
honoris causa.
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