2012 Commencement Honorary Degree Luncheon
President Pat White welcomed guests to the luncheon celebrating the lives of this year's honorary degree recipients, Professor Stephen Miller ’64 and for Chief Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court Randall Shepard. He offered a toast: 'Gentlemen, Wabash is proud to honor you today. Both from Indiana soil, you have taken disparate paths through life but you have both in your own way have lived lives committed to the liberal arts ideals of critical thinking, reflection, love of knowledge, and engagement in service. Both of you have distinguished yourselves in the life of the mind, heart, and spirit we foster at Wabash…
'You have taken your commitments and your thinking into a complex world where men and women take action for the common good. For the courage and the indefatigable dedication to the work of leadership in all its complexity, for your commitment to the liberal arts, for your achievements, and for your lives well lived as models for our students, we salute you with gratitude and joy.'
LaFollette Professor Emeritus of the Humanities Raymond Williams H’65 prayed the blessing: 'Eternal God We thank you for the goodly heritage and fellowship learning wherein we stand, for the potential for good of the college graduates we celebrate today, for the excellence in service to the common good that we honor here, for families, friends, and colleagues whose love, words, and grace enrich our lives.'
Guests enjoy conversation, 'the fellowship of learning' and 'the bounty of this good earth.'
President White welcomes Professor Miller to the podium to say a few words.
Of Professor Miller, President White said: 'Your career has certainly been distinguished, but anything but quiet. You have exemplified the avid hunger for knowledge, learning, and growth that is one of the most vital signs of a successful liberal arts education. Through your research and many books and publications and even more through your leadership of the excavation and study of the important site of the Nemean Games, you have added immeasurably to the modern world’s understanding of Greek life, culture, and the role of athletics in their world.'
President White added: 'Your tireless efforts, beginning in earnest when you yourself purchased the site of the Nemean games and gave it to the Greek government in 1973, have led you to build a museum, start an organization to ensure a continuing support of this important work, and through constant advocacy and zeal to staging the first modern Nemean Games.'
President White added: 'For your modeling a life lived in learning, scholarship, creativity, and passionate dedication to getting good things done in order to better understand, praise and indeed relive the best values of the Ancient World, Wabash is proud to honor you today.'
Professor Miller was joined by three classmates from his high school class in Jimtown, Indiana, and President White saluted their friendship.
Of Chief Justice Randall Shepard, President White said: 'When Governor Orr appointed you to that position in 1987, you were the youngest Chief Justice in the United States. But as meritorious as those years of service are, the liberal arts traditions that Wabash so passionately upholds honor not just length of service but what does one do with those years. And you accomplished much.'
Chief Justice Shepard was a high school classmate in Evansville of Wabash Trustee John Schroeder ’69.
President White added: 'Leading a court that rarely heard civil cases and dealt largely with routine criminal cases, you led a successful effort to amend the state constitution so that the Indiana Supreme Court could focus on the key civil and criminal issues of our time. And once having achieved that new and enlarged responsibility, you led the Indiana Supreme Court in a way that its opinions came to be a great influence for other state supreme courts.'
President White said: 'You have shown that it is necessary to be learned in the law but even more to understand that the law is an instrument of our communal good; and you have done this all, by every account of those who know you well, with humility, kindness, a warm sense of humor, and a great generosity of spirit.'
President White added: 'For these qualities of mind and heart, and an exemplary life well lived in the liberal arts tradition, Wabash is very pleased to award you an honorary degree.'
