By Ryan Fackler
Three additional honorary members will join the Haverford graduating class of 2008 on May 18. John S. Carroll ’63, Dr. D. Holmes Morton, M.D, and Anna Deavere Smith will be awarded honorary degrees, acknowledging their influences in their respective fields.
Carroll, Morton, and Smith will also hold a closed discussion with graduating students and family at 8:30 on Saturday night to begin Commencement.
Carroll has served as editor for the Los Angeles Times, Baltimore’s The Sun, and the Lexington Herland-Leader. While working at the Los Angeles Times, Carroll oversaw projects that won thirteen Pulitzer Prizes. Moreover, he served for nearly ten years as a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board, as well as the chairman of the Board in 2002. Carroll is now writing a non-fiction book.
Morton, after graduating from Trinity College and Harvard Medical School, has devoted his recent career to the study and treatment of hereditary genetic disorders among Pennsylvanian Amish community. He has identified crippling genetic disorders such as glutaric aciduria, which can cause brain damage or death in young children. In 2006, Morton received the MacArthur Fellow “genius grant.” Morton was also declared one of Time Magazine’s “Heroes of Medicine.”
Smith is best known for works such as “Fires in the Mirror” and “Twilight,” which was nominated for the Best Actress and Best Play Tony Awards. She has appeared on the TV shows “West Wing,” “The Practice,” and “All My Children,” among others, as well as in the movie-musical Rent in 2005. Smith teaches at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts as well as at NYU School of Law. She founded and directed NYU’s Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue, which supports artistic creations focused on social issues.
Carroll, Morton, and Smith will join others such as writer and commentator Barbara Ehren-reich in 2007, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Director-General Koichiro Matsuura in 2006, scientist Jane Goodall in 2004, and Bill Cosby in 2002. Honorary Degrees are awarded to those “who have distinguished themselves in letters, the sciences, or the arts.” Honorary degrees are given according to “contributions to the overall betterment of humankind and/or Haverford College.”
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