Nomination process
Each year Wake Forest University recognizes men and women whose professional achievements and personal integrity reflect the values of the university, especially its motto, Pro Humanitate, by awarding honorary degrees. As is our tradition, one of the honorees gives the commencement address. Nominations for honorary degrees to be awarded (and for commencement speaker) in 2009 and 2010 are being accepted through October 31, 2007.
Guidelines
- Nominations are welcomed from all members of the Wake Forest community — trustees, faculty, staff, students, alumni, parents, and volunteer board members.
- Nominations from the Reynolda Campus may be submitted to the President, the Provost, the Vice President for University Advancement, or the Chair of the Senate Senior University Appointments Committee (SUA). Nominations from the Bowman Gray Campus should be submitted to the Senior Vice President for Health Affairs. All nominations will be forwarded to the SUA committee of the senate for evaluation.
- Most frequently, candidates approved for honorary degrees have distinguished themselves in their careers, in service to others, or in both realms.
- Scholars are excellent candidates, both those long recognized for their work, and occasionally, those younger scholars whose work gives indication of lasting importance.
- From time to time, the university confers an honorary degree on a person who has been active in the greater Winston-Salem community and is recognized as having improved the quality of life for area citizens.
- Currently serving and retired faculty and administrators are ineligible to receive honorary degrees.
- Currently serving trustees are ineligible to receive honorary degrees.
- Honorary degree recipients do not receive any form of compensation. If they do not live in the Winston-Salem area, the university will provide for their travel, meals, and accommodations expenses.
- Persons submitting nominations are asked to furnish a copy of the nominee's curriculum vitae, resume, or detailed biographical sketch if neither a curriculum vitae nor resume is available, along with the nomination form.
- The Senate Senior University Appointments Committee reviews nominations and recommends candidates to the senate for approval. Please do not inform your nominee of his or her nomination.
- The president and the board of trustees give ultimate approval to honorary degree candidates.
- Honorary degrees are not awarded in absentia.
- If a candidate cannot attend the ceremony to accept an honorary degree that has been approved, he or she must be re-nominated and re-approved to have the degree awarded in a subsequent year.
Honorary Degrees Awarded
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2007
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# David Brooks, The New York Times columnist and political analyst, LH.D.
x J. Bryan Hehir, Catholic priest and Harvard University professor, D.D.
Dale Bumpers, four-term senator and two term governor of Arkansas, LL.D.
Harold L. Martin Sr., former chancellor of Winston-Salem State University and senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of North Carolina, LL.D.
Wolfgang Schutz, president of the Medical University of Vienna and world-renowned pharmacologist, Sci.D.
Anne Firor Scott, Duke University professor and pioneer scholar of women's history, LH.D.
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2006
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# Mark Warner, former governor of Virginia, LL.D.
x Barbara Brown Taylor, Episcopal priest and renowned professor, columnist, radio commentator and author, D.D.
Walter A. Orenstein, former assistant surgeon general of the U.S. Public Health Service, Sci.D.
Elias A. Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Sci.D.
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2005
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Bernard Lown, Renowned Cardiologist and peace activist, Inventor of the defibrillator, Medical School Hooding Speaker, D.Sc.
Michael D. Piscal '88, Founder Inner City Education Foundation, L. H.D.
Oliver W. Hill, Sr., Established groundwork of landmark case Brown v. Board of Education (1954), LL.D.
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2004
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# Colin L. Powell, U.S. Secretary of State, LL.D.
M. Jocelyn Elders, Former U.S. Surgeon General, Medical School Hooding Speaker, D.Sc.
Lewis Lockwood, Harvard University faculty member, D. F. A.
Geneva B. Brown, retired school teacher and principal, WS-FC Board of Education member, L.H.D.
x John R.Claypool, IV, Professor of Preaching at the McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University, Baccalaureate Speaker, D.D.
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2003
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# Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City, LL.D.
Martin Marty, Universtiy Of Chicago, Professor Emeritus of the History of Modern Christianity, Divinity School Commencement Speaker, D.D.
Dr. Eric Olsen, University of Southwestern Medical Center, Professor and Chair of Department Of Molecular Biology, D.Sc.
Richard Carmona, U.S. Surgeon General, D. Sc., Medical School Hooding Speaker
Martha Barnett, partner at Holland and Knight, LL.D., Law School Hooding Speaker
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2002
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# John McCain, U.S. Senator from Arizona, LL.D.
x Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president Children's Defense Fund, L.H.D.
F. M. Kirby, president and director of the F.M. Kirby Foundation, LL.D.
Floyd Abrams, leading First Amendment attorney and partner at Cahill Gordon and Reindel, also Speaker at the Law School Hooding Ceremony, LL.D.
Dr. David Satcher, U.S. Surgeon General from 1998-2002, D. Sc.
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2001
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# Barbara Pierce Bush, former First Lady of the United States, L.H.D.
William Percy Hytche, retired president of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, LL.D.
Martin Johannes Sebastian Isepp, accomplished musician and conductor, D.F.A.
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2000
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x The Reverend Frederick Buechner, author and Presbyterian minister, L.H.D.
# John Thomas Chambers, president and chief executive officer of Cisco Systems, Inc., LL.D.
Dr. Claude Lenfanat, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute with the National Institutes of Health, D.Sc.
Thomas Lambeth, executive director of the Z.Smith Reynolds Foundation, LL.D.
A.E. Dick Howard, constitutional law scholar and the White Burkett Miller Professor of Law and Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, LL.D.
Helen Lewis, educator, scholar, author and community organizer. Former professor of sociology and Anthropology at University of Virginia College at Wise, University of Tennessee, and was director of the Appalachian Center at Berea College, D.D.
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*
x
#
o
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awarded posthumously
baccalaureate speaker
commencement speaker
convocation speaker
special guest speaker
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