COMMENCEMENTS
HC HONORS SOLZHENITSYN
Author: Associated Press
Date: Saturday, May 26, 1984
Page: ?????
Section: RUN OF PAPER
Exiled Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn, making a rare public appearence,
was hailed as "a prophet to our times" yesterday as he was awarded an honorary
degree at Holy Cross College commencement.
The 65-year-old Nobel Prize winner, making what was believed to be his
first public appearance in six years, was given a standing ovation after
receiving a doctor of humane letters degree during the school's 138th
commencement.
"In an age in which authentic courage is rare, your writings and your life
have transmitted strength to all who share your dedication to the truth," said
Rev. John Brooks, college president.
Solzhenitsyn, in a gray beard and garbed in a traditional graduation gown,
shook hands with Brooks and returned to his front-row seat, saying nothing to
the 638 graduates and several thousand spectators who heard New York Gov.
Mario M. Cuomo deliver the main commencement address.
Solzhenitsyn's visit was not announced by the college until yesterday
morning under an agreement with the author, who lives with his family in
seclusion in Cavendish, Vt.
He was accompanied by his wife, Natalya, and 13-year-old son, Yermonlay.
Solzhenitsyn, who has written 20 works including "The Gulag Archipelago,"
"One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," "Cancer Ward" and "The First
Circle," won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970.
Others receiving honorary degrees yesterday were Rev. Walter J. Burghardt,
S.J., editor of Theological Studies; Dr. Jerome J. DeCosse of the Sloan-
Kettering Institute and professor of surgery at Cornell University Medical
College; Sister Mary Hennessy, R.C., director of ministerial studies at
Harvard Divinity School; Leo A. Paquette, Kimberly Professor of Chemistry at
Ohio State University, and Thomas Sowell, economist with the Hoover
Institution in Stamford, Conn.
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