Proceedings of the Board of Regents (1963-1966)

182 DECEMBER MEETING, 1963
J. A. Oliver: JAMES A. OLIVER, A.B., 1936, A.M., 1937, Ph.D., 1942; herpetologist;
Outstanding Director of the American Museum of Natural History. During his increasingly
Achievement eminent career as scientist and curator, Dr. Oliver has directed natural history
Award museums to the equal gratification of scientists, students, and the general public.
Shortly after completing his most promising student career at the University, he
became an assistant curator at the Museum over which he now presides, and was
able, during subsequent military service, to collect reptiles and amphibians in
Mediterranean and Pacific islands. He has collected other specimens from Mexico
and the Bahamas, and as a unique achievement has bred king cobras in captivity.
The reptile house which he designed while chief executive officer of the Bronx
Zoo has been acclaimed the most beautiful in the world. Since his appointment to
his present office as Director of the American Museum of Natural History, he
has further appropriately served on a committee of the Commissioner of Education
of New York State, preparing recommendations for the fuller and apter use of
museums as educational institutions-a function which his own museum has fulfilled with high distinction.
On this occasion, the Regents of the University express their warm admiration
for Dr. Oliver's accomplishments in science and in the dissemination of scientific
knowledge, and cordially tender him their Outstanding Achievement Award.
L. R. E. Shami- LEILA RUTH EDGAR SHAIN, A.B., 1907; lifelong educator. After enjoying
Outstanding distinguished success as a high school teacher in Michigan, Montana, and CaliAchievement fornia. Ruth Edgar married the late Charles J. Shain of Birmingham, Michigan,
Award and has since left on that community the indelible impress of her intelligence and
energies. In 1919 she founded the Birmingham chapter of the American Association of University Women and became its first president. In subsequent years, she
has twice been United States delegate to the International Association of University Women. In 1920, under the aegis of the American Association of University
Women and the League of Women Voters, she founded the weekly class which
came informally to be called the Ruth Shain Class in International Relations.
During the next forty years, she presided over some eight hundred meetings of
that class, missing fewer than ten. Mrs. Shain was further a moving spirit in the
establishment of a new community center for Birmingham, serving as general
chairman of its building fund campaign and eight-time chairman of its annual
appeal for gifts. Among her many other offices have been those of program
chairman of the Detroit Branch of the Foreign Policy Association and international relations chairman and Bulletin editor of the International Education
Council of Detroit. She has been, in sum, a force behind virtually every cultural
activity in Birmingham and a constant influence for breadth of outlook throughout
southeastern Michigan.
In grateful acknowledgment of her services to civic enlightenment and of the
honor which she has brought upon her Alma Mater, the Regents of the University
now present to her their Outstanding Achievement Award.
HONORARY DEGREE
Characterization by Alexander W. Allison and Erich A. Walter
Voted September 20, 1963 (p. 74) Conferred December 19, 1963
DOCTOR OF LAWS
W. W. Wirtz: The Honorable W. WILLARD WIRTZ, Secretary of Labor. As a mediator of
Honorary Degree labor disputes, Mr. Wirtz has possessed the integrity to win the confidence of both
sides, the acumen to distinguish grounds for equitable agreement, and the patience
to bring the disputants together upon those grounds. As a responsible public official,
he has pressed for an honest confronting of the novel technological and economic
conditions underlying industrial strife. As a wise and humane man, he has steadfastly reminded the nation, including those of its citizens who practice economic
computation, of the distress suffered by persons who must change employment
against their will or who can find no employment at all. We are here pleased to
attest, finally, that to his strength of mind, he has added wit, and to his moral
fervor, grace. The University respectfully confers upon this deeply devoted and
most engaging public servant the degree Doctor of Laws.