Proceedings of the Board of Regents (1963-1966)

JUNE MEETING, 1965

897

APPENDIX A
HONORARY DEGREES
DOCTOR OF ASTRONAUTICAL SCIENCE
Characterizations by Alexander W. Allison
Voted June 9, 1965 Conferred June 15, 1965
LIEUTENANT COLONEL JAMES ALTON McDIVITT, Bachelor of Science J. A. AMcDivitt:
in Engineering in the Class of 1959, Command Pilot of the Gemini Four spacecraft. Honorary Degree
It delights the University to honor this variously talented alumnus and to inform
his young admirers by authority of the Colonel's example that the first part of the
path into orbit should be strewn with A's in engineering science. It delights us also
as near-neighbors of the McDivitt family to consider that by simple personal worth,
without benefit of heraldry, special privilege or urgent self-seeking, he rose quietly
from among us to his present eminence in technical accomplishment and in the
imagination of his fellow Americans. With measured admiration for his abilities as
pilot and engineer, yet in the festive spirit befitting his return to Earth, to Michigan,
and to his Alma Mater, we proudly confer on him the new degree Doctor of
Astronautical Science.
LIEUTENANT COLONEL EDWARD HIGGINS WHITE II, Master of E. H. White II.
Science in Engineering in the Class of 1959, the first American to float freely in Honorary Degree
space. Colonel McDivitt's vagabond passenger in the Gemini Four is twinned with
him as well in the imagination of the American people and the esteem of the
University. United with him further in discipline and devotion, he has nevertheless
expressed, both literally by his spontaneity and verve and fancifully by his feats in
space, that freely willed fulfillment of obligation which conserves the human spirit
while permitting concerted action. And though we would have it redound to Colonel
White's honor that he moved with far greater poise and ease than his predecessor
Colonel Leonov, we would prefer in hopeful augury to celebrate his flight generously
as a human achievement rather than invidiously as a triumph in the space race.
Honoring Colonel White as officer, gentleman, and astronautical pioneer, the
University gladly extends to him the degree Doctor of Astronautical Science.