John Glenn, Doctor of Laws
Let’s see, there’s Paul Bunyan, John Henry, Daniel Boone, and John Glenn. A square-jawed, young Marine from the Midwest, you flew more than one hundred combat missions in World War II and Korea, returning at least twice with more than two hundred fifty bullet holes in your plane. Later, as a test pilot you set a record by racing from coast to coast in the time it takes to watch an in-flight movie. Then you became the in-flight movie, when on February 20, 1962 you rode the improbably small and fragile-looking Friendship 7 capsule three times around the Earth, while the nation watched with its heart in its throat until you returned with a splash that marked the beginning of U.S. advancement in space. Dusting the confetti from your lapels, you moved, Davey Crockett-style, to Congress where for twenty-four years you fought to reform government and to control the spread of nuclear arms. Here in academia we are trained to doubt simple stories and to question the heroic. But today we say: the heck with that! For one thing our nation surely will need in exploring its newest frontiers is the near-mythical valor embodied in the person and the name “John Glenn.”
I hereby declare you recipient of the honorary degree Doctor of Laws, entitled to all the rights, honors, and privileges appertaining thereto.
June 7, 2009