Grand Slam

Among the distinguished citizens at Yale University's commencement last week was Eugene R. Black, University of Georgia, class of 17, now head of the many-billioned World Bank and a man with quite a secret. Said Yale's President A. Whitney Griswold, handing Black an LL.D.: "With soft-spoken charm, you have circled the globe to develop the industry and agriculture of less fortunate peoples." Next day Banker Black, smiling broadly, turned up in Princeton. Presenting Black with his second LL.D., Princeton's President Robert F. Goheen cited him as "a native Georgian still engaged in reconstruction, who emerged from the Athens of his native state to lend quietly effective assistance to the rebirth of those conditions of order and growth of which the ancient republic of Athens stands as a perpetual reminder." Two days later, Eugene Black's secret was out. There he was on the dais in Harvard Yard receiving his third LL.D. of the week from Harvard President Nathan S. Pusey, as a businessman "under [whose] wise guidance a new venture in banking brings dams and dynamos to developing nations."

The grand slam of the nation's most prestigious schools was without precedent in modern days, probably in history. No statesman or soldier--not George Marshall, Douglas MacArthur, nor Dwight Eisenhower--has won all three honors in a single year, though many have managed it over the years. No one was more surprised at the coincidence than the schools them selves; like Macy's and Gimbels, they do not tell each other the names of their nominees. The only one who knew was Banker Black himself, and he had been keeping his secret in the best academic tradition ever since April. He was, he said, "quite surprised and quite pleased." Among other recipients last week:

Amherst College Eleanor Roosevelt LL.D.

Boston College Marian Anderson, singer Mus.D. Robert Kennedy, former counsel to the Senate rackets committee LL.D.

Citation: "The son of a distinguished Massachusetts name who, while still in the morning time of life, has conspicuously enlarged his family's record of service to the Republic."

Brandeis University Marc Chagall, artist. H.L.D.

Dartmouth College Leonard Bernstein, director, New York Philharmonic, composer H.L.D.

Citation: "You are described as a life-long allegro, a nest of atoms in a cyclotron, a leaky electric eel, a Mickey Mantle of music (three years ago, that was), a human gyroscope, Presley of the podium, our musical Dick Tracy.' "

Harvard University George A. Buttrick, professor of theology at Harvard D.D.

Robert G. Menzies, Prime Minister of Australia LL.D.

Kenneth B. Murdock, Harvard historian of U.S. colonial history .Litt.D.

Llewellyn E. Thompson Jr., U.S. Ambassador to Russia. LL.D.

Middlebury College William P. Rogers, U.S. Attorney General LL.D.

Oberlin College Alfred M. Gruenther, president, American Red Cross, onetime NATO commander LL.D.

Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn James M. Gavin, retired U.S. Army lieutenant general LL.D.

Princeton University David K. E. Bruce, U.S. Ambassador to France and Germany LL.D. Livingston T. Merchant, U.S. Under Secretary of State LL.D.

Southern Illinois University Helen Hayes, actress D.F.A.

University of Pennsylvania John J. McCloy, chairman of the board, Chase Manhattan Bank, onetime U.S. High Commissioner for Germany LL.D.

Yale University Pedro Gerardo Beltran, publisher of Lima's La Prensa, Finance Minister and Prime Minister of Peru. . .LL.D. Franklin Clark Fry, president, United Lutheran Church of America. . .D.D.

Joshua Lederberg, Stanford University, professor of genetics Sc.D.

Henry Knox Sherrill, onetime Presiding Bishop, Protestant Episcopal Church LL.D.

Robert Penn Warren, novelist. . .Litt.D.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.