Honorary Degrees of Retiring Faculty
Maurice P. Cunningham, Professor of Classics, 1978, awarded posthumously
"Maurice P. Cunningham joined the Lawrence faculty in 1949 and served here with distinction, dedication, and devilish good humor for nearly thirty years. His scholarship--which earned him the rank of one of this country's foremost classicists--brought him, and through him the college he loved, acclaim. His teaching--which earned him the Uhrig Award for Excellence in 1968--inspired generations of students to strive for the same excellence that characterized his own work; his concern for Lawrence shaped and informed the collective life of this institution.
His students were his pride and joy, and he remains theirs. They remember him as a master teacher in whose presence learning was a pleasure; as a person of compassion, enthusiasm, and reverence for truth; as a man whose sense of the proper and appropriate pervaded his paradoxes, teaching, scholarship, and life. All who knew him recognized in Maurice the serenity of a truly wise man. 'Read the text aloud,' he admonished his students, and read they did. And they heard him read, in Latin and in Greek, and experienced in that hearing a joy and satisfaction not to be forgotten.
Scholar of Prudentius, Horace, and Ovid, Maurice Cunningham enriched our appreciation of Latin poetry. Professor of Classics, he left a lasting mark on untold numbers of Lawrence students. Colleague of fiery spirit and keen wit, he enlivened this university beyond measure.
He served the Muses well. He served Lawrence well. By the authority vested in me, I now confer upon Maurice P. Cunningham the degree of Master of Arts, ad eundem. Requiescat in pace."