Honorary Degrees of Retiring Faculty
Graciela Alfieri, Lecturer in Spanish, 1979
"Graciela Andrade Alfieri, for almost two decades your presence and your warmth, like the music of your name, have lent a touch of Latin grace to the Lawrence community. Welcomed as a faculty wife, you quickly established yourself in your own right as a distinguished scholar and teacher and as an esteemed colleague. At home on three continents, you brought your breadth of background and vision to us. On the Appleton campus, with Lawrence in Spain, and during a memorable Christmas holiday in Madrid, you helped open the eyes and minds of your students and friends, not only to the literature of Spain and Spanish America but to the civilizations and people that produced them.
As a teacher you demanded much of your students, but you demanded no less of yourself. Intellectual honesty and rigor, broad sympathies, and persistent industry have been the hallmarks of your teaching and research, along with a becoming modesty and generosity. In these respects the words of the great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda may well be applied to you: 'Yo busco desde antano, yo examino sin arrogancia'--'I have been seeking long, I examine without arrogance.'
Your professional values and your uncompromising standards are reflected as well in your personal life: in exquisite and unerring taste, in gracious hospitality to students and friends, in the perfection of your justly famous baked hams and faultless flan. Today we salute you--as colleague, teacher, and friend--with respect, with gratitude, and with affection.
By the authority vested in me, I now confer upon you the degree of Master of Arts, ad eundem, and admit you to its rights, its privileges, and its obligations."
