Honorary Degrees of Retiring Faculty
Ben Ross Schneider, Junior, Mary Mortimer Professor of Liberal Studies and Professor of English, 1983
"Ben Ross Schneider, educated at Williams College and Columbia University, you brought to Lawrence in 1955 a deep respect both for liberal learning and for the scholar's craft. As a teacher of English you applied your critical skills and sense of style to the diverse fare of Romanticism, Restoration Comedy, and Shakespeare; and as an advocate of, as you put it, 'Freshman Studies, more Freshman Studies,' you exemplified for your students the open, honest, and inquiring mind of the Plain Dealer.
Your scholarly travels led you back in time from Wordsworth to the Restoration and forward to the uncharted reaches of Computer Land. Though your labors on The London Stage project placed you in the forefront of those who brought the powers of the computer to bear on the study of the humanities, you never confused means with ends. 'It seemed best,' you wrote, 'to leave final conclusions in the hands of the scholar, not in those of the machine.' Wherever you have stopped on your scholarly sojourn, you have left works of enduring value.
A vigorous figure bounding up the great staircase of Main Hall three steps at a time, a talented writer of verse parody, a gracious host to Lawrentians from the Lake Country to East Alton Street, you have enriched and enlivened the broader life of this community with the same energy, imagination and generosity of spirit that animated your accomplishments as a teacher and a scholar.
With Wordsworth you began your career, and with this verse we honor you:
'Enlightened teacher, gladly from thy hand have I received this proof of pains bestowed by thee to guide thy Pupils on the road.'
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."