Honorary Degrees of Retiring Faculty
William Metcalf Schutte, Lucia R. Briggs Professor of English, 1984
"William Metcalf Schutte, at first the infant of Connecticut, then the whining schoolboy with...satchel and shining morning face, creeping like snail to your father's Rumsey Hall School--and, later, to Hotchkiss and Yale--then the United States Army soldier, 'full of strange oaths,' no doubt, and 'jealous in honour.' You may not have lived Shakespeare's ages of man in strict sequence, but in your time you have played many parts as well.
At Carnegie you early played 'the justice,' to colleagues, college presidents, and Boards of Trustees--the counselor 'in polished form of well-refined pen' to corporate America--the mentor to many a young eagle--and the man of letters of whom it might be said, 'From his cradle/He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one.'
Each of these roles you have played at Lawrence as well. As justice, counselor, and colleague you have given 'orderly and well behaved reproof to all uncomeliness.' Your 'learning and good letters peace hath tutored.' 'Authentic in your place and person,' you have been tireless in your voyagings after Ulysses. You have comprehended both Bloom and Stephen, and gone them one better--through your love for 'the common life' of race and the races and lives of others. By keeping your feet (and, often your hands and knees) on the green and gentle earth--you have flown well.
As we note you in our book of memory, and book you with the rest of this day's deeds--as you exit this stage to play still other roles--we trust that your places shall continue to neighbor ours, and 'We thank you for your well-took labour.'
By the authority vested in me, I now confer upon you the degree of Master of Arts, ad eundem, and admit you to its right, its privileges, and its obligations."