Honorary Degrees of Retiring Faculty
Theodore Lloyd Rehl, Professor of Music, 1992
"Theodore Lloyd Rehl, thirty-four years ago you arrived on campus a crew cut young man with a passionate commitment to performing and teaching.
Your artistic career has fulfilled that early promise through your years of touring and recording with the Duncan Rehl piano duo, by your activity as a chamber musician with your Lawrence colleagues, and by your achievements as a soloist. Your accomplishments have received wide recognition, including honors for your participation in the 39th Geneva International Competition and the 33rd Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York.
As a teacher you have been an example to faculty and students alike. Throughout your career, you have sought not only to extend your considerable capacities as a performer, but also to broaden your knowledge of repertoire, technique and pedagogy, and that pursuit has taken you to the musical capitals of the world for further study. That you have earned your laurels as a master teacher is attested by the succession of students (affectionately self-styled 'Rehl's Raiders') who have proceeded through your studio.
Long a champion of excellence at Lawrence, you have been for many years the chairman of your department, and you have served as a performing mentor to younger faculty, giving unstintingly of your time and talents.
While you may fondly hope now to dedicate your energies to travel, to scuba diving in Cozumel, to searching for a new home accompanied by your personal realtor, and to honing your formidable skills as a cribbage player, we in turn may fervently wish your commitment to your art to remain undiminished. As our last link with the old Conservatory in Peabody Hall, you may have grayed early, but you have remained young, perhaps because, as one of your colleagues has said of you, 'He has loved what he has done and done what he has loved.' May that ever be.
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."