Honorary Degrees of Retiring Faculty
Dorrit F. Friedlander, Professor of German, 1993
"Dorrit Friedlander, for forty-two years you have stuffed your students with conjugations and calories as you nurtured and nourished generations of Lawrentians, in Main Hall and Munich, in the joys of German and the charms of cheesecake. Fleeing Hitler's Germany in the late 1930s, you made your way first to Cuba and, after the reuniting of your family, to Mississippi, acquiring along the way a second language, which you have taught here as well, and then an English accent with a southern drawl. But if you have pinch-hit in Spanish and conversed with most of us in English, German has been you passion and the center of your pedagogy during your tenure on the faculty. You were instrumental in establishing our first foreign language study venture in Bonnigheim in 1967 and you have been one of the most popular directors of our programs in Eningen and Munich.
Your dedication to students has never been condescending but always demanding, and they have responded to your stern and strict adherence to high standards--in the mastery of good German and the manners of good living--positively and productively. You have won their admiration and affection for the personal interest you give to each and for your insistence that civility and kindness prevail. They know you as Tante or Frau, a fond familiarity that has endured for generations of your students who count you as their friend.
And what you have accomplished with and for students is of a piece with your relationships with your colleagues. As coordinator of Main Hall, you have exercised compassionate wisdom, often masked as high-handed authoritarianism, in convincing all faculty members that they received the office assignment they deserved. As pusher-par-excellence, you have seen to it that academic processions and year-opening reception lines have proceeded at an acceptable pace. And in more ways than can be recounted here, you have been the binding force that has made of disparate individuals something that may approach community.
Though this moment marks the conclusion of one stage of your Lawrence career, we know it does not mark the last and that we will continue to relish your companionship and your contributions for years to come.
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."