Honorary Degrees of Retiring Faculty
Ronald D. Roberts, Professor of Physical Education and Director of Athletics, 1993
"Ron Roberts, in your thirty years at Lawrence you have been a man for all seasons. Athletic Director, wrestling, track, golf, and tennis coach, and most auspiciously for twenty years as Lawrence's head football coach, you have devoted your professional life to student athletes and Lawrence athletics. Your record in football has enshrined you in Lawrence and NCAA record books, and the magical season of 1981 will forever be remembered by those who participated in it on the field and from the stands.
With administrative skills and entrepreneurial instincts honed on the streets of Chicago, your time as Athletic Director saw Lawrence's intercollegiate sports programs grow and flourish. A man of vision, you anticipated the needs of women athletes long before Title IX was in force by instigating the formation of the Wisconsin Independent College Women's Athletic Conference and serving as its first commissioner. Your foresight even spread to Europe where you instituted American football and made the London Ravens a household name.
Over the years, you have demonstrated a penchant for the unwanted or unusual. Studebakers, Corvairs, tuck campers with training wheels, writing tablets form the old chairs in Main Hall, English Bulldogs, and the cluster of buildings on your retirement farm are just a few of your passions. Only transporting the old Kohl's grocery store on College Avenue to the campus as an indoor track eluded you. As you leave Lawrence, we may have seen the last of the ever-present tape-box-attache case under you arm, but your presence will remain in the memories of those athletes, coaches, administrators, faculty, and staff you've worked with in the course of your career here.
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."