Honorary Degrees of Retiring Faculty
J. Bruce Brackenridge, Professor of Physics, 1996
"Bruce Brackenridge, for 37 years--many of them spent in Appleton--you have contributed substance and wisdom to the building of a Department of Physics that is now achieving national prominence. You anticipated and motivated the innovation and excellence that characterizes the department today by creating, with a colleague in chemistry, a combined course in introductory chemistry and physics, and your first book, The Principles of Chemistry and Physics, was a product of that effort. Having thus pointed your department in the direction of rigor and new directions, you expanded your own horizons to embrace the history of science and your renown in that field has indeed become global. You have participated in many international conferences and given invited talks around the world from Chicago to New York, from London to Hamburg, from Moscow to Melbourne. Last fall, your scholarship attained a milestone with the publication of your eagerly awaited and highly acclaimed second book, The Key to Newton's Dynamics: The Kepler Problem and the Principia, a work already hailed as a substantial contribution to the field.
Your contributions, however, have not been confined to physics and the history of science. You have helped design buildings--Youngchild Hall in the early sixties and the Buchanan-Kiewit Recreation Center in the early eighties. You coached the tennis team for several years, and--on your return from one of your many trips--you maliciously introduced your squash opponents to the Australian ball, which has the consistency of a turtle egg. You have supported Freshman Studies, insured that Thomas Kuhn would receive ongoing royalty checks, honored Sir Isaac with the establishment of the Society of S.I.N., and have strengthened and served Lawrence's foreign study centers, first as the director of the Eningen Center in Germany and then--several times--as director of the London Center. Above all, you have been a patient, nurturing, and engaging teacher and advisor for generations of Lawrence students, and, through your constant good humor you have helped us all maintain a healthy perspective on our work and, even more, on our lives. Through you, I have come to appreciate, with Boswell, that 'no innocent species of wit or pleasantry should be suppressed; and that a good pun may be admitted among the smaller excellencies of lively conversation.' Your conversation has been and will remain ever lively.
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."