COMMENCEMENT 1985 : Caltech

The 91st annual graduation exercises were held at 10 a.m. Friday at the Court of Man on campus.

Degrees: 468 diplomas, including 129 doctoral and 153 master’s degrees.

Speaker: Ralph Landau, vice president of the National Academy of Engineering, spoke about economic growth. “It is your obligation to help make our politicians, economists and non-technically trained fellow citizens understand better how we can fully secure the blessings which science and technology can bring to humanity and particularly to all Americans,” he said. “If we don’t all actively participate in dialogues, we may well stumble our way into a very dim future. Economics has been called the ‘dismal science.’ It need not be, if it is married to technology in the framework of an understanding political system.”

Honorary Degrees:

Arnold O. Beckman, chairman emeritus of the Caltech board of trustees, received the Robert A. Millikan Medal for Distinguished Service to the Institute: “The medal he is receiving today represents the admiration and respect Arnold Beckman has earned from Caltech--from its faculty and students, from his fellow trustees, from all of us who love and honor the institution he has done so much to shape.”