Graduation Speech: No, Thanks

--Former Transportation Secretary Drew Lewis stunned an audience by declining an honorary degree from Philadelphia’s Haverford College because of faculty objections to his alleged role in breaking the air traffic controllers strike in 1981. “There is no consensus on this degree when one-third of your faculty objects,” Lewis told 1,000 people at the Quaker college’s commencement ceremonies. He then lifted off his purple doctoral hood as the stunned audience broke into a standing ovation. Lewis, 54, a 1953 Haverford graduate and former member of the college’s Board of Managers, refused to accept the doctorate after he learned that 28 faculty members had signed a letter protesting his alleged attempt to break the union representing air traffic controllers who violated their no-strike oath and staged a bitter walkout in 1981. When the dispute was resolved, the Reagan Administration refused to allow the strike participants to return to their jobs. At the graduation, Lewis discarded his prepared speech and defended his role as transportation secretary during the incident. “I think that protest with the facts is very commendable. In this case, I don’t feel that those of you who are protesting understand the facts,” he said. Haverford President Ronald F. Thiemann called Lewis’ decision “an act of great courage and integrity.”

--For its lavish 100th birthday party, the Statue of Liberty is getting a rousing serenade of heart-thumping patriotic songs to accompany the world’s largest fireworks display. The U.S. Marine Band, in a preview of its part in the July 4 festivities, recorded the score for the fireworks display that will erupt from 40, 100-foot barges around lower Manhattan, Sgt. Anne Skelly, a Marine Band spokeswoman, said.

--Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige, 63, who suffered a sprained finger in a steer-roping contest, shrugged it off by saying “it’s the year of the older athlete.” Baldrige, wearing a splint when he appeared for a television-interview show in Washington, said he was hurt while steer-roping over the weekend in Virginia, but he managed to win some money anyway. An aide said Baldrige, a skilled horseman and veteran contestant in many rodeos, injured the finger when he caught it between the rope he was using on a steer and his saddle’s pommel. But he said he still won $400 or $500 in prize money during a few days of contests. Citing jockey Bill Shoemaker, who won the Kentucky Derby earlier this month at age 54, and golfer Jack Nicklaus, who won the Master’s in April at 46, Baldrige said: “It’s the year of the older athlete.”