Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters Awarded
to Bahá’í Chair Professor
Franklin and Marshall College
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
May 15-16, 2004

The incumbent of the Bahá’í Chair for World Peace, Professor Suheil Bushrui, was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by Franklin and Marshall College on May 16, 2004. Franklin and Marshall College, one of the premier liberal arts colleges in the nation, is located in Lancaster Pennsylvania and bears the name of its distinguished patron, Benjamin Franklin.

Along with the Bahá’í Chair Professor, five other distinguished figures received honorary doctorates, including: Sally Mather Gibson, a noted humanitarian and long-standing member of the Franklin and Marshall Board of Trustees; Dr. John H. Glick, director of the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania; Edmund S. Morgan, Sterling Professor of American History Emeritus at Yale University and past president of the Organization of American Historians; Marilyn Ware, distinguished philanthropist and retired Chairman of the Board of American Water Works Company; and Richard N. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations.

During the commencement ceremony, the President of Franklin and Marshall College, Mr. John Fry, presented Professor Bushrui with a doctorate of Humane Letters and cited his “considerable contributions to the promotion of world peace as the first incumbent of the Bahá'í Chair for World Peace at the Center for International Development and Conflict Management, [his] renown as a scholar without parallel in the work of Kahlil Gibran, [his] superior commitment to undergraduate education, and [his] distinguished career in service to all humankind.” The award of an honorary doctorate confirms the growing recognition that the work of the Bahá’í Chair for World Peace is receiving in the wider academic community. In addition, it also recognizes the efforts of Professor Bushrui in preserving the legacy of Kahlil Gibran throughout the world.

The Bahá’í Chair Professor was one of two guest speakers asked to address the graduates and distinguished guests at Franklin and Marshall’s commencement ceremony. In his remarks, the Bahá’í Chair Professor spoke about his experience as an Arab immigrant to the United States and shared his deep reverence for America by reciting his poem “The Bounty of America.” The other distinguished speaker at the commencement was Richard N. Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations, the oldest and most influential foreign policy association in the United States. In his remarks, Haass offered a broad overview of the foreign policy challenges facing the United States. He encouraged the graduates to pursue international careers that will help increase global understanding and thereby decrease the threat of terrorism.

On May 15, 2004 the Bahá’í Chair Professor delivered the oration at the initiation ceremony for the elite scholastic fraternal order Phi Beta Kappa. At the event, held at the Franklin and Marshall Campus, the Bahá’í Chair Professor delivered a forty minute lecture entitled “The Importance of Character Education at Colleges and Universities.”

[The following citation is taken from the Franklin & Marshall College commencement brochure for May 16, 2004.]
CITATION
In Honor of
SUHEIL B. BUSHRUI
on the occasion of his receiving the degree
DOCTOR OF HUMANE LETTERS
at the 2004 Commencement of
FRANKLIN & MARSHALL COLLEGE

Although you often describe yourself as nothing but a simple and fortunate "camel driver," you, Professor Suheil Bushrui, are known among literary scholars around the world as the foremost authority on the work of the Lebanese writer Kahlil Gibran and for your seminal studies in English, and your translations into Arabic, of the works of W. B. Yeats. At the University of Maryland, where you have served as professor and first incumbent of the Bahá'í Chair for World Peace, you have been recognized as one of the most distinguished and accomplished professors in the University's long history. "Many teachers are good," the director of the Honors Program at the University of Maryland recently noted, "But Suheil is life changing. We hear this over and over again, that students' whole attitude towards education, their whole attitude towards life, changes in his class." In recognition of your commitment to undergraduate education, the University of Maryland has bestowed upon you its highest teaching award. But your accomplishments extend well beyond the borders of the classroom and far beyond your renown as a literary scholar.

In 2003 you joined such luminaries as the Dalai Lama, South African President Nelson Mandela, her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan, and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson as the newest recipient of the Juliet Hollister Award in recognition of your "exceptional service to interfaith understanding." Just a year earlier, in 2002, the Prince of Wales welcomed you to the Temenos Academy in London to honor you for your global vision and for your half-century effort to increase intercultural understanding between people of Arab and English speaking lands.

Born a little more than seven decades ago in Nazareth, your undertook your primary studies in Arab schools where you acquired a foundation in the study of the Quran and the beautiful Arab and Persian languages. You went on to acquire an extraordinary proficiency in English in Alexandria, Egypt, and in 1959 you were awarded a scholarship to study English Literature at the University of Southampton under the tutelage of Professor Frank T. Prince. Upon completion of your doctoral degree, you began your long and distinguished career as a university professor and as a scholar of Arab and English literatures. You have served on the faculties of outstanding universities in England, Nigeria, Canada, Lebanon, and the United States; you have addressed the House of Lords in London and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Wherever you have been you have edified minds and captivated hearts with your highly regarded skills as an orator, writer, humanitarian, and intellectual with few peers. In light of your long and distinguished literary and scholarly career, in recognition of your contributions to undergraduate education, and in appreciation for your many years of service in pursuit of the peace and prosperity of humankind, Franklin & Marshall College is delighted to bestow upon you the Honorary Degree, Doctor of Humane Letters.