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Citations for the honorary degrees conferred upon First Lady Barbara S. Rothkopf and President Arthur J. Rothkopf ’55 at the 170th Commencement appear below. The degrees were awarded by Alan R. Griffith ’64, chair of the Board of Trustees. The citations were read by Riley K. Temple ’71, secretary of the board.
BARBARA S. ROTHKOPF,
Early in his term as Lafayette’s president, your husband echoed what John Kennedy said when he took Jackie Kennedy to Paris in 1962. Arthur felt that he would be “best remembered as the President who brought Barbara Rothkopf to Easton.” History may well prove him right.
How fitting that you first devoted your talents to the restoration of the President’s House. Having long admired that home with its broad porches and enticing gardens during your visits to campus with Arthur, you instinctively knew that the 127-year-old building possessed character. You and your committee revealed the depth of that character – and added zest and personality to create both a comfortable private residence and a superbly appointed space for official college functions.
As welcoming as you have been to guests at 515 College Avenue, you have felt equally at home across the street, where among other things you worked to help beautify this campus. Your popularity with students earned you several honors, including the Aaron O. Hoff “People’s Choice” Award and the dedication of an eight-oar shell in your name by the Crew Club. Alumni, trustees, and others have also paid tribute, and the Council of Lafayette Women, a group with which you have been active since its inception, recently endowed a special fund in your honor.
Your commitment to service has benefited organizations throughout the Lehigh Valley, from the Allentown Art Museum and the local public-television station to the Community Foundation, Easton Hospital, and the Children’s Home. You understandably feel a special measure of pride as co-founder of ProKids, which facilitates coordination among local child-related agencies. Your involvement extends well beyond Easton through your service on the Pennsylvania Commission for Women.
Over the past twelve years you have participated in the life of the College and community with inimitable spirit, generosity, and flair. While you have done so much to earn our esteem and appreciation, we are most grateful for the qualities within you that make us feel both exceptionally privileged and extremely comfortable to call you our friend.
THEREFORE, by the authority granted by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to the Trustees of Lafayette College and by them delegated to me, I award you the degree of DOCTOR OF HUMANE LETTERS, honoris causa, with all the rights, honors, and privileges thereto appertaining, in token whereof I present you with this diploma and direct that you be vested in the hood emblematic of the degree.
May twenty-first
Two thousand and five
ARTHUR J. ROTHKOPF, CLASS OF 1955,
It used to be the custom at Lafayette that the permanent record of a graduating senior included brief comments by members of the faculty with whom he had worked closely. Two of your professors made notations. In one case, the comment was “One of our best. An honors student. Rather quiet but all there.”The second professor was even more insightful: “Mature in outlook and judgment,” he wrote; “Strength of character. Extremely dependable. The kind of person you can trust to do a job.”
The qualities your teachers saw in you fifty years ago are precisely those that have enabled you to serve with such distinction as Lafayette’s fifteenth president. Even as acting president you made it clear that you would be more than a caretaker. You arrived in Easton in July 1993 eager, in your words, to bring “all constituencies closer together in common purpose to make Lafayette an even stronger college.” You achieved this goal through clear and open communication and a willingness to lead by example.
The hallmark of your presidency has been your steadfast commitment to strengthen Lafayette’s “fundamental identity as a place that regards undergraduate education as the heart of its mission.” Your success can be measured in countless ways, from the flourishing EXCEL Scholars program to the impressive new facilities all around us. You also renewed the sense of connection and cooperation between Lafayette and Easton.
As you know, the late Albert W. Gendebien ’34 spent decades studying the history of the College and applied the highest standards in evaluating its presidents. Several years before you became president, Al observed that “The president’s main task is to keep [everyone] mindful of the primary goal of the college. . . . Indeed the president is, I think, the embodiment of the goals of the institution.”
Arthur, you have embodied – and advanced – Lafayette’s educational mission with consummate integrity, diligence, devotion, and vision. Your college trusted you to do a job. You have done it superbly.
THEREFORE, by the authority granted by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to the Trustees of Lafayette College and by them delegated to me, I award you the degree of DOCTOR OF LAWS, honoris causa, with all the rights, honors, and privileges thereto appertaining, in token whereof I present you with this diploma and direct that you be vested in the hood emblematic of the degree.
May twenty-first
Two thousand and five