Wiesel To Be Given Degree At Graduation

Wiesel to be given degree at graduation

Nobel Prize winner to talk at U-M ceremony Sunday

Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel will be among four men receiving honorary degrees from the University of Michigan Sunday.

Wiesel will be joined by 2,000 students who are receiving their diplomas during the graduation ceremony at Crisler Arena.

Also being recognized with honorary degrees will be Charles R. Walgreen Jr., founder and retired chairman of Walgreen drug stores; J. Carter Brown, former director of the National Gallery of Art; and George W. Housner, an emeritus professor of engineering at the California Institute of Technology, who is credited with creating earthquake-resistant buildings.

All four honorary degree recipients will speak at the ceremony, as will U-M President James J. Duderstadt.

Wiesel is a Holocaust survivor who has long worked for human rights. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 and also has been awarded the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal of Achievement and the Medal of Liberty Award.

Two years ago, the U-M honored Wiesel with its Raoul Wallenberg Medal, named for the U-M graduate who saved 100,000 Jews from Nazi death camps in World War II. During Sunday’s program, Wiesel will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree.

Walgreen also will receive a humane letters degree. Brown will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree, and Housner will be awarded an honorary doctor of science degree.

Commencement will begin at 2 p.m.