De Gruchy to get honorary doctorate

IN JUNE this year Professor John de Gruchy, Director of the Graduate School of Humanities, will receive his first honorary doctorate, this from the Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS) where he will also present the Seminary's Graduation Address.

De Gruchy, who already holds two doctorates, was a student at the CTS in 1963/4 when he received a Master's degree. It has been some time since he visited the CTS campus. "I gave a seminar there in the mid-seventies. So I was rather surprised when they awarded me an honorary doctorate," he added. The honorary degree is being awarded on the basis of his "whole corpus" of work.

De Gruchy will give a public lecture in Chicago that week as well as the Commencement (graduation) address. "I have not yet thought about what I will say. But I suspect my talk will be framed by what was happening when I was a student there (Civil Rights Movement, assassination of Kennedy) and the current situation we face, both globally and in southern Africa, and what it means to be public leaders and intellectuals in this context."

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