Sunday, May 17, 2015

Received honorary doctorate of Public Service from George Washington University in a beautiful ceremony on the National Mall right in front of the Washington Monument. Commencement Speaker was Tim Cook, CEO of Apple. At the ceremonial dinner the night before at the Corcoran Gallery of Art on 17th Street, N.W., a student member of the Board of Trustees got a piece of meat stuck in his throat and was choking. I did a Heimlich maneuver and dislodged the piece of steak. Obviously, the crowd was delighted and gave me a big round of applause. The next day (today) at the graduation ceremony, President Knapp mentioned this in his citation for my honorary doctorate. It also got tweeted around. May 19-21, 2015 - Honorary doctorates at Columbia University in NYC (Doctor of Science) on May 20 and The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore (Doctor of Humane Letters) on May 21. Elijah Cummings – Congressman from Baltimore gave very moving comments (in his wonderful preacher fashion) about the recent riots in Baltimore related to the police killing of Freddie Gray. He spoke of his own growing up and still living in the neighborhood where the riots took place. Leon Fleisher – world renowned concert pianist. He was wonderful and they showed a clip of his playing the piano. He gave words of wisdom. “Listen and do not be afraid of silence.” Also, “Procrastination saves time” Edwin Catmull, the CEO of Pixar Animation Studio. Produced the first computer animated film “Toy Story” and also “Frozen”. Has won 5 Academy Awards.