Skidmore community remembers honorary degree recipients

The Skidmore community notes with sadness the recent deaths of journalist David Halberstam, who died April 23, 2007, and Kitty Carlisle Hart, who passed away April 17, 2007. Each received an honorary degree from Skidmore and was a distinguished speaker at our commencement. 

Mr. Halberstam, the award-winning journalist known for his wide reach of topics and an ability to penetrate the issues of our time, received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree at Skidmore's 93rd commencement in 2004. In his remarks to the graduates, Mr. Halberstam said, "Your education greatly adds to one of the most elemental American rights – one which we often take for granted, but which does not so readily exist elsewhere – the freedom to make choices in life, a freedom often missing for those less privileged educationally." He advised them, "Do not be afraid to make some mistakes when you are young. Do not be afraid to try and fail early in your life."

Mr. Halberstam concluded by pointing out, "Even the successful are defeated, or nearly defeated, every day in lots of little ways even when you have reached a high career plateau there are daily defeats, daily humiliations, and the key to going on and succeeding is resilience. In life, resilience may be more important than brilliance."

Kitty Carlisle Hart – a champion of the arts whose career spanned entertainment and arts administration – was the recipient of an honorary doctor of letters degree from Skidmore in 1999, at the 88th commencement. Perhaps best known for her music, stage, and screen work, Mrs. Hart also pursued a career as arts administrator. She joined the New York State Council on the Arts as vice-chair in 1971 at the invitation of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller and was named chair five years later by Gov. Hugh Carey. Reappointed chair by Gov. Mario Cuomo, Mrs. Hart served until 1996, when she was named chair emerita. She once said that chairing the arts council enabled her to see the arts in a new light "a dazzlingly bright light, in fact." She noted, "I have come to believe the arts provide an occasion in which differences do not matter as much as they seem to in daily life. I see the arts as a kind of cohesive force in which people of all colors and conditions come together.

Fittingly, she was on the stage of Saratoga's premiere arts venue, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, when she shared a piece of wisdom with the Class of '99. Mrs. Hart explained that she had made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera on the SPAC stage in 1967 and was nervous. "It goes together, being young and being nervous," she said. "But it gets better as you get older, I promise."