Kudos

Whether given for work well done or cash on the barrelhead, the degree awarded honoris causa (on the house) is the nearest--if still remote--U.S. version of mention in the Queen's Honors Lists. Old members of the lodge see an old pattern: small colleges seek big names for publicity, women's colleges inevitably revere women, and big colleges serenely honor ability. Few would dare to claim that the quality of degrees is rising: only two years ago a Manhattan restaurateur got a doctorate of laws from the University of Idaho for ''promoting better health with his genuine Idaho baked potatoes." Nor is public-relations prose improving the quality of citations, which used to be honed to a fine salutatory precision by such masters as Yale's William Lyon Phelps, Columbia's Nicholas Murray Butler and Harvard's Abbott Lawrence Lowell. But more degrees than ever are conferred, and no one has more deftly defended the custom than Harvard's Lowell: ''Since the conferring of such degrees seems to increase the sum of human happiness, I'm in favor of it." Among those given as of last week:

American International College Captain Edward L. Beach, skipper, U.S.S. Triton Sc.D. Citation: "Your most recent exploit in commanding the largest submarine in existence during an historic submerged voyage around the globe has won for you and your crew the admiration of the world you circled."

Bethany College Stanley S. Kresge, vice chairman, S. S. Kresge Co HH.D. Citation: "To you has fallen the task of controlling and directing the powerful stream of nickels and dimes that we improvident consumers so casually leave at your counters."

Bucknell University Samuel Eliot Morison, naval chronicler, emeritus professor of history, Harvard University L.H.D.

Case Institute of Technology T. Keith Glennan, president-on-leave of Case, head of the National Aeronautics and Space Agency Eng.D. Citation: "Dedicated educator of youth, brilliant leader of men of science, whose monuments orbit the earth."

Columbia University James B. Fisk, physicist, president Bell Telephone Laboratories Sc.D.

Allan Nevins, biographer, emeritus professor of history, Columbia University Litt.D.

Hyman G. Rickover, vice admiral, pioneering developer of the U.S. Navy's nuclear submarines, persistent critic of U.S. education Sc.D.

Citation: "National security, not personal popularity, has been your objective; fulfillment of our intellectual potential your goal."

Mark Van Doren, poet, emeritus professor of English, Columbia University Litt.D.

Citation: "Earned . . . by rare scholarship, gifted teaching, and the creation of verse and prose that have enriched our language."

Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations LL.D.

Citation: "In a turbulent world groping toward international order and the rule of law, yours is a voice of sanity and hope."

Hamilton College Andrew Heiskell, journalist, chairman, TIME Inc. L.H.D.

William McC. Martin Jr., chairman, Federal Reserve Board L.L.D.

Charles G. Mortimer, chairman, General Foods Corp. L.L.D.

Mount Holyoke College Cora Du Bois, professor of anthropology, Harvard University L.H.D.

Mildred Trotter, professor of anatomy, Washington University School of Medicine, Sc.D.

Northland College Floyd B. Odlum, financier, chairman, Atlas Corp., L.H.D.

Jacqueline Cochran (Mrs. Odlum), aviatrix Sc.D.

Ripon College Aaron Bohrod, painter, World War II combat artist, frequent (eleven times) TIME cover artist D.F.A.

Arthur Fiedler, conductor, Boston Pops Orchestra D.F.A.

James J. Sweeney, director, Guggenheim Museum Arts D.

St. Louis University The Rev. Dominique Georges Pire, O.P. famed Belgian rescuer of displaced persons, Nobel Peace Prizewinner (1958) L.L.D.

Citation: "In recognition of his inspiring, Christlike example and of his distinguished service to humanity."

Smith College Germain Bree, professor of French, New York University Litt.D.

Mary I. Bunting, microbiologist, president of Radcliffe CollegeLL.D.

Golda Meir, economist, Foreign Affairs Minister of Isreal LL.D.

Citation: "No woman, save an hereditary ruler, has ever reached any higher position than the one you now occupy."

University of Notre Dame Gregory Peter XV Cardinal Agagianian, Roman Catholic, Pro-Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith LL.D.

The Hon. Doctor Vincent A. Belaunde, Peruvian diplomat, president, U.N. General Assembly LL.D.

Citation: "A man of principle and a man without enemies."

Thomas A. Dooley, M.D., medical missionary in Laos Sc.D.

Citation: "[He has] arrested and moved the heart of a nation unhappily short in personal heroism."

Dwight D. Eisenhower LL.D.

Citation: "We hail him for the wisdom and the balance of common sense with which he has conducted the unimaginably complex affairs and borne the awesome burdens and responsibilities of the highest office of our land."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.