Tracy Kidder, Doctor of Letters
Each village, anthropologists tell us, has its griot, or storyteller, whose narratives shape the group’s self-understanding and meaning. Here in the village of Western Massachusetts that person is you. With keen observation, with close listening, and with prose, says The New York Times of “such clarity, intelligence, and grace,” you have in a series of remarkable books helped us comprehend how our hometowns work, how we build our houses, how we educate our children, and even how we grow old together. In the wider world, you marked the beginning of the computer culture by bringing to life, in The Soul of a New Machine, the complex technical and human challenges involved in developing an early minicomputer. More recently, a chance encounter with North Adams-native Paul Farmer led to your following around the globe his relentless fight against diseases that disproportionately afflict the world’s poor. The result was the majestic Mountains Beyond Mountains — a book so inspiring, especially to young people, that it has become assigned reading at colleges across the country. Back in this village we are both happy and proud to share with the world your uncommon and important skill.
I hereby declare you recipient of the honorary degree Doctor of Letters, entitled to all the rights, honors, and privileges appertaining thereto.
June 7, 2009