Attorney and Congressman
1981
Citation:
First as a distinguished attorney, and more recently as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, you have provided excellent service to the State and the Nation. The outstanding leadership and administrative abilities you have demonstrated in every capacity in which you have served have led to your appointment in the 97th Congress as Chairman of the House Committee on Post Office and Civil Service, overseeing a budget of more than one hundred billion dollars and almost three million federal employees. Among your numerous contributions, those in the area of education have been particularly extraordinary. During your sixteen years as a member of the House Education and Labor Committee, you authored or co-authored every major education bill, including the Higher Education Act of 1965, and its recent reauthorization, the largest education bill ever enacted by Congress. As Chairman of the Subcommitee on Postsecondary Education, and a key figure in the full committee and the Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education, and a key figure in the full committee and the Subcommittee on Elementary, Secondary and Vocational Education, your efforts have done much to improve the quality of all levels of education throughout the country. And you have provided thousands of deserving individuals with access to a quality higher education through your role as Chairman of the National Commission on Student Financial Assistance and as principal author of the Middle Income Student Assistance Act. Your support of higher education has never faltered, even through difficult economic circumstances. As an education institution, which shares your belief that developed intellectual abilities are among the nation's most precious resources, it is a great honor for the University of Detroit to express its deep gratitude by conferring upon you the Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree. Commencement, University of Detroit, May 16, 1981.