Congratumalations on the Honorifications

Quick-- what do Nancy Reagan, Mike Tyson, Kermit the Frog, Maya Angelou, Billy Graham, Tim Allen, Pierce Brosnan, Dan Marino, Yusuf Islam (the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens), Bob Barker, Jeremiah Wright, Milton Babbitt, Dick Cheney, and Gloria Estefan all have in common?

They are all doctors. Of the honorific kind. That is, all have recieved honorary doctorates from various universities-- ranging from the University of Rochester (Milton Babbitt) to BYU (Dick Cheney) to Western Michigan (Tim Allen) to the Dublin Institute of Technology (Pierce Brosnan).

I was thinking about this because we received an e-mail from our university's president soliciting nominations for honorary doctorates. These generally go to community leaders, celebrities or politicians with ties to an institution, people who have served the community or a university in an extraordinary way, etc. I was also thinking how fun it would be to send a random list of nominees to the Board of Regents-- something like Joe Buck, Dame Edna, and Rene Montagne. Or Bill Ayers, Gordon Lightfoot, and Tom Clancy. Frequent commenter Gustav came up with Plaxico Burress, Leona Helmsley, and Michelle Bachmann.

So just for fun, who are your three?