Office of the President
                                                          April 6, 1965






Members, Board of Trustees:

                         HONORARY DEGREE RECIPIENTS

Recommendation: that approval be granted to award the honorary degree of Doctor of
Laws to Governor Edward Thompson Breathitt, Dr. Harry Best, President Philip
Grant Davidson, Jr., Professor James Walter Martin, and Professor Amry Vanden-
bosch, and the honorary degree of Doctor of Science to Dr. William Dorney Valleau,
at the Commencement exercises on May 10, 1965, and that the President be authorized
to notify these persons that they have been selected to receive the honorary degree
approved for each.

Background: The Committee on Honorary Degrees has recommended to the Graduate
Faculty and the University Faculty that these honorary degrees be awarded to the per-
sons listed above, and these two bodies have expressed their approval of the recom-
m endation.

                           EDWARD THOMPSON BREATHITT

Edward Thompson Breathitt, forty-seventh governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky,
was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and is the descendant of a former Governor and
former Lieutenant Governor of the Commonwealth, and a graduate of the University of
Kentucky. Governor Breathitt's education was interrupted by military service during
the Second World War, after which he returned to the University and received the
Bachelor of Science degree in Commerce in 1948 and the Bachelor of Law degree in
1950. The same year he was admitted to the practice of law. While an undergraduate
Edward T. Breathitt was an honor student and active in student affairs. He was a
member of Omicron Delta Kappa, Phi Delta Phi, and other distinguished organizations.
In 1951, at the age of twenty-seven, he was elected to the House of Representatives and
was reelected in 1953. He served as a member of the Governor's Commission on
Mental Health and a member of the Public Service Commission. He was chairman of
the Kentucky Personnel Commission at the time the merit system was instituted. In
the general election of 1963 Edward Thompson Breathitt was elected Governor of the
Commonwealth of Kentucky. As Governor he has placed major emphasis upon educa-
tion and economic redevelopment of Kentucky.

                                    HARRY BEST

Harry Best, a sociologist, has devoted his professional life to the study of the physically
handicapped. He was educated at Centre College, George Washington University,
Galludet College, and Columbia University. He has served on the instructional staffs
of the state schools for the deaf of Nebraska, Washington, Alabama, and New York.
In 1919 he served with the American Red Cross. In that year Dr. Best joined the
University of Kentucky staff, serving as Professor of Sociology and Head of the De-