ANN ARBOR—William Jefferson Clinton, 42nd President of the United States who has continued his life in public service supporting humanitarian causes, will receive an honorary degree at the University of Michigan spring commencement, where he also will deliver the main address.

Clinton will received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree, approved by the Board of Regents in January.Approved for honorary degrees by the Board of Regents at its March 15 meeting are: J. Max Bond, Jr., Doctor of Fine Arts; Philip Converse, Doctor of Science; Charles Tilly, Doctor of Humane Letters; and Irma Wyman, Doctor of Engineering.

“Since leaving office in 2000, President Clinton has set a wonderful example for public service by lending his name, effective advocacy and international experience in tackling recovery from natural disasters, effective programs and preventive measures against HIV-AIDS infection, and wide-spread infectious diseases that frequently plague developing countries,” said U-M President Mary Sue Coleman. “In doing so, he has reached beyond partisan rhetoric and created a new service expectation and standard for our graduates.”

Commencement is at 10 a.m. April 28 in Michigan Stadium. Converse will be the main speaker at the University Graduate Exercises to be held in Hill Auditorium at 1 p.m. April 27.

William Jefferson Clinton

Clinton was born in 1946 in Hope, Ark., when that state was deeply divided by class and race. His experience of that segregated society had a profound impact on his commitment to justice and opportunity for all people.

Clinton earned scholarships that funded his education at Georgetown University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1968. He was selected as a Rhodes Scholar that year, studied at Oxford University, then entered the Yale University Law School. After receiving his J.D. in 1973, he returned to his home state as a faculty member at the University of Arkansas, became the state attorney general in 1976, and was elected to five terms as governor.

Clinton was elected to the first of two successive terms as the president of the United States in 1992. As president, he provided momentum and vision to a wide array of national and international issues. He made a strong economy a cornerstone of his agenda, knowing that full participation in a strong and growing economy is the best way to combat the inequity of poverty and racism. He also acted on a core conviction that higher education is the key to the growth needed to be globally competitive.

Since leaving office, Clinton has been involved in national and international issues and has pursued humanitarian work, including efforts on behalf of the victims of the Southeast Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. He created the William J. Clinton Foundation to promote and address international causes such as treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS and global warming. In 2004, he published his autobiography, titled “My Life,” and continues to provide an influential voice in support of equity and justice for all.

J. Max Bond, Jr.

Prominent architect and partner in the prominent New York architectural firm Davis Brody Bond and Associates, Bond has expressed his ideals of precision, creativity and social justice through the many buildings he has designed around the world.

Born into an academic family, he entered Harvard University at age 16 and earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture there in the 1950s. Though he excelled in his studies, he was told to abandon his career in architecture because the field would not welcome an African-American.

Following time in Paris as a Fulbright scholar, Bond returned to the United States where, because of his race, it was difficult even to secure interviews at prominent architectural firms. He eventually found employment and after obtaining his architecture license moved to the nation of Ghana for four years, where his projects include the innovative Bolgatanga Library.

Returning again to the United States, Bond directed the Architects Renewal Committee of Harlem, became a professor at Columbia University and then Dean of the School of Environmental Studies at the City College of New York. He co-founded the firm of Bond Ryder and Associates, an African-American firm that later merged to become Davis Brody Bond and Associates, where he continues as partner-in-charge of many major projects, including his current role on the team that is designing “Reflecting Absence,” the memorial for the 9/11 victims at the World Trade Center. Among Bond’s most noteworthy projects are the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center in Atlanta, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and major buildings on the campuses of Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Northwestern and many other universities.

In 2003, Bond was the Charles Moore Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan in the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has received numerous awards for his designs.

Philip E. Converse

Converse, emeritus professor of political science at U-M, has had a profound impact on our understanding of the electoral process and political behavior. His affiliation with the University began 50 years ago, including three decades as a faculty member.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from Denison University and a master’s degree from the University of Iowa in 1950. He was drafted into the U.S. Army soon after graduating. After the service, he studied at the Sorbonne University in Paris and decided to enter programs in the social sciences at U-M, where he received two graduate degrees, including a doctorate in social psychology in the 1950s. He joined the Department of Sociology and later became director of the Institute for Social Research before leaving to become the director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, from which he retired in 1994.

In his early years at Michigan, Converse conducted ground-breaking research on the National Election Study series of the university’s Survey Research Center and established a national reputation for his acute analysis and insight regarding voting behavior in the United States. He co-authored the book, “The American Voter” and later expanded on his research by authoring and collaborating on books such as “The Human Meaning of Social Change” and “The Quality of American Life: Perceptions, Evaluations, and Satisfactions.” During the Cold War he traveled behind the Iron Curtain as the U.S. investigator in a study of the public’s use of time in twelve nations on both sides of that divide.

Converse has held numerous awards and honors, including a Henry Russel Lectureship at U-M. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Philosophical Society, and last year he received an honorary degree from Harvard University.

Charles H. Tilly

Tilly, the Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science at Columbia University, has created a prolific and celebrated body of work that has transformed our understanding of politics and social change.

He received his undergraduate degree and doctorate. from Harvard University in the 1950s. He also studied at Oxford University in that decade and served in the U.S. Navy amphibious forces. He has taught at a number of universities around the world, with long-term appointments that started at the University of Delaware and continued at Harvard University and the University of Michigan before moving to Columbia.

Tilly’s research focuses on large-scale social change and its relationship to contentious politics, especially in Europe since 1500. His influential early publications focused on urbanization and industrial conflict, and his major books on French society have illuminated the nature of collective action during historically significant events of public protest. His theories on mass protest and collective action had roots in his work in sociology as director of the Center for Research on Social Organization at U-M. He has authored over 600 articles and essays, along with authoring or editing 50 books. His newest book, due from Cambridge University Press this year, is titled, “Democracy.”

Tilly is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the American Philosophical Society. He has served on committees and task forces at the national and international level, including international advisory councils for the Russian Academy of Sciences and the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam. He is the recipient of many international awards, including the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes Acad