1956: In waiting

With Cardinal Richard Cushing seated behind, and Fr. Edmond Walsh standing by, commencement speaker and Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy, waited (presumably, while his citation was being read) to receive his honorary degree on June 13. Two months later, Kennedy lost his bid to become vice-presidential running mate to Adlai E. Stevenson, the 1956 Democratic presidential candidate (whose son, Adlai E. III, would himself deliver the commencement speech at the University in 1972). Kennedy would return to campus, as President, for the special centennial convocation in 1963.