Special Alumni and Alumni Awards
Honorary Degree Recipients
Anne O'Hare McCormick graduated as valedictorian from the St. Mary of the Springs
Academy in 1898. Her career in journalism began shortly thereafter, while writing for
the Catholic Universe Bulletin in Cleveland. Through her work she verified to the world
of the early 19th Century that she, a woman, could stand on her own with unprecedented
success in the male-dominated profession of journalism. Throughout her career she
published countless books and articles including one on Bolshevik Russia in 1928.
McCormick was introduced to world travel through her husband, a businessman from
Dayton whom she married in 1910. Together the couple frequented Europe, allowing her
to immerse herself in European culture. Via her articles in The New York Times, McCormick
provided readers with keen analyses of world issues and world leaders. Creating an
eminent reputation for herself granted her the opportunity to interview such major
European and American leaders as Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler and
Franklin D. Roosevelt. Readers of The New York Times often relied on her uncannily
accurate character studies of these important political figures.
The reputation McCormick made for herself awarded her many privileges and granted
her an honorary degree from the St. Mary of the Springs College after its establishment
in 1911; she also received honorary degrees from other universities including such
prestigious schools as Oxford University. In 1937, McCormick won the coveted Pulitzer
Prize for her distinguished career as a foreign correspondent, becoming the second
woman in History to receive a Pulitzer in journalism. She later was privileged to
become the first woman on the editorial board of The New York Times.
Anne O'Hare McCormick's legacy still inhabits the world she left behind when she
died in 1954. She passes on to this world not only the numerous books and articles
she published, but also the respect she gained for women in the world of journalism
through her work.
