The Pittsburgh Press (October 26, 1944)
Ernie Pyle gets doctor’s degree
Albuquerque, New Mexico (UP) –
The servicemen’s “representative to the folks back home” – war correspondent Ernie Pyle – was awarded an honorary degree of doctor of letters at the University of New Mexico’s fall commencement exercises yesterday.
Pyle, recently returned from Europe, was presented for the degree by Dean George Hammond of the university’s graduate school, who said:
Peoples of the United States – in fact, the whole world – have come to know Ernie Pyle as a roving reporter during the present World War, writer of keen observation, tireless energy and a faithful and sympathetic nature.
He followed the soldiers around, wherever they were and, in his writings, became their representative to the folks back home.
The veteran Scripps-Howard correspondent received the degree with his usual modesty. He had said in advance of the ceremony that he didn’t think he deserved to be awarded the honorary degree.