APPLETON, WIS. — Two Lawrence University graduates will be recognized for their professional achievements and civic contributions by their alma mater with honorary degrees Sunday, June 10, at the college’s 158th commencement. Graduation exercises begin at 10:30 a.m. on the Main Hall green.
Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler of Milwaukee will be awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters and former journalist and research center director Margaret Carroll of Appleton will be awarded an honorary doctorate of education.
In addition, Lawrence will confer 316 bachelor of arts and/or music degrees to 305 seniors from 37 states and 18 foreign countries. That is the highest number of degrees awarded by Lawrence since 1976 (322).
A baccalaureate service featuring David Cook, professor of physics and Philetus E. Sawyer Professor of Science, will be held Saturday, June 9 at 11 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. The baccalaureate service and commencement ceremony are free and open to the public.
Both honorary degree recipients, along with President Jill Beck, Lawrence Board of Trustees Chair William O. Hochkammer and student representative Micha Jackson, a senior from Brighton, Ontario, will address the graduates during commencement.
Since earning a bachelor’s degree in government from Lawrence in 1973, Butler has earned several notable “firsts” during a 30-year career dedicated to public service.
He is the first African-American in state history to serve on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. He also holds the distinction of being the first attorney from the Wisconsin State Public Defender’s Office to argue a case before the United States Supreme Court.
Gov. Jim Doyle appointed Butler to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in August, 2004 to fill the position vacated by Justice Diane Sykes, who left for the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. After 13 years with the State Public Defender’s Office, Butler began his judicial career as a Milwaukee Municipal Court judge in 1992. He was appointed a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge in 2002.
His work as a jurist has been recognized with numerous awards, among them the 2006 Humanitarian of the Year by the American Federation of Teachers, Local 212, the 2005 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Foot Soldiers’ Award and the Outstanding Citizen’s Award from the Wisconsin Council of Deliberations, Prince Hall Masons.
A former adjunct professor at Marquette University Law School, Butler is a member of the faculty at the National Judicial College in Reno, Nev., which provides continuing education for judges around the nation. He also serves as a member of the bench at the Moot Court Competition at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles.
Outside the courtroom Butler has been actively engaged with a host of state and national organizations, serving as a member of the board of directors for the NAACP, Legal Action of Wisconsin and the Criminal Law Section of the State Bar. He also has worked with the Criminal Justice Reforms Task Force and the Urban Initiative Task Force on Public Education.
A native of Chicago, Butler earned his law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1977.
Carroll, a 1961 Lawrence graduate who, like Butler, earned a bachelor’s degree in government, enjoyed a 35-year career in journalism and research center administration.
In 1972, Carroll helped establish the Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC) in Washington, D.C., which provided impartial research and analysis of business and public policy issues that affect decision making by institutional investors and major corporations. Carroll spent 23 years with IRRC, including 20 as its executive director, before she retired in 1996. IRRC provided research and analysis as well as proxy voting services to more than 500 institutional investors, corporations, law firms, foundations, colleges and other organizations.
Shortly after she graduated from Lawrence, Carroll began her journalism career at the Congressional Quarterly, a Washington, D.C.-based weekly journal that covers Congress and the federal government, working her way up from researcher to associate editor. She had worked as an intern at CQ for two summers while a student at Lawrence.
Amid the civil unrest that was sweeping the country in the late 1960s, Carroll joined the staff at the National Urban Coalition in 1968 as director of publications, overseeing the production of substantive reports and a newsletter directed at local urban coalitions. The following year, she and several former colleagues from Congressional Quarterly joined forces to establish National Journal, a weekly publication that focuses primarily on key actions and personnel in federal departments and agencies. She served as the publication’s congressional editor and later associate editor.
Before helping found the IRRC, Carroll spent two years in the early 1970s as an independent editorial consultant with a diverse client portfolio. She edited and wrote much of a book on “Women in Policing” and edited a widely circulated guide to the 1972 elections. She also served as acting director of communications for the National Urban Coalition. After she retired from IRRC, she also edited a variety of publications.
A long-time member of the Lawrence Board of Trustees, Carroll served as a trustee for all but two years from 1974 to 2006, including two years (1993-95) as the chair of the board. She was elected trustee emerita of the college last fall. In addition, she served the college as a member of the Presidential Search Committee that found Jill Beck, president of the Founders Club, an admissions volunteer, a career consultant and a class agent. She now represents Lawrence on Appleton’s College Avenue Design Committee.
A native of New York City, Carroll has lived in Appleton since 2002.
