Honorary degree citation: Milton Lambert Lindholm

Presented by Peter Gomes ’65, D.D. ’96, Trustee
Conferred by President Hansen

Gomes: Madame President, I am honored to present Milton Lambert Lindholm, Class of 1935.

Rarely in the life of an institution does one person have the happy duty to speak in behalf of thousands of others. But today, Madame President, I do so in behalf of the thousands of Bates graduates who owe their connection to this college to the imagination, courage and foresight of one man.

Institutions like Bates are measured, ultimately, by the character of their graduates. Today we celebrate a man whose integrity, fairness and good will have helped define the College for many generations.

Milton Lambert Lindholm received his baccalaureate and master’s degrees from Bates in the 1930s. He was named director of admissions for men in 1944 and dean of admissions in 1960. Since his retirement in 1976, he has continued to be an effective and much-loved spokesperson for Bates and a champion of this College.

Dean Lindholm was the chief architect of what a Bates student is. He looked for academic promise in the students he recruited, but he sought much more. With uncanny intuition, he discovered imagination, motivation, determination and decency. He worked to build this College’s national reputation, yet he never lost sight of the qualities that every Bates man or woman should possess. We look are fortunate to look for the same things today.

Milt Lindholm delighted in making connections with young people and maintaining that connection long after they had left Bates. He invested in each student as an individual, whether he was a Japanese American just released from a U.S. internment camp, the first in her family to attend college off a farm in Aroostook County, or the son of a Bates alumna he had admitted years before. With his wife, Jane Ault Lindholm, Milt befriended students, faculty and staff; supported scholar-athletes; counseled students with problems; and monitored and praised their every success.

For his extraordinary loyalty and service to this College and his unwavering belief in the potential of all Bates students, and in behalf of all of us who are Bates men and women because of him, I present Milton Lambert Lindholm for the degree Doctor of Humane Letters.

Hansen: Milton Lambert Lindholm, you are Bates personified. For 70 years you have championed all the best qualities of this remarkable institution and its students.

Therefore, by the authority vested in me by the Board of Trustees, I hereby confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, with all the rights, privileges and responsibilities which here and everywhere pertain to this degree.