David D. Anderson, center, is hooded by Provost John Folkins, left, and Ray B. Browne, University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Popular Culture, at the presentation of Anderson's honorary doctor of literature degree April 6.

BGSU presents honorary degree to alum, scholar

A retired Michigan State University professor described as wanting “to learn everything” as an undergraduate student at BGSU was awarded an honorary degree from his alma mater April 6.

Eminent scholar Dr. David D. Anderson, who lives in Dimondale, Mich., received an honorary doctor of literature degree in recognition of his work as a scholar and author, his support of academic associations and his contributions to the University Libraries and the Ray and Pat Browne Library for Popular Culture Studies.

Opening the ceremonies, Dr. Ray Browne, University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Popular Culture, said Anderson began his studies as an English and geography major because he “wanted to learn everything.” He later dropped geography, “but he never stopped wanting to be a renaissance person.”

In conferring the degree, President Sidney Ribeau noted that Anderson is one of the most widely published scholars in the fields of American and Midwestern American literature, as well as a Distinguished Alumnus of the University.

The MSU Distinguished Professor Emeritus received a bachelor’s degree in 1951 and a master’s degree in 1952 from BGSU. He earned his doctorate in 1960 from Michigan State.

In his brief and sometimes humorous remarks, Anderson expressed appreciation for the recognition, which he said makes him more famous than an ancestor who was convicted of witchcraft in the 1600s.

“Truly overwhelmed and most grateful,” he related stories about a number of faculty, particularly in the Department of English, and friends at Bowling Green who positively impacted his life. He came to BGSU because a friend was going to Bowling Green and suggested Anderson do likewise. “I said, ‘Why not?’”

David D. Anderson speaks about his experiences as a BGSU undergraduate.

The Michigan educator said he met the young woman who would become his wife at Bowling Green. Another fond memory he recalled was an English 300 class in which a blue-book exam was returned to him with an A+ and a note from his professor that read, “a pleasure to read these answers.” The University was and is a remarkable place where “young people, however confused, can find purpose in life and meaning,” he proclaimed.

Throughout his career, Anderson has been involved in significant scholarship in American culture and popular culture studies, and he has received recognition for his fiction and nonfiction writing.

The author or editor of 37 books and more than 300 articles, essays, short stories and poems, Anderson has examined subjects ranging from American political history to race studies. A leading scholar on Sherwood Anderson, he has written five books about the American writer. His biographies of Louis Bromfield, Brand Whitlock, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson and William Jennings Bryan, among others, also have received acclaim.

He has contributed more than 8,000 items from his personal library to BGSU and helped to make the collection of the Browne Library for Popular Culture Studies among the most recognized repositories of American culture materials in the United States and possibly the world.

Active in academic associations, Anderson is a former a chair of the American literature section of the Modern Language Association. He was a leader in organizing the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature and has been editor of the prestigious journals Midwestern Miscellany and MidAmerica.

Anderson has received a number of previous recognitions, including Michigan State’s Distinguished Faculty Award in 1974, a BGSU Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1976 and a Distinguished Service Award in 1982 from the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature.