Beverly Cleary – highest praise at the University of Washington
Last week, children’s author extraordinaire, Beverly Cleary, was awarded the highest honor at my school, the University of Washington – the Alumna Summa Laude Dignata award, or “alumna worthy of the highest praise.”
This is the culmination of almost 10 years of effort to recognize and honor Mrs. Cleary. When I first came to the University of Washington in August 1998, I had no idea that she gained a degree from the then School of Librarianship (now the Information School) in 1939. “Beverly Cleary is an alumn? Wowza!” I wrote her a letter explaining who I was and how much we all appreciated her work. When I received a return letter in a few weeks, the office staff and I were pleased and amazed.
In 1999, I first visited Mrs. Cleary at her home in Carmel, California. At that time, I asked permission to begin a campaign to raise funds for a Beverly Cleary Professorship in Children’s and Youth Services. Not only did she agree, but she herself contributed over $100,000 to the cause. We completed the campaign 3 years ago. Lynne McKechnie from Canada was the first Cleary Professor, and just this past month Eliza Dresang accepted the position.
Mrs. Cleary who just celebrated her 92nd birthday, is a quiet person by nature. She doesn’t really enjoy speaking to large groups. But, every time I meet her I’m taken with her insights and sense of humor. She tells stories of getting by in 1939 on $35 a month! The head of the school at the time, Miss Ruth Worden, once chastised Beverly for seeming bored in class. Mrs. Cleary told me, “I wasn’t bored. I was hungry!” Miss Worden didn’t think that Beverly Bunn would amount to much. But, Beverly always wanted to be a children’s author in addition to being a librarian. She wanted to write books about and for everyday kids. This idea which seems so obvious today was revolutionary when she wrote Henry Huggins in 1955. With that publication, Mrs. Cleary changed the world.
Unfortunately, Beverly was unable to travel to Seattle to accept her award. We visited her in May and taped a short acceptance speech. That mischievous twinkle was still in her eye as she reflected back on Seattle and librarianship in Yakima, Washington, mentioned Miss Worden’s disapproval, and thanked the University. Of course, it’s us who thank her–for all she’s done for kids, education, and libraries.
Thank you, Beverly Cleary.
on June 18th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
You’ve met Beverly Cleary??! I am not joking when I say that I read Dear Mr. Henshaw at least 100 times as a kid. Congratulations to Ms. Cleary and kudos to you Mike for fighting for such an important honor for such an important person to childhood and literacy…
on June 19th, 2008 at 7:10 am
Thanks, Jason. Yes, I am fortunate to have visited with Mrs. Cleary a number of times. She’s always very gracious, but still feisty. There’s a Ramona movie in the works, but she has some very strong ideas about casting and plot, as you can imagine.
on March 5th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
I was privileged to be the Chair of the Newbery Commitee when Dear Mr. Henshaw was selected as the Newbery Award of the Year. And so I was honored to give the Award to Beverly in 1984. Beth Greggs