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Scholars Elected To Phi Beta Kappa

By Joanne L. Kenen

The Radcliffe Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa elected Jean Sutherland Boggs, Sissela A. Bok, and Jane Gray '51, honorary members of the chapter at its annual meeting yesterday.

"Each of these women has made a sufficiently unusual contribution in her particular field to warrant, in the committee's judgment, honorary membership in the Phi Beta Kappa," Eleanor G. Shore '51, chairman of the chapter's Committee on Honorary and Alumni Membership, said yesterday.

Specialist in Modern Art

Boggs, a specialist on 19th and 20th century European and American art, will join the Faculty as professor of Fine Arts this summer. She will be the department's only modernist and its second tenured woman.

Boggs, who received her doctorate from Harvard in 1953, was previously director of the National Gallery of Canada and was considered for the directorship of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts until withdrawing her name from consideration in April.

Bok, whose husband is the Harvard President, is presently teaching "Ethics and Decision Making in Medicine" in the Harvard-MIT program in Health Sciences and Technology. In previous years, she has lectured at Simmons College, Harvard and the Radcliffe Institute.

The author of several publications dealing with medical ethics, Bok is concerned with issues such as euthanasia, access to medical care, abortion, and truth telling in doctor-patient relationships.

'Happily Surprised'

Bok, who said she was "happily surprised" when she heard of her election yesterday, received her Ph.D in Philosophy from Harvard in 1970.

The third new member of the chapter is a paleontologist. Gray, who will be one of two speakers at the Radcliffe Silver Anniversary Dinner this Friday, is the curator of Paleobotany at the Museum of Natural History and a professor of Biology at the University of Oregon.

Arthur Boucot, professor of Geology at Oregon State University, wrote to the Radcliffe chapter urging Gray's election. He described her as "a critical-minded, productive, first-class scientist who has produced a steady flow of incisive, well-reasoned publications, that have materially advanced her field."

Although the nominating committee met throughout the spring, the nominees were not notified until after yesterday's elections. The names of the new members were then announced at the Phi Beta Kappa luncheon yesterday, Shore, who was elected to the organization herself as an undergraduate, said.

Broad Interest Spectrum

Although the three women represent a broad spectrum of interests, Shore said there were no guidelines which dictated this type of distribution.

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