Mary I. Bunting, past president of Radcliffe, and George W. Ball, a high-ranking diplomat under Presidents John F. Kennedy '40 and Lyndon B. Johnson who voiced objections to the Vietnam War, headed a list of 12 honorary degree recipients at today's 322nd Commencement Exercises in Tercentenary Theater.

Bunting, who retired last year, was joined by two other women in receiving honorary degrees. Georgia O'Keeffe, the artist, and Margaret Mead, the anthropologist, were also honored.

In addition to Ball, the other men who received degrees were: George F. Bennett '33, the retiring treasurer of Harvard College; Robert Penn Warren, the novelist and critic; Theodore M. Hesburgh, the president of Notre Dame University; and John Bardeen, who has won two Nobel Prizes in Physics.

Also honored were: William G. Bowen, the president of Princeton University; Rudolf Serkin, the concert pianist, Masao Maruyama; a Japanese historian; and Lloyd C. Elam, a nationally known psychiatrist.

Bunting was the widely-admired president of Radcliffe from 1960 to 1972. She previously served as dean of Douglass College from 1955 to 1959, and as a member of the Atomic Energy Commission from 1964 to 1965.

Among her many accomplishments as Radcliffe President was the establishment of the Radcliffe House system, which included the construction of Currier House and the combination of the older Quad dorms into North and South Houses.

Bunting said last year that the switch helped "the Houses develop as educational communities with more happening in them."

Aside from Bunting's effective and aggressive stewardship of Radcliffe during years of turbulence and change, she was also a warm and friendly person--a friend to many women and men undergraduates.

She never lost a sense of the humorous aspect of her job. Once, for example, Bunting was meeting with some alumnae and a phone call interrupted her. As a trained biologist, she kept bee hives in her home, and the call was to warn her that some of the bees had escaped.

"Excuse me," she told the alumnae. "I really must leave. I have a swarming bee hive to tend to." To which one of the women replied, "Oh my, what are the students protesting now."

Bunting presently works for one of the other honorary degree recipients, William G. Bowen, president of Princeton, as a special assistant for special projects.

Her degree citation--a Doctor of Laws--awarded by President Bok, read: "With good heart and quiet strength she set Radcliffe on a new course, persistently advancing the role of women in higher education."

Ball, who also was awarded a Doctor of Laws, was an early opponent of the war in Vietnam, first within the upper levels of government and later increasingly vocal outside the policy-making circles.

He served from 1961 to 1966 as Undersecretary of State under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and many students of the period credit him with opposing the Vietnam escalation each time it notched upward.

Ball served briefly in 1968 as American representative to the United Nations.