The Conferring of Honorary Degrees
Inge Paul Stafford

Citation Presented by Teresa A. Barber, Associate Professor of Psychology
Conferring of the degree by William G. Durden, President

Inge Paul Stafford , we honor you today for your many accomplishments as an alumna, trustee, educator, clinician and scholar.

As a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from the Class of 1958, majoring in Political Science, with minors in Sociology and English, you earned a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Harvard University and began a career in teaching Social Studies and Special Education courses. Engaging further into the lives of adolescents, you earned a Masters of Arts in Counseling and Student Personnel Services, and a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Rutgers in the Graduate School of Education, specializing in both vocational psychology and personal counseling.

As a highly regarded educator, you have taught graduate courses at the Department of Educational Psychology at Rutgers . You are active in your profession: a member of the American Psychological Association, the National Educational Association, Phi Kappa Phi, and the American Counseling Association.

Your research, published in the journal of Counseling Psychology in the field of attitudes toward gender roles and occupational behavior, provides a life lesson for us all, and an important guiding message to the graduating class seated here before us. You found that, in women, self-esteem is positively associated when there is a match between the type of occupation a person "has to do" and what the person "wants to do". In your advice to counselors, you suggest that counselors should not advocate one type of work over another. You argue that counselors should help clarify their clients' own occupational aspirations and encourage them to explore ways to actualize their aspirations. You maintain, and I'm sure that we would all agree, "Doing what one wants to be doing is what really counts."

As a devoted clinician, both in private practice and as a consulting psychologist at West Essex General Hospital , you have provided counseling and therapy for many people with personal and clinical concerns. You have worked with adults and adolescents struggling with anxiety disorders, substance abuse, depression and chronic illnesses. Your dedication to your patients has resulted in innumerable expressions of gratitude for changed and improved lives. In recognition of your work with individuals suffering from HIV and AIDS, you received the Garden State Ballet 1993 Arts Award.

As a vice-chair of Dickinson College 's Board of Trustees, you are an active and constructive voice, guiding the College in matters of educational policy and student affairs and inspiring your fellow trustees to develop Board practices that will realize Dickinson 's highest aspirations. Your extraordinary leadership of the College for our planned capital campaign and your personal support for all three of the campaign's primary objectives of scholarships, faculty support and the new science facilities, is evidence of your enthusiasm and love for the College. You have been quoted as saying that you would like to "provide other students the opportunity you had, to grow academically and personally through the Dickinson experience." With your inspirational guidance and exceptional dedication to the College, the future of our students is in good hands.

In addition to your exceptional professional career, your marriage of forty-five years to a fellow Dickinson alumnus produced four accomplished, loving daughters and eleven grandchildren.

President Durden, I am honored to present to you, Dr. Inge Paul Stafford, for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Psychology.

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Inge Paul Stafford, upon the recommendation of the Faculty to the Board of Trustees, and by its mandamus, I confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Psychology, with the rights, privileges, and distinction thereunto appertaining, in token of which I present you with this diploma and cause you to be invested with the hood of Dickinson College appropriate to your degree.

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