Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Robert A. Caro
to Receive Honorary Degree from C.W. Post

May 5, 2003 - Robert A. Caro -- a Pulitzer Prize-winning author best known as Lyndon Johnson’s biographer - will receive an honorary Doctorate of Letters degree from the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University during 45th annual commencement exercises on Sunday, May 11. Honorary degrees are awarded to individuals who, through their perseverance, dedication to their field, and commitment to community, serve as role models to students.

Caro’s 1974 debut book, "The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York," won him his first Pulitzer Prize and was chosen as one of the "One Hundred Greatest Books of the Century" by the Modern Library. It also earned accolades from the Society of American Historians, garnering the Francis Parkman Prize, which recognizes work that "best exemplifies the union of the historian and the artist."

Caro was an award-winning investigative reporter at Newsday for six years. During his tenure there, he wrote an influential six-part series on Suffolk County, "Suffolk: The Sick Giant," prompting the formation of a planning board for the County, and capturing the attention of a selection committee at Harvard University, which awarded him a Nieman Fellowship. A Carnegie Fellowship followed, enabling him to pursue his historical writings full time.

His biographical series, "The Years of Lyndon Johnson, " the fruit of decades of painstaking research and writing, is a classic in the genre. The third volume, "Master of the Senate," published in 2002, topped the New York Times best seller list for 11 weeks and won him his second Pulitzer Prize in April 2003. He is now at work on the fourth and final volume, "The Presidency." His work, which has been excerpted in The Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker, is required reading in classrooms across the nation. He has received numerous awards and honors including the H.L. Mencken Award, the Carr P. Collins Award from the Texas Institute of Letters and an Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

Caro, who holds a degree in English literature from Princeton University, served as president of the Author's Guild of America and vice president of PEN.

Caro will receive his honorary degree along with two other highly accomplished individuals: Congressman Peter T. King, a Republican who is serving his sixth term in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Dr. Maxine Greene, a preeminent American philosopher of education and professor emerita of Columbia University’s Teachers College.

The C.W. Post Campus — a private, co-educational institution of higher learning located in Brookville, N.Y. — has awarded more than 85,000 degrees in its 49-year history. The Class of 2003 includes 708 baccalaureate degree candidates, 889 master's degree candidates, two doctoral students receiving the Psy.D. in clinical psychology and three doctoral students receiving the Ph.D. in information studies. C.W. Post is one of six campuses of Long Island University, the seventh largest private university in the United States. With more than 13,000 full- and part-time students, C.W. Post offers a broad range of undergraduate and graduate programs in accountancy, business (AACSB accredited), computer science, liberal arts and sciences, library and information science (ALA accredited), education, health professions and nursing, public service, and visual and performing arts. C.W. Post also offers an extensive continuing education program.