Another honor for Dr. Ralph

ralph_thRalph Stanley has picked up another honor to go with his many others. On top of a pair of honorary doctorates, including one this Spring from Yale University, and honors from the National Endowment for the Arts, Dr. Ralph can now add a fellowship with the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The Academy has a long record of recognizing America’s top “thinkers and doers,” going back to its founding in 1780. Previous fellows include such luminary Americans as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Martin Luther King, Jr. Those selected into each class are drawn from the worlds of academics, the arts, global security, energy, and the sciences.

This 2014 class, which will be officially inducted on October 11 in Cambridge, MA, also lists luminaries like actor Al Pacino, writers John Irving and Annie Proulx, cartoonist Jules Feiffer, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, and oceanographer Robert Ballard.

It is a comfort for all of us who love bluegrass and traditional Appalachian music to see such an exemplar of the style be so widely recognized outside the music business.

Congratulations Dr. Ralph!

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About the Author

John Lawless

John had served as primary author and editor for The Bluegrass Blog from its launch in 2006 until being folded into Bluegrass Today in September of 2011. He continues in that capacity here, managing a strong team of columnists and correspondents.