At Franklin Pierce University, we prepare our students to make significant contributions to their professions and communities as citizens and leaders of conscience. Today, we honor an individual who has distinguished herself as an author, environmentalist, scientist and advocate of animal rights in this same tradition.
Sy Montgomery believes that only if we “learn to function as morally engaged citizens and be brave enough to lead others in sometimes difficult talks is there any hope of healing our poisoned, overcrowded world.” And, she has been ‘brave enough’ traveling to exotic and dangerous locations to research and tell the true insightful story.
This prolific and award-winning author has written over 15 books for both adults and children including the international bestseller, The Good Good Pig, about her relationship and love for her charismatic pig, Christopher Hogwood. She has never considered animals less than humans. Animals have always been her friends, teachers and inspiration. She has traveled from Cambodia to Brazil, from New Guinea to Mongolia, and beyond to learn from her animal teachers – the South East Asian golden moon bear, the tarantula, the Sundarban tiger.
Sy Montgomery, through her writings, has educated and inspired her readers to “treasure and protect this sweet green Earth.” She has revealed with the fine skill of her craft and vast knowledge of the vivid, rich lives of animals that, in the words of Henry Beston, are “gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear,” to bring us joy and deepen our understanding of this planet and all creatures. She has shown us that we can choose a new way and make a more compassionate world.
Because she is passionate and tireless in her dedication to the environment and all living species, because of her fearlessness in researching the beautiful yet often dangerous creatures in the wild, and because of her considerable humanity and the care she takes in telling accurate and compelling stories about these wild places and beautiful animals, Franklin Pierce University is proud, on this 14th day of May 2011, to confer upon Sy Montgomery the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.