June 22, 1938 – Walt Disney Given Honorary Degree from Yale University
“[Disney] has accomplished something that has defied all the efforts and experiments of the laboratories in zoology and biology; he has given impressive significance to the word anima in animated; he has given animals souls.”
On June 22, 1938, Walt Disney was awarded his second honorary degree: a Master of Arts degree from Yale University; the first degree was a Master of Science from the University of Southern California, and the third was another Master of Arts degree from Harvard University. He was given the award by Professor William Lyon Phelps, the university’s public orator. Walt had been considered for an honorary degree by Yale as early as 1935, after the overwhelming success of Mickey Mouse.