He Received 40 Honorary Degrees And Several Other Distinctions

The 1965 Harvard alumni directory shows Frost was awarded an honorary degree there. One of the interesting facts about Rober Frost is he never obtained a college diploma, although he did get more than 40 honorary degrees, including two from Dartmouth College and one each from Princeton, Oxford, and Cambridge colleges. During his lifetime, schools in Fairfax, Virginia, Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Amherst College's main library all bore his name, as did the Robert Frost Middle School.

Frost received the United States Congressional Gold Medal in 1960, which President Kennedy finally presented to him in March 1962, “In appreciation of his poetry, which has enhanced the culture of the United States and the philosophy of the world.” He received the Edward MacDowell Medal for distinguished contribution to the arts from the MacDowell Colony the same year, 1962.

On January 20, 1961, when Frost performed at John F. Kennedy's inauguration, he was 86 years old. Frost first tried to read his specially written poem “Dedication”, but was unable to do so due to the glare of the sun. As a substitute, he performed his poem “The Gift Outright” from memory.