John Bear in 1971: TIME MAGAZINE degree mill MILLARD FILLMORE

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July 5, 1971, Time magazine

Spoofing honorary degrees is the four-year-old avocation of John Bear, 33, a freelance writer,
erstwhile adman, and co-inventor of the once popular Beethoven sweatshirt. Having sweated out
a real doctorate in communications at Michigan State University

"By virtue of powers which we have invented," the baroque lettering
proclaimed, the trustees of San Francisco's Millard Fillmore Institute
were delighted to confer on any applicant a variety of "honorary and
meretricious" titles ranging from "Doctor of Generosity" to "Doctor of
Pinochle Sciences." All he needed was $10. A Latin motto made the point
clear: Ad populum phaleras, ego te intus et in cute novi' (Loose
translation: "You may think you're hot stuff, but we know you, buster.")

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/articl...id=googlep

The same individual in 1994 was writing:

One of the main reasons that fake schools continue to exist is that it is difficult to legally define exactly what is meant by the term "diploma mill" or "degree mill." Surely any school that will send you a Ph.D. by return mail on payment of $100, no questions asked, is a fraud. But what about a school that requires a five-page dissertation before awarding the Doctorate? How about 20 pages? 50? 100? 200? Who is to say? One man's degree mill is another man's alternative university. And nobody seems to want the government stepping in to evaluate doctoral dissertations before permitting schools to grant degrees. Would you want [insert the name of your least-favorite politician] grading your thesis?

http://www.quackwatch.org/04ConsumerEducation/dm0.html

On a website named QUACKWATCH no less!
Degree mills and John Bear...hmmm
dr. John Bear on degree mills...hmm