RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Appalachian music master Ralph Stanley is being honored by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The southwest Virginia legend will be honored by the academy in October in a class that also includes Al Pacino, writers John Irving and Annie Proulx and the man who discovered the Titanic, Robert Ballard.

The Massachusetts academy was founded in 1780 to recognize America’s foremost thinkers. Its past members include George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, among many others.

Stanley is a Grammy-winning musician and a founding father of bluegrass. He is most widely known from the soundtrack of “O Brother.”

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