As I've already mentioned commenting on this piece of news over Facebook, I'm actually (at least partially) glad he did not make it - for one, he's in a good company here, with all those great folks who never got one...
... and for two, imagine all the folks who would (I happen to be acquainted with some of the type) who would read Tolkien not because they enjoyed it but because he was the Nobel Prize holder, and imagine all the high-brow nonsense they would then proceed to utter about it discussing it in their
literati talk-shows on specifically 'cultural' TV channels, to be followed by some horrid David Lynch movie to illustrate the point about Eowyn/Aragorn situation...
The sound of "urgh" would kind of sum the whole matter up for yours truly
I may be mightily mistaken over the matter of course