Past Honorary Doctoral Degree Recipients
and Commencement Speakers
Honorary Degrees and Abbreviations:
DD – Doctor of Divinity; LHD – Doctor of Humane Letters; LittD – Doctor of Letters
LLD – Doctor of Laws; ScD – Doctor of Science; DFA – Doctor of Fine Arts
The Commencement speaker is noted with italics.
2020s
2024
- Raj Chetty, LHD, William A. Ackman Professor of Public Economics at Harvard University; Director of Opportunity Insights; recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship and the John Bates Clark medal
- Michael Greenberg ’76, P’14, ScD, Nathan Marsh Pusey Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School; renowned for discoveries in activity-dependent gene transcription shaping brain development and plasticity; current research on experience-dependent behavioral plasticity and neurological diseases
- Imani Perry, LittD, Henry A. Morss, Jr. and Elisabeth W. Morss Professor of Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies and African American Studies at Harvard University; Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute; scholar focused on the history of Black thought, art, organizing, and imagination
2023
- Jennifer Finney Boylan ’80, LittD, Anna Quindlen Writer-in-Residence and professor of English at Barnard College of Columbia University; fellow at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Center for Advanced Study; author; transgender activist
- Annette Gordon-Reed, LittD, Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard; author; speaker; winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in History and the National Book Award in 2008
- Larry McHugh, LHD, former president of the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce
- Donna S. Morea ’76, P’06, LHD, executive in the IT services and software communities; Wesleyan Trustee Emeritus; 2006 Wesleyan Distinguished Alumna Award Recipient
2022
- Dr. Joseph J. Fins ’82, LHD, physician, bioethicist, and academic; E. William Davis, Jr. MD Professor of Medical Ethics, professor of medicine, and chief of the Division of Medical Ethics at Weill Cornell Medical College, Wesleyan Trustee Emeritus
- Freeman A. Hrabowski III, ScD, President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, writer, and advocate for underrepresented groups studying STEM
- Gloria Steinem, LHD, political activist, feminist organizer, and writer
2021
- Reginald Dwayne Betts, LittD, author, founder and director of the Million Book Project
- Catherine Coleman Flowers, ScD, MA, environmental health advocate, rural development manager for the Equal Justice Initiative, senior fellow for the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary, and member of the board of directors of the Climate Reality Project and the Natural Resources Defense Council
- Scott Gottlieb '94, ScD, MD, physician, public health and policy advisor and advocate
2020
- Jacqueline Woodson, author
- Bradley Whitford theater, television, and film actor, political advocate
- Rev. Dr. William Joseph Barber II, DMin, pastor and social justice advocate
2010s
2019
- Saidiya Hartman ’84, LittD, writer, Columbia University professor
- Hazel V. Carby, LittD, Yale University professor and director of the Initiative on Race, Gender and Globalization
- Edwin C. Sanders II ’69, LHD, founder of Metropolitan Interdenominational Church
2018
- Anita Faye Hill, LLD, educator, social commentator
- Joshua Boger ’73, P’06, ’09, ScD, scientist, entrepreneur, Board chair emeritus
2017
- Claudia B. Rankine, LittD, writer
- Jo Handelsman, ScD, scientist, educator
- Cristina Jiménez Moreta, LHD, activist on behalf of immigrants
2016
- Kwame Anthony Appiah, LittD, Professor of Philosophy and Law, NY University
- Patricia Lee Smith, DFA, Writer, performer, Visual Artist
- Bryan Stevenson, LHD, Founder and CEO, Equal Justice Initiative
2015
- Lin-Manuel Miranda '02, LHD, Composer-lyricist, Actor
- Michael P. Price, LHD, Retired Exec. Director, Goodspeed Musicals
- Beverly Daniel Tatum '75, P'04, LHD, President, Spelman College, Emerita
2014
- Helena Kraemer, ScD, Professor of Biostatistics in Psychiatry
- Theodore M. Shaw '76, LLD, Advocate for Equity and Inclusion
- Hayden White, LHD, Theorist of History
2013
- Majora Carter '88, LHD, President, Majora Carter Group (Urban revitalization strategist)
- James Dresser '63, P'93, LHD, Former Board Chair, Trustee Emeritus
- Joss Whedon '87, LittD, Writer, Director, Producer
2012
- Michael Bennet '87, LLD, United States Senator
- Glenn Ligon '82, DFA, Artist
- Cecile Richards, P'13, LHD, President, Planned Parenthood of America
2011
- Barbara N. Cook, DFA, Soprano Soloist and Broadway Performer
- Paul E. Farmer, ScD, Co-founder, Partners in Health, MD, PhD
- Alberto Ibargüen '66, P'97, LLD, Chief Executive Officer, Knight Foundation
- Jean Adams Shaw P'79, LHD, Retired Director, Wesleyan Center for the Arts
- Ralph H. "Biff" Shaw II '51, P'79, LHD, Retired CEO, Shaw Belting & Farmers/Mechanics Bank
2010
- Stanley Cavell, LittD, Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, Harvard
- John Hickenlooper ’74, MA'80, LLD, Mayor, City of Denver
- Ruth Simmons, LittD, President, Brown University
- Richard K. Winslow ’40, P'71, LittD, Professor of Music, Emeritus
2000s
2009
- Jennifer Alexander ’88, P'15,'16, LHD, Community Leader/Children and Economic Development
- Mark Masselli, P15,'16, LHD, Community Leader/Health Care
- Azim Premji P'99, LHD, Entrepreneur and Philanthropist
- Anna Quindlen P’09, LittD, Pulitzer Prize Winning Author and Columnist
2008
- Jamaica Kincaid, LHD, Author
- Senator Barack Obama, LLD, United States Senator, Democratic Presidential Nominee
- Morton Schapiro, LLD, President, Williams College
- Philip Trager ’56, P’81, DFA, Photographer, Attorney
2007
- Jewel Plummer Cobb, P'79, ScD, Research Biologist
- Alan M. Dachs ‘70, P'98, LHD, Trustee Emeritus and Chair Emeritus
- Jim Lehrer, P'85, LHD, NewsHour Anchor
- Nobutaka Machimura, LHD, Former Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs
- Thomas Malone, ScD, Environmentalist
- Rosa DeLauro, LHD, United States Congresswoman
2006
- John Hope Franklin, LittD, Professor of History, Emeritus, Duke
- Mary O. McWilliams ’71, LHD, President, Regence BlueShield, Trustee Emerita
2005
- William Barber, P'85, LittD, Andrews Professor of Economics, Emeritus
- William "Bill" Belichick ’75, P’07, '15, LHD, Head Coach, New England Patriots
- Amy Gutmann, LittD, President, University of Pennsylvania
- Edward P. Jones, LHD, Author, Pulitzer Prize 2004
2004
- William Donaldson, LHD, Chairman, US Securities & Exchange Commission
- Yuri Kochiyama, LHD, Social Justice Activist
- Njabulo Ndebele, LittD, Author/Vice Chancellor University of Cape Town
- Robert Schumann '44, LHD, Businessman, Philanthropist
2003
- Doreen Freeman P’77, LHD, Adminstrator Freeman Foundation
- Yusef Komunyakaa, Doctor of Arts, Pulitzer Prize Poet
- Jody Williams, LHD, Nobel Peace Prize/ICBL Founder
2002
- William Manchester, LittD, author
- Walter Massey, LHD, President, Morehouse College
- Martha Nussbaum, LittD, Professor of Law and Ethics
- Stuart F. Silloway ’29, P’59, GP’91 LHD, Wesleyan Trustee Emeritus
2001
- Evelyn Fox Keller, LittD, Professor of History, MIT
- Tom Gerety, LHD, President, Amherst College
- Bernice Johnson Reagon, LittD, Founder, Sweet Honey in the Rock
- Edson "Pelé" Arantes do Nascimento, P'01, LHD, International Soccer Player
2000
- Nancy N. Campbell, MALS'80, LHD, Past Chair National Trust/ Historic Preservation
- Clint Eastwood, DFA, Actor, Producer, Citizen Activist
- Rosa L. Parks, LHD, Civil Rights Pioneer
- Harold Varmus, P'99, ScD, Nobel Prize Laureate/ Medicine
1990s
1999
- Thadious M. Davis, LittD, Professor of English, Author
- Tony Kushner, DFA, Playwright
- Bill Lann Lee, LLD, Acting Ass't Attorney General, Civil Rights, US Dept of Justice
- Steven B. Pfeiffer ’69, P'99, '05, '08, '13, LLD, Chair of Wes Board Emeritus, Fulbright & Jaworski
- Amartya Kumar Sen P'99, Hon. '95, Economist and Nobel Prize Winner
- K. Barry Sharpless, P'99, '04, ScD, Professor of Chemistry, Scripps Institute
1998
- Linda Chavez-Thompson, LLD, Exec VP, AFL-CIO
- David Jenkins ’53, P'78,'81,'83, GP’15 LHD, Trustee Emeritus
- Stuart Levy, ScD, Microbiologist
- Sonny Rollins, DFA, Jazz Composer
- Caroline Walker Bynum, LittD, Historian, Medieval Scholar
- Oprah Winfrey, Media Executive and Philanthropist
1997
- Katharina (Kay) Butterfield, LHD, Wife of Wesleyan President
- Sir Frank Kermode, LittD, Scholar & Literary Critic
- Bernard Knox, LittD, Classicist and Scholar
- Jonathan Kozol, LHD, Activist, Teacher, Author
- Georges May, LittD, Scholar & Author, French Literary Critic
- Elizabeth Morgan, LHD, Board of Ed, Community Leader
- Paul Simon, LLD, Former US Senator
- Anna Deavere Smith, DFA, Actress, Teacher, Playwright and Performer
- John Woodhouse ’53, LHD, Chairman of Sysco Corp
1996
- A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., LLD, Retired Federal Judge
- Jay A. Levy ’60, ScD, Virologist and Researcher, University of CA
- Jessye Norman, DFA, International Concert Artist
- Nell Irvin Painter, LittD, Professor of American History, Princeton University
- John C. Sawhill, ScD, President and CEO, Nature Conservancy
1995
- Merce Cunningham, DFA, Dancer
- Paula Giddings, LHD, Journalist, African American Activist
- Amartya Kumar Sen, P'99, LHD, Professor of Economics and Philosophy, Lamont U
- Charles Sumner Stone Jr. ’48, LittD, Journalist and Civil Rights Activist
- Torsten N. Wiesel, ScD, Neuroscientist, Nobel Prize/ Medicine
1994
- Douglas J. Bennet Jr. ’59, P’87, ’94, LLD, Asst. Secy./State, Former President of NPR
- Johnnetta Betsch Cole, LLD, President, Spelman College
- Satoshi Omura, ScD, Pres. Kitasato Inst., Tokyo
- Lowell P. Weicker Jr., LLD, Governor of CT
1993
- Peter Brown, LittD, Professor of History, Princeton
- Gordon P. Eaton ’51, ScD, Dir, Columbia University Lamont Doherty Observatory
- Houghton Freeman ’43, P’77, LLD, Freeman Foundation, Trustee Emeritus
- Paul Monette, LittD, Author, Poet
- Cornel West, LittD, Professor of Religion, Dir. Afro-American Studies, Princeton
1992
- John Wyllys Baird ’38, P'69, '78, LLD, Trustee
- Roy R. DeCarava, DFA, Photographer
- Morris Seligman Dees Jr., LLD, Exec Dir. and Chief Trial Counsel, Southern Proverty Law Ctr
- Carol Gilligan, LHD, Author, Professor of Education, Harvard
- Leroy E. Hood, P'92, ScD, Biologist/ Dir Nat'l Science Foundation and Technology Center
- Martin Charles Scorsese, P'98, DFA, Film Director
1991
- Corinne Claiborne Boggs, LLD, Fmr Congresswoman
- Gwendolyn Brooks, LittD, Pulitzer Prize Poet
- James Pierpont Comer, LHD, Professor of Child Psychiatry, Yale
- Charles Erroll Exley ’51, P'83, GP’00, ’15, LLD, President and CEO, NCR Corp.
- Quincy Jones, DFA, Musician, Composer, Grammy Awardee
- Brenda Atkinson Milner, ScD, Professor of Psychology, McGill U
- Alyce Faye Wattleton, LLD, Pres. of Planned Parenthood
1990
- Berenice Abbott, DFA, Photographer
- Jonathan Demme, DFA, Filmmaker
- Seamus Heaney, LittD, Poet
- Herbert D. Kelleher ’53, LLD, President and CEO, Southwest Airlines
- Oscar Lanford ’60, ScD, Mathematician
- Desmond Tutu, Doctor of Divinity, Archbishop, Nobel Laureate/ Peace Prize
1980s
1989 Inauguration of William Chace
- Colin G. Campbell, LLD, President Emeritus, Wesleyan
- Frank Oakley, LLD, President, Williams College
- Peter Pouncey, LLD, President, Amherst College
1989
- John R. Jakobson ’52, P'05, LLD, Trustee Emeritus
- Paul C. Lauterbur, ScD, Chemist
- Nathan A. Scott Jr., LHD, Clergyman, Literary Critic
- Marian Wright Edelman, LLD, President, Children's Defense Fund
1988
- Gerald Lee Baliles ’63, LLD, Governor of VA
- Robert M. Ball ’35, MA'36, P'65, LLD, Former Commissioner, Social Security
- D. Ronald Daniel ’52, P'77, '82, '94, LHD, Businessman/ Trustee Emeritus
- Sandra M. Gilbert, LittD, Professor of English, Princeton
- Max Helmut Reihlen ’55, ScD, Dir. Deutsches Institute fur Normung
- William Zinsser, P'80, GP’17, LittD, Writer/ Editor
1987
- Bruce Corwin ’62, LLD, Civic Leader
- William Cosby Jr., P'87, LHD, Entertainer [revoked, 2018]
- Jim Dine, GP’09, DFA, Artist
- A. LeRoy Greason ’44, LittD, President, Bowdoin College
- Ellen A. Peters, LLD, Judge
- Robert Wilson, ScD, Physicist
- Ezra Zilkha ’47, P'73,'81, GP’10, ’10, ’16, LLD, Businessman/ Trustee Emeritus
1986
- Carlo De Benedetti, P'85, LLD, Businessman
- David Hays, Doctor of Arts, Founder, National Theater of the Deaf
- Nannerl Keohane, LLD, President, Wellesley College
- Jehan Sadat, LHD, Educator, Social Activist
1986 Rededication of Olin Library
- Daniel Boorstin, LittD, Librarian of Congress
- Robert S. Cohen ’43, LittD, Trustee Emeritus
- Richard W. Couper, LLD, Trustee Emeritus
- Bern Dibner, ScD, Businessman and Collector
- John P. McDonald, LLD, Librarian
1985
- Reginald Bartholomew, LLD, Diplomat
- Frank G. Binswanger Sr., P'50,'54, GP’76, ’78, ’83, ’83, LLD, Businessman
- Maxwell Roach, P'93, DFA, Musician
- Cicely Tyson, DFA, Actress
1984
- Natalie Zemon Davis, LittD, Professor of History, Princeton
- Edward M. Kennedy, P'84, '08, LLD, Senator
- David G. McCullough, LittD, Author
- Nicholas J. Turro Jr. ’60, ScD, Professor of Chemistry, Columbia University
- Walter B. Wriston ’41, LLD, Chairman, Citicorp
1983
- Alan Alda, P'83, DFA, Actor
- Harvey B. Gram Jr. ’27, GP’83, LHD, Businessman
- Terry J. Hatter Jr. ’54, P'92, LLD, Federal Judge
- Yoshinori Matsuyama, LLD, Educator
- Toni Morrison, LittD., Author
- Frederick Mosteller, ScD, Academician
1982
- John J. Driscoll ’33, MA '34, P'69, LHD, Labor Leader
- Carlos Fuentes, LHD, Author
- Earl G. Graves, LLD, Businessman
- Meg Greenfield, LittD, Writer
- Grace Paley, LittD, Writer
- Maarten Schmidt, ScD, Astronomer
- Robert M. Solow, LLD, Economist
1981
- Frank Capra, DFA, Director/ Producer
- David Halberstam, LittD, Author, Journalist
- Louisa Kennedy, LHD, Founder of FLAG
- Max Tishler, GGP’14, ScD, Emeritus Professor of Science, Wesleyan
1981: Sesquicentennial Convocation (September)
- Mildred Dunnock Urmy DFA, actress
- John W. Bodine, P'69, '76, GP '96, ’02, '03, '19, LLD, attorney, Wesleyan trustee
- Elbert K. Fretwell Jr. '44, P'79, LLD, Chancellor, University of North Carolina
- Gerald Holton '41, MA'42, P'77, LittD, historian of science at Harvard
- Robert A. Rosenbaum, LittD Wesleyan University Professor of Mathematics and Sciences
1980
- Philip B. Brown ’44, P'83, LHD, Lawyer, Chair, Wesleyan Board
- Jill K. Conway, LLD, President, Smith College
- Ralph W. Ellison, LittD, Novelist, Essayist
- Louis E. Martin, LLD, Journalist/ Government Service
- Jean Francois-Poncet ’47, LLD, Foreign Minister of France
1970s
1979
- Mansfield Freeman ’16, P'43, LLD, Businessman and Teacher
- Ella Grasso, LLD, Governor
- Henry Russell Hitchcock Jr., LHD, Architectural History
- Elie Wiesel, LHD, Author, Nobel Laureate
1978
- John Chandler '78, LLD, President, Williams
- Robert Coles, LHD, Psychiatrist
- Alan Shestack ’60, DFA, Dir. of Yale Art Gallery
- Harold Stearns ’21, ScD, Geologist
- Harold Syrett ’35, LLD, Editor of Hamilton Papers
1977
- Vernon E. Jordan, LLD, Exec Dir Natl Urban League
- John U. Monro, LHD, Dean of Freshman, Miles College
- Maxine Singer, ScD, National Institute of Health
- John W. Ward '63, LLD, President, Amherst
- Richard P. Wilbur, MA '58, LittD, Poet
Honorary Degrees Were Not Awarded Between 1972 and 1976
1976
- John William Ward ’63, President, Amherst College
1975
- Willard M. Wallace ’34, Wesleyan professor
1974
- Pauline Kael, Movie Critic
1973
- John W. Macy, Jr. ’38, P’75, ’78, ’84, Chairman, U.S. Civil Service, Wesleyan Trustee
1972
- Carl E. Schorske, P’81, Former Professor, Wesleyan
1971
- Robert Anderson, LLD, Chair of Board, Atlantic Richfield
- Kingman Brewster Jr., LHD, President of Yale
- Charles Gillispie ’40, ScD, Professor of History, Princeton
- Martha Graham, DFA, Dancer
- Joseph Melnick ’36, GP’90, ScD, Professor of Virology, Baylor Univ.
- George Wiley '44, LHD, Exec Dir., National Welfare Rights Organization
1970
- John Holt, Activist and Author
- Harold Hugo, Doctor of Humanities, President, Meriden Gravure
- Theodore Lockwood, LHD, Presiident, Trinity College
- Roger Tory Peterson, ScD, Ornithologist
- Robert Penn Warren, LittD., Author and Pulitzer Prize Winner
- Andrew Young, DD, Minister, Exec VP SCLC
1960s
1969
- Julian Bond, LLD, Georgia House of Representatives
- Art Buchwald, LittD, Newspaper Columnist and Cartoonist
- William P. Haas, DD, President, Providence College
- Burton C. Hallowell ’36, MA’38, LHD, President, Tufts, Former Wesleyan Exec VP
- Lelan F. Sillin Jr., P'77, LLD, President of Northeast Utilities
- Stewart L. Udall, LLD, Former Secretary of the Interior
1968
- John C. Bennett, DD, Pres. Union Theological
- Leonard Bernstein, DFA, Conductor
- John W. Gardner, LHD, Chair, Urban Coalition, Former Secretary, HEW
- Murray Gell-Man, ScD, Professor of Physics, Cal Tech
- Joseph Palamountain Jr., LHD, President, Skidmore
- John R. Reitemeyer, LLD, President and Publisher, Hartford Courant
- Charles E. Shain, LHD, President, Connecticut College
- Monroe E. Spaght, LLD, Chair of Board, Shell Oil
1967
- Norman O. Brown, LittD, Former Wesleyan Professor
- Victor L. Butterfield, President of Wesleyan
- Harry Caplan, LittD, Professor of Classical Language and Literature, Cornell
- Gilbert H. Clee ’35, LLD, Dir., McKinsey & Co.
- Emilio Q. Daddario ’39, ScD, Congressman
- René J. Dubos, ScD, Bacteriologist, Author
- John W. Macy Jr. ’38, P’75, ’78, ’84, LLD, Chairman, US Civil Service, Trustee
- Frederick B. Millett ’65, Litt. D, Professor of English, Emeritus
- Carl E. Schorske, P’81, LittD, Former Professor, Wesleyan
1966
- William Sloane Coffin Jr., DD, Chaplain Yale
- Henry Hamill Fowler, LLD, Secretary of Treasury
- Justin McCortney O'Brien, LittD, Author, Educator
- Richard Perkin, ScD, President, Perkin-Elmer Co.
1965
- Edwin D. Etherington ’48, P'84, LLD, Pres., American Stock Exchange
- Francis Keppel, LLD, Commissioner of Education
- James K. Mathews, DD, Methodist Bishop
- Michael Polyani, LLD, Political Economist
1964
- Mary I. Bunting (Smith), LLD, President, Radcliffe
- Martin Luther King Jr., DD, Civil Rights Leader
- Harry F. Lewis ’12, MS'13, LLD, VP, Institute for Paper Chemistry
- Dwight Macdonald, LittD, Arts Critic
- R. Sargent Shriver Jr., LLD, Director of Peace Corps