2012
|
Tony Blair, former prime minister of Great Britain
|
| 2011 |
Rajiv Shah, administrator of U.S. Agency for International Development
|
| 2010 |
Judith A. McHale, undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs
|
2009
|
Greg Mortenson, bestselling author and cofounder, Central Asia Institute
|
| 2008 |
Robert E. Diamond Jr. '73, president of Barclays
|
| 2007 |
Thomas Schelling, Nobel economist |
| 2006 |
Anna Quindlen, novelist and essayist
|
| 2005 |
Dan Harris '93, ABC News correspondent |
| 2004 |
Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author |
| 2003 |
Helen Vendler, poetry critic |
| 2002 |
Arthur Kopit, playwright |
| 2001 |
Peter J. Gomes, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister, Harvard University |
| 2000 |
Margaret H. Marshall, chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court |
| 1999 |
George J. Mitchell, former majority leader of the United States Senate |
| 1998 |
Stephen Breyer, justice of the United States Supreme Court |
| 1997 |
Eavan Boland, leading Irish poet |
| 1996 |
Charles Osgood, anchor, CBS Sunday Morning |
| 1995 |
Henry Louis Gates Jr., educator and author, Harvard University |
| 1994 |
George Herbert Walker Bush, 41st president of the United States |
| 1993 |
Robert J. Dole, senator from Kansas |
| 1992 |
William H. Cosby Jr., entertainer and educator |
| 1991 |
Thomas J. Watson Jr., former U.S. ambassador |
| 1990 |
Maxine Hong Kingston, writer |
| 1989 |
Leonard Boudin, esq., civil liberties attorney |
| 1988 |
C. Everett Koop, surgeon general of the United States |
| 1987 |
Michael Barnicle, columnist, Boston Globe |
| 1986 |
Mortimer B. Zuckerman, president and chair, Atlantic Monthly Co.; editor-in-chief, U.S. News & World Report |
| 1985 |
William F. Buckley Jr., editor-in-chief, National Review magazine |
| 1984 |
B.F. Skinner, professor of psychology emeritus, Harvard University |
| 1983 |
George J. Mitchell, senator from Maine |
| 1982 |
Julius Seeyle Bixler, president emeritus, Colby College |
| 1981 |
Garry Trudeau, cartoonist |
| 1980 |
Ralph Nader, economist and consumer advocate |
| 1979 |
Robert E.L. Strider II, president, Colby |
1978
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin, political scientist and author (Colby '64) |
| 1977 |
Thomas Winship, editor, Boston Globe |
| 1976 |
Rosemary Park, former president of Barnard College and of Connecticut College |
| 1975 |
Frank M. Coffin, judge |
| 1974 |
William D. Hathaway, senator from Maine |
| 1973 |
Philip C. Jessup, judge (retired), International Court of Law |
| 1972 |
Nathan Glazer, professor of education and social structure, Harvard University |
| 1971 |
Luther H. Foster, president, Tuskegee Institute |
| 1970 |
George McGovern, senator from South Dakota |
| 1969 |
Quentin N. Burdick, senator from North Dakota |
| 1968 |
David McCord, poet and essayist |
| 1967 |
Lord Caradon, United Kingdom representative to the United Nations |
| 1966 |
Rene Jules Dubos, professor, Rockefeller University |
| 1965 |
U Thant, secretary-general of the United Nations |
| 1964 |
Adlai Stevenson, representative to the United Nations |
| 1963 |
Julius Seelye Bixler, president emeritus, Colby College |
| 1962 |
Howard Mumford Jones, professor of humanities, Harvard University |
| 1961 |
William O. Douglas, justice of the United States Supreme Court
|
| 1960 |
James Bryant Conant, president emeritus, Harvard University |
| 1959 |
Philip Hall Coombs, secretary, Fund for the Advancement of Education (Ford Foundation) |
| 1958 |
Mary Ellen Chase, Maine author |
| 1957 |
Erwin D. Canham, editor, Christian Science Monitor |
| 1956 |
Robert Frost, American poet |
| 1955 |
Oveta Culp Hobby, United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare |
| 1954 |
Cyrus S. Ching, labor relations expert |
| 1953 |
Vera Micheles Dean, editor, Foreign Policy Association |
| 1952 |
Ralph J. Bunche, representative to the United Nations |
| 1951 |
Vannevar Bush, president, Carnegie Institute |
| 1950 |
William Ernest Hocking, professor emeritus, Harvard University |
| 1949 |
Harry Emerson Fosdick, author, pastor emeritus, Riverside Church, New York City |
| 1948 |
Joshua Loth Liebman (died prior to commencement) rabbi, Temple Israel |
| 1947 |
John Jay McCloy, president, World Bank |
| 1946 |
Joseph P. Kennedy, former ambassador to Great Britain |
| 1945 |
Laura Tapia '45, William Whittemore '45, students |
| 1944 |
Zechariah Chafee Jr., Langdell Professor of Law, Harvard University |
| 1943 |
Robert E. Wilson, president, Pan-American Petroleum & Trans. Co. |
| 1942 |
Leverett Saltonstall, governor of Massachusetts |
| 1941 |
Clarence K. Streit, author |
| 1940 |
George L. Kittredge, professor, Harvard University |
| 1939 |
Franklyn B. Snyder, president, Northwestern University |
| 1938 |
Hon. Josiah W. Bailey, senator from North Carolina |
| 1937 |
Ira L. Letts, U.S. District Judge for District of Rhode Island |
| 1936 |
Kirtley Mather, professor, Harvard University |
| 1935 |
Clarence C. Little, head, Roscoe B. Jackson Memorial Lab. |
| 1934 |
Frederick M. Padelford, dean of the graduate school, University of Washington |
| 1933 |
Bainbridge Colby, United States Secretary of State |
| 1932 |
John H. Finley, editor, New York Times |
| 1931 |
Franklin Winslow Johnson, L.H.D. '91, president of Colby |
| 1930 |
Arthur Eugene Bestor, LL.D. |
| 1929 |
Herbert Shaw Philbrick, Sc.D., '97 |
| 1928 |
George Otis Smith, Ph.D. '93 |
| 1927 |
Frederick Albert Pottle, Ph.D. '17 |
| 1926 |
Donald C. Freeman, Abbot E. Smith, Agnes E. Osgood, students |
| 1925 |
Nellie E. Pottle, Alfred K. Chapman, students |
| 1924 |
Ralph D. McLeary, Marion D. Brown, Joseph C. Smith, students |
| 1923 |
Jeremiah E. Burke, Litt. D., LL.D. '90 |
| 1922 |
Nathaniel Butler Jr., LL.D. '73, 12th president of Colby College
|
| 1921 |
Franklin W. Johnson, L.H.D. '91
|
| 1920 |
- |
| 1919 |
Charles F. Warner, Sc.D., '79 |
| 1918 |
J.M. Montgomery, president, Knox County Bar Association |
