| 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 Prof. 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, The Boston Globe |
| 1986 | Mortimer B. Zuckerman, president and chairman of the board, 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, The 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, U.S. Supreme Court Justice |
| 1960 | James Bryant Conant, president emeritus, Harvard University |
| 1959 | Philip Hall Coombs, secretary, Fund for the Advancement of Education (Ford Fndn.) |
| 1958 | Mary Ellen Chase, Maine author |
| 1957 | Erwin D. Canham, editor, Christian Science Monitor |
| 1956 | Robert Frost, American poet |
| 1955 | Oveta Culp Hobby, U.S. Secretary of Health, Education &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, William Whittemore (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, Graduate School, University of Washington |
| 1933 | Bainbridge Colby, U.S. Secretary of State |
| 1932 | John H. Finley, editor, The New York Times |
| 1931 | Franklin Winslow Johnson, L.H.D. '91, 15th 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 B.A., Abbot E. Smith B.A., Agnes E. Osgood B.A. (students) |
| 1925 | Nellie E. Pottle, Alfred K. Chapman (students) |
| 1924 | Ralph D. McLeary, B.S., Marion D. Brown B.A., Joseph C. Smith B.S. (students) |
| 1923 | Jeremiah E. Burke Litt. D., LL.D. '90 |
| 1922 | Nathaniel Butler Jr., LL.D. '73 |
| 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 |
