Speakers Since 1938
Speeches
(For transcripts of recent commencement addresses, link to the Almanac website and do a search.)
List of Speakers
(This list includes speakers at special mid-year Convocations through 1953.)
1938
February - John D. Spaeth
President, University of Kansas City
June - James R. Angell
Former President, Yale University
June - Gustave Adolf
Crown Prince of Sweden
1939
February - Joseph H. Willits
Former Dean, Wharton School
June - Josiah H. Penniman
Provost of the University
1940
February - Frank P. Graves
Commissioner for Education for New York
June - William E. Lingelbach
Dean of the College
September - Franklin D. Roosevelt
President of the United States
1941
February - Felix M. Morley
President, Haverford College
June - Archibald MacLeish
Librarian of Congress
1942
February - Douglas S. Freeman
Editor
June - Rex S. Clements
Minister, Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church
September - Oliver J. Hart
Bishop Coadjutor Elect of Pennsylvania
1943
February - Henning W. Prentis, Jr.
Industrialist
June - John E. Pomfret
President, College of William and Mary
October - Rufus H. Fitzgerald
Vice Chancellor, University of Pittsburgh
December - Edwin G. Conklin
President, American Philosophical Society
1944
March - Ralph B. Perry
Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University
June - Earl G. Harrison
United States Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization
July - Glenn R. Morrow
Dean of the College
September - Capt. Richard A. Kern
Chief of Medicine, United States Naval Hospital
October - Charles F. Jenkins
President, Historical Society of Pennsylvania
1945
March - Abraham A. Neuman
President, Dropsie College
June - Thomas J.S. Waxter
Public Welfare Administrator
June - Samuel T. Orton
Physician and Investigator
June - Arthur T. Vanderbilt
Dean of the Law School, New York University
October - Virginia C. Gildersleeve
Dean of Barnard College
1946
February - J. Robert Oppenheimer
Professor of Physics, California Institute of Technology
March - William S. Middleton
Dean of Medical School, University of Wisconsin
June - Nochem S. Winnet
Judge of Municipal Court, Philadelphia
June - Quo Tai-Chi
United Nations Security Council Representative, China
August - Herbert F. Goodrich
Judge, United States Circuit Court of Appeals
1947
February - James Creese
President, Drexel Institute of Technology
March - Chester I. Barnard
President, New Jersey Bell Telephone Company
June - Margaret Mead
Associate Curator, American Museum of Natural History
August - Earl G. Harrison
Vice President in Charge of Law School
1948
February - George K. Funston
President, Trinity College
March - Esmond R. Long
Director, Henry Phipps Institute
June - James F. Byrnes
Former Secretary of State, Congressman, and Supreme Court Justice
August - Paul W. Bruton
Professor of Law
1949
February - John Foster Dulles
Member of United States Delegation to the United Nations
June - Detlev W. Bronk
President, Johns Hopkins
August - William Edel
President, Dickinson College
1950
February - Paul G. Hoffman
June Thomas K. Finletter
Secretary of the Air Force
1951
February - George K. Funston
President, Trinity College February Alfred H. Williams
June - James R. Killian, Jr.
President, Massachussetts Institute of Technology
September - Robert Strausz-Hupe
Professor of Political Science
1952
February - Boyd L. Spahr
President, Board of Trustees, Dickinson College
June - Henry M. Wriston
President, Brown University
1953
February - Harry E. Humphreys, Jr.
Chairman, H.S. Rubber Company
June - Milton S. Eisenhower
President, Pennsylvania State University
1954
Charles E. Wyzanski, Jr.
Judge, United States District Court for Massachusetts
1955
Franklin D. Murphy
Chancellor, University of Kansas
1956
Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.
United Nations Representative for the United States
1957
Frank C. James
Principal and Vice Chancellor, McGill University
1958
Robert Dechert
General Counsel, Department of Defense
1959
Robert S. Aitken
Vice Chancellor and Principal, University of Birmingham
1960
The Hon. John Jay McCloy
President, World Bank; U.S. Military Governor and High Commissioner for Germany
1961
Crawford H. Greenawalt
President, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.
1962
Clarence D. Dillon
Secretary of the Treasury
1963
Francis Keppel
United States Commissioner of Education
1964
William W. Scranton
Governor of Pennsylvania
1965
Sir John Bruce
Professor of Clinical Surgery, University of Edinburgh
1966
Robert C. Weaver
Secretary, Department of Housing and Urban Development
1967
Raymond P. Shafer
Governor of Pennsylvania
1968
William S. Paley
Chairman of the Board, Columbia Broadcasting System
1969
Lady Barbara Ward Jackson
Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University
1970
Martin Meyerson
University of Pennsylvania President-Designate
1971
David Riesman
Henry Ford Professor of Social Sciences, Harvard University
1972
John H. Knowles
President-Elect, Rockefeller Foundation
1973
The Rt. Hon. Roy Jenkins, M.P.
Former Chancellor of the Exchequer and Former Deputy Leader of the British
Labour Party
1974
Milton J. Shapp
Governor of Pennsylvania
1975
Gerald R. Ford
President of the United States
1976
Warren E. Burger
Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court
1977
Hubert H. Humphrey
United States Senator
1978
Patricia Harris
Secretary, Department of Housing and Urban Development
1979
Garry Trudeau
Doonesbury creator
1980
The Lord Annan,
OBE Vice Chancellor, University of London
1981
Vernon Jordan
President, National Urban League
1982
Sol Linowitz
Former Ambassador to the Organization of American States, Former Chairman of
Xerox
1983
Ellen Goodman
Syndicated columnist
1984
Wilson Goode
Mayor of Philadelphia
1985
Donald Regan
Secretary of the Treasury
1986
Michael Brown
Nobel Laureate in Medicine
1987
Riccardo Muti
Conductor, Philadelphia Orchestra
1988
Patricia Schroeder
Congresswoman
1989
Mike Wallace
Television Journalist
1990
Barbara Bush
First Lady of the United States
1991
Ted Koppel
Television Journalist
1992
Ismael Mahomed
Justice, Supreme Court of South Africa
1993
Hillary Rodham Clinton
First Lady of the United States
1994
Henry G. Cisneros
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
1995
Jane Alexander
Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts
1996
Tom Brokaw
Television Journalist
1997
William H. Cosby
Entertainer and Educator
1998
Jimmy Carter
Thirty-Ninth President of the United States
1999
Robert E. Rubin
Secretary of the Treasury
2000
Seamus Heaney
Poet, Critic, and Translator
1995 Nobel Laureate in Literature
2001
John McCain
United States Senator, Arizona
2002
Jim Lehrer
Executive Editor and Anchor, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
2003
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Chancellor, University of the Western Cape
1984 Nobel Peace Prize
2004
Bono
Co-Founder, DATA (Debt AIDS Trade Africa)
Lead singer, U2
2005
Kofi Annan
Secretary-General, United Nations
with the United Nations,
recipient of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize
2006
Jodie Foster
Actress, Producer and Director
2007
James A. Baker, III
61st U.S. Secretary of State
2008
Michael R. Bloomberg
Mayor, City of New York
