Commencement

Honorary Degree Recipients

The following list includes recipients of honorary degrees since 2000. Full honorary degree citations are available for Hamilton alumni, administrators and trustees.

2013

• Thomas Tull ’92, chairman and CEO of Legendary Pictures (Commencement Speaker)
• Oscar de la Renta, international fashion designer
• Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham University (Baccalaureate Speaker)
• Xinran, Chinese radio journalist and author

2012

• A.G. Lafley '69, former chairman and CEO of the Procter & Gamble Co., and chairman of Hamilton’s board of trustees (Commencement Speaker)
• Peter Cameron '82, novelist
• Geoffrey Canada, CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone (Baccalaureate Speaker)
• Letitia Chambers, president and CEO of the Heard Museum
• Eugenie Havemeyer, a life trustee of Hamilton College and founding trustee of Kirkland College

2011

• Patricia Pogue Couper W'44, lifelong friend of Hamilton College
• Paul B. Lieberstein '89, screenwriter and television producer
• The Honorable Al Gore (Commencement Speaker)
• John E. Sexton, President of New York University (Baccalaureate Speaker)
   

2010

• Peter Gelb, Metropolitan Opera General Manager
• Dr. Martin S. Hirsch '60, AIDS/HIV and virology expert
• Jeffrey Immelt P'10, chairman and CEO of General Electric (Commencement Speaker)
• Christie Bell Vilsack K'72, executive director of The Iowa Initiative (Baccalaureate Speaker)
   

2009

• John Adams, co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council
• Cathie Black, president of Hearst Magazines (Commencement Speaker)
• Rebecca Chopp, president of Colgate University (Baccalaureate Speaker)
• Stuart Scott '61, and former chairman of its Board of Trustees
   

2008

• Taylor Branch, Author (Baccalaureate Speaker)
• Henry M. Paulson, Jr. P'95, U.S. Treasury Secretary (Commencement Speaker)
• Wendy Paulson P'95, Environmentalist
• Josiah "Josh" Simpson '72, Glass Artist
   

2007

• Sherwood Boehlert, former Congressman
• Johnnetta B. Cole, President of Bennett College for Women (Baccalaureate Speaker)
• Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations (Commencement Speaker)
• F. Eugene Romano '49, local businessman
   

2006

• Judith and Bill Moyers, Broadcast journalist (Baccalaureate Speaker)
• Anna Quindlen, Author (Commencement speaker)
• Joseph S. Nye, Jr. P'87, P'88, Government studies educator, administrator
   

2005

• Mary L. Bonauto '83, attorney, GLAAD
• Peter John Gomes, professor and minister, Harvard University (Baccalaureate Speaker)
• Francis Haas Musselman '50, attorney, life trustee of Hamilton College, former chairman of the board of Kirkland College
• Kurt L. Schmoke, former mayor of Baltimore (Commencement speaker)
• Joseph Volpe, general manager, The Metropolitan Opera
   

2004

• Kevin Kennedy '70, investment banker and former chairman of the Hamilton Board of Trustees
• Margaret Miles, noted theological historian
• Richard Nelson '72, playwright
• Joseph Wilder, jazz trumpeter
• Michael Castle '61, U.S. Representative and former Republican governor of Delaware (speaker only, HD was awarded earlier)
   

2003

• Rt. Rev. G.P. Mellick Belshaw, retired bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of NJ
• David Grubin '65, writer, director and producer of documentary films
• Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute
• Jim Lehrer, journalist (Commencement Speaker)
• Bucky Pizzarelli, jazz guitarist
• Joan Hinde Stewart, president of Hamilton College
• Roger W. Straus Jr. '39, publisher
   

2002

• Stephen Carter, professor, author and moralist
• Richard Hyman, jazz composer, arranger, conductor and organist
• Paul Kellogg, artistic director of the Glimmerglass Opera and director of the NY City Opera
• Thomas Meehan '51, Tony Award-winning Broadway writer
• Christy Todd Whitman, EPA Administrator and former Republican governor of NJ (Commencement Speaker)
   

2001

• John M. Driscoll '58, chairman of pediatrics, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center
• Paul Greengard '48, 2000 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine
• Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, author, Harvard professor and education scholar
• Jeffrey P. Mass '62, professor of history, Stanford University (posthumous)
• Ralph Sutton, jazz pianist
• Tom Vilsack '72, Democratic governor of Iowa (Commencement Speaker)
• Melinda Wagner '79, 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning composer
   

2000

• Kenny Davern, jazz clarinetist
• John D. Feerick, dean of the Fordham University Law School
• Rev. D. Joan Martin, Assoc. Professor of Christian Ethics and Episcopal Divinity School
• John Nichols '62, author
• Sir Brian Urquhart, retired United Nations Undersecretary (Commencement Speaker)