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.
2022
- Gillian Zucker ’90, president of business operations for the NBA’s LA Clippers
- Gail Mellow, former LaGuardia Community College president
- Elaine Weiss K’73, author of the critically acclaimed The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote
2021
- Mason Ashe ’85, sports agent and attorney
- Dale Bryk, director of state & regional policies, Harvard Environmental & Energy Law Program
- Stephen I. Sadove ’73 (Baccalaureate Speaker)
- Ty Seidule, the Chamberlain Fellow and visiting professor of history (Commencement Speaker)
2020
- Edvige Jean-François ’90 (Baccalaureate Speaker)
- Marc Bernays Randolph ’81, is a veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneur, advisor, and investor. (Commencement Speaker)
2019
- Michael R. Bloomberg, public servant, businessman, and philanthropist
- Roz Chast K’75, The New Yorker cartoonist (Baccalaureate Speaker)
- Shaun Lawrence Sarda Donovan P’21, former director of the Office of Management
- Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (Commencement Speaker)
- George F. Little II ’71, P’04, Hamilton College trustee
2018
- Nan Aron, founder of Alliance for Justice
- Guy Hebert ’89, Olympic, World Cup, and NHL All-Star hockey goalie
- Anne-Marie Slaughter, president and CEO of New America (Baccalaureate Speaker)
- John G. Rice ’78, former vice chairman of General Electric
- Darren Walker, Ford Foundation president (Commencement Speaker)
2017
- Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker (Commencement Speaker)
- John B. Emerson ’75, retired United States Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany
- Nancy Roob ’87, president and CEO of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation and CEO of Blue Meridian Partners (Baccalaureate Speaker)
- Adam Weinberg, the Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney Museum of Art
2016
- Peter Thiel, co-founder of worldwide online payments system PayPal (Commencement Speaker)
- David Ferreiro, the 10th archivist of the U.S. (Baccalaureate Speaker)
- Indra Nooyi P’07, chairman and chief executive officer of food and beverage company PepsiCo
- Michael Shapiro ’71, director emeritus of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.
- David Wippman, 20th president of Hamilton College
2015
- Philip Murphy, former United States Ambassador to Germany (Commencement Speaker)
- Bill Harley ’77, Grammy Award-winning recording artist
- Philip Lewis, vice president of the Mellon Foundation and professor emeritus at Cornell University
- Kamila Shamsie ’94, Pakistani novelist (Baccalaureate Speaker)
2014
- Christopher Dickey, author and journalist (Commencement Speaker)
- Deborah Bial, founder and president of the Posse Foundation
- Rosanne Cash, singer and songwriter (Baccalaureate Speaker)
- Thomas Schwarz ’66, president of Purchase College
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, chairman, president and CEO of Procter & Gamble (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 ’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
- Ron Chernow, author
- 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 Rensselaer 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)
