Commencement Commencement

Past Speakers

An archive of the addresses given by past commencement speakers.

  • 2023 – Jackie Joyner-Kersee
  • 2022 – Jill Ellis (video)
  • 2019 – Larry Gies (transcript posted to Medium)
  • 2018 – Max Levchin (transcript posted to Medium) (video)
  • 2017 – Nick Offerman (transcript posted to Medium) (video)
  • 2016 – Jeff Huber (PDF transcript)
  • 2015 – Risa Juanita Lavizzo-Mourey (PDF transcript)
  • 2014 – Colonel Michael Hopkins (PDF transcript)
  • 2013 – Shahid Khan (PDF transcript)
  • 2012 – Cokie Roberts, Orion Samuelson (transcripts not available)
  • 2011 – William Daley (PDF transcript)
  • 2010 – Timothy Shriver (PDF transcript)
  • 2009 – Suze Orman (PDF transcript), Carl Schramm (PDF transcript)
  • 2008 – Mannie Jackson (PDF transcript)
  • 2007 – Jawed Karim (PDF transcript) (video)
  • 2006 – Thomas M. Siebel (PDF transcript) (video)
  • 2005 – Bill Geist (PDF transcript) (video)
  • 2004 – Lani Guinier (PDF transcript)
  • 2003 – Barry Bearak (PDF transcript)
  • 2002 – Maya Angelou (transcript not available)
  • 2001 – Stanley O. Ikenberry (PDF transcript)
  • 2000 – Paul Simon
  • 1999 – Richard Kaplan
  • 1998 – Robert D. Novak
  • 1997 – Diane Sawyer
  • 1996 – George M. C. Fisher
  • 1995- Stanley O. Ikenberry
  • 1994 – Hillary Rodham Clinton
  • 1993 – Marian Wright Edelman
  • 1992 – Steven R. Nagel
  • 1991 – Oscar Arias Sanchez
  • 1990 – Carl Sagan
  • 1989 – Richard Salant
  • 1988 – George F. Will
  • 1987 – Arnold O. Beckman     
  • 1986 – Frank H. T. Rhodes
  • 1985 – Thomas A. Murphy
  • 1984 – John E. Cribbet
  • 1976-1983 – No speaker
  • 1975 – Lyle H. Lanier
  • 1974 – Robert Bingham Downs
  • 1973 – Warren B. Cheston
  • 1972 – None
  • 1971 – David Dodds Henry
  • 1970 – Allen S. Weller
  • 1969 – Richard B. Ogilvie
  • 1968 – William L. Everitt
  • 1967 – David E. Lilienthal
  • 1966 – Theodore M. Hesburgh
  • 1965 – Leland John Hawort
  • 1964 – W. Albert Noyes, Jr.
  • 1963 – Henry T. Heald
  • 1962 – Otto Kerner
  • 1961- Lawrence A. Kimpton
  • 1960 – James R. Killian, Jr.
  • 1959 – Arthur S. Fleming
  • 1958 – Thomas W. Baldwin     
  • 1957 – Henning Larsen 
  • 1956 – Robert D. Calkins
  • 1955 – Russell J. Humbert
  • 1954 – H. Clifford Northcott
  • 1953 – Allan Nevins      
  • 1952 – Harlan H. Hatcher
  • 1951 – Raymond Walters
  • 1950 – Governor Adlai E. Stevenson
  • 1949 – Herold C. Hunt