Commencement Speakers

Dr. Hanna Gray, first female commencement speaker, 1978. Photo credit: Trinity Reporter

Over its long history, Trinity College’s commencement ceremonies have been highlighted by powerful speeches from a diverse array of speakers, each bringing unique perspectives and life experiences to the podium. Whether alumni, renowned educators, or distinguished figures from Connecticut’s public and civic life and beyond, these speakers have imparted words of resilience, leadership, and social responsibility, acting as shining examples for the graduating classes.

Since 1918, the tradition of a single commencement speaker has been a hallmark of the ceremony, with the designated speaker receiving an honorary degree from the College. Prior to this change, there was not a singular speaker; instead, multiple addresses were delivered by members of the graduating class. While the single-speaker format has remained largely consistent, there have been a few exceptions. For example, the 1923 ceremony featured four speakers in celebration of the College's centennial, and in 1921, two speakers addressed the audience due to the honored visit of the Italian ambassador to the United States. Additionally, there was a brief hiatus from 1971 to 1976, during which no speakers were featured, presumably in an effort to shorten the ceremony. The following list details all commencement speakers from 1918 to the present:

{Degree abbreviations: DD – Doctor of Divinity; LHD – Doctor of Humane Letters; DHum – Doctor of Humanities; LittD – Doctor of Letters; LLD – Doctor of Laws; ScD – Doctor of Science; DFA – Doctor of Fine Arts; DM – Doctor of Music; DST – Doctor of Sacred Theology; DPH – Doctor of Public Health; JCD – Doctor of Canon Law; MA – Master of Arts; MFA – Master of Fine Arts; MLitt – Master of Letters; MM – Master of Music; MS - Master of Science; BA – Bachelor of Arts; BM – Bachelor of Music; BS – Bachelor of Science}

2024 - Danny Meyer, Class of 1980, LHD, Leader, author, humanitarian, founder of Union Square Hospitality Group
2023 - Nicole Hockley, Class of 1992, LHD, Advocate for gun violence prevention, co-founder of Sandy Hook Promise
2022 - Raja Changez Sultan, Class of 1972, DFA, Painter, poet, journalist
2021 - Jeffrey A. Flaks, LHD, President and CEO, Hartford HealthCare
2020 - Will McCormack, Class of 1996, executive producer, director, screenwriter, and actor (The delayed commencement ceremony was held in June 2022.)
2019 - Samuel H. Kennedy, Class of 1995, LHD, President and CEO of Boston Red Sox
2018 - Johnnetta Betsch Cole, president of Spelman College
2017 - Daniel C. Dennett, LHD, Philosopher, writer, and cognitive scientist
2016 - William K. Marimow, Class of 1969, LittD, Journalist, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner
2015 - James Morris Lawson Jr., DD, Preacher, nonviolent strategist, activist and university professor
2014 - Katherine A. Couric, LittD, Award-winning journalist, presenter, producer, and author
2013 - Bridget Mary McCormack, Class of 1988, LLD, Lawyer, professor, Michigan Supreme Court judge
2012 - Anne Fadiman, LittD, Journalist, editor, Yale University's first Francis Writer in Residence
2011 - Patrick Joseph Wilson, DFA, Stage and film actor, director, singer
2010 - John Clifton Bogle, LHD, Investor, philanthropist, founder of The Vanguard Group
2009 - Joanna Jeanne Scott, Class of 1982, LittD, Novelist and essayist, educator
2008 - James F. Jones, 21st President, Trinity College
2007 - Tom Wolfe, LittD, Best-selling author and journalist
2006 - John Heron Biggs, LHD, Former Chairman, President and CEO of TIAA-CREF
2005 - Henry Kaufman, LHD, Economist, philanthropist
2004 - Ruth K. Westheimer, LittD, Social scientific expert on human sexuality, lecturer, and author
2003 - Garry B. Trudeau, LittD, Pulitzer prize-winning editorial cartoonist and political commentator
2002 - John G. Rowland, LLD, Statesman, Governor of Connecticut
2001 - Joseph I. Lieberman, LLD, Legislator, candidate for U.S. Vice President, U.S. Senator from Connecticut
2000 - Richard C. Holbrooke, LLD, U.S. ambassador to United Nations, diplomat
1999 - Lorraine Monroe, LHD, Educator, author, founding principal of the Frederick Douglass Academy, Harlem
1998 - Jimmy Carter, LHD, 39th President of the United States, professor at Emory University, chairman of the Carter Center
1997 - Myrlie Evers-Williams, LHD, Chairman of the National Board of Directors, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
1996 - Strobe Talbott, LLD, Deputy U .S. Secretary of State, Russian scholar and author
1995 - Barbara B. Kennelly, M'71, LLD, U.S. Representative for Connecticut, alumni volunteer
1994 - Madeleine May Kunin, LLD, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education
1993 - Mary D. Fisher, LHD, AIDS activist, artist, author
1992 - Brendan Kennelly, LittD, Poet, dramatist and professor, Trinity College, Dublin
1991 - Charles Osgood, LHD, Broadcast journalist, columnist
1990 - Gwendolyn Brooks, LittD, Poet
1989 - James Fairfield English Jr., 16th President, Trinity College
1988 - Andrew Aitken Rooney, LittD, Writer-producer, news correspondent, CBS News
1987 - Ellen Ash Peters, LLD, Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Connecticut
1986 - Christopher John Dodd, LLD, U.S. Senator from Connecticut
1985 - Ellen Goodman, LittD, Columnist and author
1984 - Brendan Gill, LittD, Theatre critic, The New Yorker
1983 - Robert Breckenridge Ware MacNeil, LittD, Broadcast journalist
1982 - Gerald Holton, LittD, Professor of physics and history of science, Harvard University
1981 -Juanita Morris Kreps, LLD, Educator, economist, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce
1980 - Lewis Thomas, M.D., LittD, President, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
1979 - George Frederick Will, Class of 1962, LHD, Syndicated columnist and television commentator
1978 - *Hanna Holborn Gray, LittD, Provost (Acting President) of Yale University, President-Designate of University of Chicago [*First female commencement speaker]
1977 - Harry Reasoner, LLD, ABC news correspondent
1976 - NO COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER
1975 - NO COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER
1974 - NO COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER
1973 - NO COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER
1972 - NO COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER
1971 - NO COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER
1970 - John Morton Blum, PhD, historian, author, and educator
1969 - William Bertalan Walsh, LLD, President and founder, Project HOPE
1968 - Albert Charles Jacobs, LittD, 14th President, Trinity College
1967 - Charles Harting Percy, LLD, U.S. Senator from Illinois, Chairman of the Ford Foundation Fund
1966 - Cyrus Roberts Vance, LLD, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense
1965 - Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky, ScD, Aeronautical scientist, aircraft inventor and designer
1964 - Whitney North Seymour, LLD, President of the American Association of Trial Lawyers
1963 - Glenn Theodore Seaborg, ScD, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission
1962 - George Keith Funston, Class of 1932, LLD, President, New York Stock Exchange, 13th President, Trinity College
1961 - Howard Archibald Rusk, ScD, Founder of the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine
1960 - Leonard Carmichael, ScD, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, former president, Tufts University
1959 - Alfred Maximilian Gruenther, LLD, President, American National Red Cross
1958 - John Ray Dunning, ScD, Dean of Engineering, Columbia University
1957 - Albert Charles Jacobs, LLD, 14th President, Trinity College
1956 - Maxwell Davenport Taylor, LLD, U.S. Chief of Staff of the Army
1955 - Frank Diehl Fackenthal, LLD, Acting President, Columbia University, past president, Brookhaven National Laboratory
1954 - Albert Charles Jacobs, LLD, 14th President, Trinity College
1953 - Irving Sands Olds, LLD, Retired chairman of the board, United States Steel Corp.
1952 - Lucius Dubignon Clay, LLD, Former commander-in chief, U.S. forces in Europe
1951 - John Davis Lodge, LLD, Governor of Connecticut
1950 - Harold Edward Stassen, LHD, President, The University of Pennsylvania, former Governor of Minnesota
1949 - John McKenney Mitchell, Class of 1918, ScD, Dean, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
1948 - Allan Nevins, LittD, Pulitzer Prize winning historian, Columbia University
1947 - Everette Lee DeGolyer, LLD, Oil company executive, petroleum exploration geophysicist, philanthropist
1946 - Vannevar Bush, ScD, President, Carnegie Institute of Washington
1945 - Stanley Hart Osborn, DPH, Commissioner of Public Health of the State of Connecticut
1. Randall Jacobs, LLD, Vice Admiral, Chief of the Bureau of Navy Personnel
1944 - James Fairfield English, Class of 1916, DD, Trustee, Hartford Seminary Foundation, Supt. of the Connecticut Conf. of Congregational Christian Churches
1943 - Robert Cutler, LLD, Procurement Officer, U.S. Army, Chairman of the National Community Chests and Councils
1942 - Michael Edward Coleman, DD, All Hallows Church, London
1941 - Bernard Rosecrans Hubbard, ScD, Jesuit priest, American geologist and explorer
1940 - Remsen Brinckerhoff Ogilby, 12th President, Trinity College, Episcopal priest, and educator
1939 - Willard Cole Rappleye, ScD, Dean, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University
1938 - Gustav Anolph Kleene, PhD, professor of economics
1937 - Wilbur Marshall Urban, LittD, Professor of philosophy, Yale University
1936 - Henry Knox Sherrill, DD, Bishop of Massachusetts
1935 - Samuel Eliot Morison, LittD, Professor of history, Harvard University
1934 - Theodore Leslie Shear, LittD, Archeologist, professor, Princeton University
1933 - Remsen Brinckerhoff Ogilby, 12th President, Trinity College, Episcopal priest, and educator
1932 - Kenneth Ballard Murdock, LittD, Dean of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
1931 - Remsen Brinckerhoff Ogilby, 12th President, Trinity College, Episcopal priest, and educator
1930 - Andrew Keogh, LittD, Librarian, Yale University
1929 - Charles McLean Andrews, LHD, Farnam Professor of American History, Yale University
1928 - George Daniel Olds, LLD, President emeritus, Amherst College
1927 - Marshall Bowyer Stewart, Class of 1902, DD, Professor, Nashotah Theological Seminary, Nashotah, WI
1926 - Robert Ernest Vinson, LLD, President of Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
1925 - William Lawrence, DD, Former Bishop of Massachusetts
1924 - Winchell Smith, LittD, American playwright
1923 - Lawson Purdy, Class of 1884, LLD, General Director of the Charity Organization Society, former president of the New York City Department of Taxes and Assessments, and tax reform advocate
1. James Rowland Angell, LLD, president of Yale University, psychologist, and educator
2. Charles Harold Herford, LittD, Professor of English literature, University of Manchester, Manchester, England
3. Charles Henry Brent, DD, LLD, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York
1922 - Charles Seymour, LLD, Professor of international law, Yale University
1921 - Magnus Wilhelm Alexander, MS, Consulting engineer, General Electric Co.
1. Vittorio Rolandi Ricci, LLD, Italian Ambassador to the United States
1920 - John Marshall Holcombe, LLD, President of the Phoenix Mutual Life insurance Co.
1919 - Elbert Henry Gary, LLD, President, United States Steel Corp
1918 - George Wharton Pepper, JCD, Prominent Philadelphia lawyer, law professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
1. Theodore Roosevelt, ScD, 26th President of the United States delivered an address the day before Commencement 1918

Sources

Trinity College Commencement Programs

Trinity Reporter, Summer 1978.