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Commencement Speakers
University of Pennsylvania
Commencement Speakers Since 1938
Speeches
For transcripts of recent commencement addresses, please visit the Almanac website and search "Commencement" and the year of the address you are interested in.
Selected Commencement Addresses from 1899-present are also available on the University Archives and Records Center website.
List of Speakers
This list includes speakers at special mid-year Convocations through 1953.
2021
Laurene Powell Jobs, C’85, W’85, Impact investor and social justice advocate, Founder and President, Emerson Collective, Founder and Board Chair, College Track, Co-Founder and Board Chair, The XQ Institute
2020
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Author, Educator, and International Speaker, MacArthur Foundation Fellow.
2019
Bryan Stevenson, Public interest lawyer and author; Founder and Executive Director, The Equal Justice Initiative which in 2018 created the Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice
2018
Andrea Mitchell, CW’67, Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent, NBC News; Host of “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” MSNBC.
2017
Cory A. Booker, United States Senator for New Jersey, Advocate for criminal justice reform and community empowerment.
2016
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Composer, writer, and performing artist, Grammy, Tony, and MacArthur award recipient.
2015
Samantha Power, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author.
2014
John Legend, C'99, Grammy-award winning songwriter and musician.
2013
Joseph R. Biden, Jr., 47th Vice President of the United States.
2012
Geoffrey Canada, President and Chief Executive Officer, Educational Innovator and Advocate.
2011
Denzel Washington, Academy Award Winning & Tony Award Winning Actor, Director.
2010
Jon Huntsman, C'87, U.S. Ambassador to China.
2009
Eric E. Schmidt, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Google, Inc.
2008
Michael R. Bloomberg, Mayor, City of New York.
2007
James A. Baker, III, 61st U.S. Secretary of State.
2006
Jodie Foster, Actress, Producer and Director.
2005
Kofi Annan, Secretary-General, United Nations with the United Nations, recipient of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize.
2004
Bono, Co-Founder, DATA (Debt AIDS Trade Africa), Lead singer, U2.
2003
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Chancellor, University of the Western Cape, 1984 Nobel Peace Prize Recipient.
2002
Jim Lehrer, Executive Editor and Anchor, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.
2001
John McCain, United States Senator, Arizona.
2000
Seamus Heaney, Poet, Critic, and Translator, 1995 Nobel Laureate in Literature.
1999
Robert E. Rubin, Secretary of the Treasury.
1998
Jimmy Carter, Thirty-Ninth President of the United States.
1997
William H. Cosby, Entertainer and Educator (stricken from the roll of honorary degree recipients on February 1, 2018).
1996
Tom Brokaw, Television Journalist.
1995
Jane Alexander, Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts.
1994
Henry G. Cisneros, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
1993
Hillary Rodham Clinton, First Lady of the United States.
1992
Ismael Mahomed, Justice, Supreme Court of South Africa.
1991
Ted Koppel, Television Journalist.
1990
Barbara Bush, First Lady of the United States.
1989
Mike Wallace, Television Journalist.
1988
Patricia Schroeder, Congresswoman.
1987
Riccardo Muti, Conductor, Philadelphia Orchestra.
1986
Michael Brown, Nobel Laureate in Medicine.
1985
Donald Regan, Secretary of the Treasury.
1984
Wilson Goode, Mayor of Philadelphia.
1983
Ellen Goodman, Syndicated columnist.
1982
Sol Linowitz, Former Ambassador to the Organization of American States, Former Chairman of Xerox.
1981
Vernon Jordan, President, National Urban League.
1980
The Lord Annan, OBE Vice Chancellor, University of London.
1979
Garry Trudeau, Doonesbury creator.
1978
Patricia Harris, Secretary, Department of Housing and Urban Development.
1977
Hubert H. Humphrey, United States Senator.
1976
Warren E. Burger, Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court.
1975
Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States.
1974
Milton J. Shapp, Governor of Pennsylvania.
1973
The Rt. Hon. Roy Jenkins, M.P., Former Chancellor of the Exchequer and Former Deputy Leader of the British Labour Party.
1972
John H. Knowles, President-Elect, Rockefeller Foundation.
1971
David Riesman, Henry Ford Professor of Social Sciences, Harvard University.
1970
Martin Meyerson, University of Pennsylvania President-Designate.
1969
Lady Barbara Ward Jackson, Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University.
1968
William S. Paley, Chairman of the Board, Columbia Broadcasting System.
1967
Raymond P. Shafer, Governor of Pennsylvania.
1966
Robert C. Weaver, Secretary, Department of Housing and Urban Development.
1965
Sir John Bruce, Professor of Clinical Surgery, University of Edinburgh.
1964
William W. Scranton, Governor of Pennsylvania.
1963
Francis Keppel, United States Commissioner of Education.
1962
Clarence D. Dillon, Secretary of the Treasury.
1961
Crawford H. Greenawalt, President, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.
1960
The Hon. John Jay McCloy, President, World Bank; U.S. Military Governor and High Commissioner for Germany.
1959
Robert S. Aitken, Vice Chancellor and Principal, University of Birmingham.
1958
Robert Dechert, General Counsel, Department of Defense.
1957
Frank C. James, Principal and Vice Chancellor, McGill University.
1956
Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., United Nations Representative for the United States.
1955
Franklin D. Murphy, Chancellor, University of Kansas.
1954
Charles E. Wyzanski, Jr., Judge, United States District Court for Massachusetts.
1953
February - Harry E. Humphreys, Jr., Chairman, H.S. Rubber Company.
June - Milton S. Eisenhower, President, Pennsylvania State University.
1952
February - Boyd L. Spahr, President, Board of Trustees, Dickinson College.
June - Henry M. Wriston, President, Brown University.
1951
February - George K. Funston, President, Trinity College February Alfred H. Williams.
June - James R. Killian, Jr., President, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
September - Robert Strausz-Hupe, Professor of Political Science.
1950
February - Paul G. Hoffman.
June - Thomas K. Finletter, Secretary of the Air Force.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
1942
February - Douglas S. Freeman, Editor.
June - Rex S. Clements, Minister, Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church.
September - Oliver J. Hart, Bishop Coadjutor Elect of Pennsylvania.
1941
February - Felix M. Morley, President, Haverford College.
June - Archibald MacLeish, Librarian of Congress.
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.
1939
February - Joseph H. Willits, Former Dean, Wharton School.
June - Josiah H. Penniman, Provost of the University.
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.