Honorary Degree Recipients

2013

The honorary degree recipients for 2013 have not been announced yet. Please check back closer to commencement.

2012

• Undergraduate ceremony
  • Roxana Saberi / Undergraduate Commencement speaker / Journalist, activist
  • Hubert E. Jones / Doctor of Humane Letters / Civic entrepreneur
  • Gil Santos / Doctor of Humane Letters / Broadcaster
  • Barney Frank / Chancellor's Distinguished Service Medal / Congressman
• Graduate ceremony
  • Susan K. Avery / Doctor of Science / President and Director, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
  • Elizabeth O'Neill LaStaiti / Chancellor's Distinguished Service Medal / First Justice of the Bristol County Probate and Family Court (Ret.)

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2011

• Undergraduate ceremony
  • Outgoing UMass President Jack Wilson
  • New Bedford Symphony conductor David MacKenzie
  • Late Charlton College of Business Dean Richard Ward
  • Sustainability innovator Janine Benyus

• Graduate ceremony
  • Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Roderick Ireland
  • Outgoing SMAST Dean John Farrington

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Previous Honorary Degree Recipients

2010

• Undergraduate Ceremony:
  • José Ramos-Horta
  • Gerald Mauretti
• Graduate Ceremony:
  • Julia Plotnick

2009

• Undergraduate Ceremony:
  • Sara J. Bloomfield
  • William N. Whelan
• Graduate Ceremony:
  • Grattan Gill

2008

• Undergraduate Ceremony:
  • Ray Suarez
  • Irwin Jacobs and wife Joan Jacobs
  • Ronald Goodspeed
  • Donald Howard
• Graduate Ceremony:
  • Dr.Onesky Aupont
  • Yong Zhang
  • Jennifer Ling Datchuk, Master of Fine Arts candidate

2007

• Senator John F. Kerry (commencement speaker)
• Teresa Heinz Kerry
• Edmund Barry Gaither
• Robert P. Lawrence
• Julie Moir Messervy

2006

• Janet L. Robinson, President, New York Times Company
• William Giblin '57, President and CEO, Tweave Incorporated, Former Trustee, 1994 - 2004, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
• William Hayden '62, Senior Managing Director and partner, Bear Stearns, Co-Head, Bear Stearns Public Finance Division
• Harold Holzer, Senior Vice President, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Leading authority on Abraham Lincoln and Civil War era political culture

2005

• Brian Helgeland, '83, Doctor of Humane Letters
• Diane Wood Middlebrook, Doctor of Human Letters
• Luis Pedroso, Doctor of Business Administration

2004

• Commencement Speaker Dr. Rita R. Colwell, Doctor of Science
• Daniel E. Bogan, '59 BS, Doctor of Business Administration
• Anthony F. Andrade, Doctor of Humane Letters

2003

• Joseph H. Feitelberg, BA, Doctor of Business Administration
• Judah Folkman, BA, MD, Doctor of Science
• William T. Kennedy, BA, Doctor of Humane Letters

2002

• Dr. G. Timothy Johnson, Doctor of Science
• William J. LeMessurier, P.E., Doctor of Engineering
• John W. Rowe, Doctor of Business Administration
• Robert A. Watkins, Jr., Doctor of Humane Letters
• Dr. Adrian Tinsley, Chancellor's Distinguished Service Award

2001

• Janet Reno, Doctor of Humane Letters
• Michael Beach, Doctor of Humane Letters
• Mary, Viscountess Eccles, Doctor of Humane Letters
• Joseph Abboud, Doctor of Fine Arts
• Julia Child, Doctor of Humane Letters
• James J. Karam, Doctor of Business Administration

2000

• Dr. Helen Hennessy Vendler, Doctor of Humane Letters
• Dr. Margaret Geller, Doctor of Science
• Bishop Sean Patrick O'Malley, Doctor of Humane Letters
• Frank B. Sousa Jr., Doctor of Business Administration