Honorary Degree Recipients

2013 Undergraduate ceremony   Sherilyn McCoy '80 Undergraduate Commencement Speaker, Honorary Doctor of Business CEO of Avon Products, Inc. Robert S. Karam '67 '91 (Hon.) Chancellor's Distinguished Service Medal Principal, Karam Financial Group / Former Chair, Board of Trustees James J. Karam '70 '01 (Hon.) Chancellor's Distinguished Service Medal President & CEO, First Bristol Corporation / Former Chair, Board of Trustees

2013 Graduate ceremony The Honorable Phillip Rapoza Doctor of Law Chief Justice, Massachusetts Appeal Court

Previous Honorary Degree Recipients

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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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