Tufts Commencement Speakers Since 1916
| Year | Speaker | Title/Background/Field |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Bryan Stevenson | Lawyer, civil rights advocate, and author |
| 2019 | Alfre Woodard | Award-winning actor, producer, activist |
| 2018 | Ellen Kullman | Former Chair of the Board and CEO, DuPont |
| 2017 | Kenya Barris | Award-winning writer, producer, and director best known for the hit ABC television series Black-ish |
| 2016 | Hank Azaria | Award-winning film, television and stage actor; producer; director and comedian |
| 2015 | Madeleine Albright | Former U.S. Secretary of State |
| 2014 | Anne-Marie Slaughter | President and CEO, New America Foundation; Public Policy Expert |
| 2013 | Claude M. Steele | Social Psychologist, I. James Quillen Dean for the School of Education at Stanford University |
| 2012 | Eric Greitens | Author, Humanitarian, and Navy SEAL |
| 2011 | Charles M. Vest | President Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| 2010 | Sol Gittleman | Professor, Author, Former Vice President and Provost of Tufts University |
| 2009 | Deval Patrick | Governor of Massachusetts |
| 2008 | Meredith Vieira | Journalist, TV Host |
| 2007 | Michael Bloomberg | Mayor of New York City |
| 2006 | Lance Armstrong | Professional Athlete |
| 2005 | Kostas Karamanlis | Prime Minister, Greece |
| 2004 | Walter Isaacson | Author, Historian |
| 2003 | Margaret Marshall | Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court |
| 2002 | Pierre and Pam Omidyar | Entrepreneurs and Philanthropists |
| 2001 | Jim Lehrer | Journalist and TV News Anchor |
| 2000 | Bill Cosby | Actor and Comedian |
| 1999 | David Halberstam | Historian |
| 1998 | Garry Trudeau | Political Cartoonist |
| 1997 | William Richardson | U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations |
| 1996 | Bette Bao Lord | Author |
| 1995 | Doris Kearns Goodwin | Author, Historian |
| Richard N. Goodwin | Presidential Speech Writer | |
| 1994 | Ted Koppel | TV News Anchor |
| 1993 | Carlos Fuentes | Mexican Writer, Novelist |
| 1992 | Bernard Marshall Gordon | Inventor, Philanthropist |
| 1991 | Ted Turner | Media Entrepreneur |
| 1990 | Robert Coles | Child Psychiatrist, Author |
| 1989 | Javier Perez de Cuellar | Peruvian Diplomat, Secretary General of the United Nations |
| 1988 | Clifton Wharton, Jr. | Diplomat, Philanthropist |
| 1987 | Gloria Steinem | Political Activist |
| 1986 | Elie Wiesel | Political Activist, Nobel Laureate |
| 1985 | Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill | Congressman, Speaker of the House of Representatives |
| 1984 | John Kenneth Galbraith | Economist |
| 1983 | Edward M. Kennedy | U.S. Senator |
| 1982 | John G. Kemeny | Mathematician, Computer Scientist |
| 1981 | Sarah Caldwell | Opera Conductor, Director |
| 1980 | Irene Worth | Actress |
| 1979 | Francis Bellotti | Lawyer, Politician, A47 |
| 1978 | Percy Qoboza | South African Journalist, Political Activist |
| 1977 | B.F. Skinner | Psychologist, Inventor, Social Philosopher |
| 1976 | Philip Hauge Abelson | Physicist |
| 1975 | Francis Keppel | Educator |
| 1974 | Theodore M. Hesburgh | Priest, Educator, President of Notre Dame University |
| 1973 | Barbara Jordan | Politician |
| 1972 | Burton Crosby Hallowell | President, Tufts University |
| 1971 | Bella Abzug | U.S. Congresswoman |
| 1970 | no speaker |
|
| Harris Llewellyn Wofford | Politician, Civil Rights Activist | |
| 1969 | Paul A. Freund | Jurist, Law Professor |
| 1968 | John Kenneth Galbraith | Economist |
| 1967 | Howard Wesley Johnson | Educator, President of MIT |
| 1966 | William Warren Scranton | Congressman, Governor of Pennsylvania |
| 1965 | Nicholas deBelleville Katzenbach | U.S. Attorney General |
| 1964 | Jerrold Reinach Zacharias | Physicist |
| 1963 | Lyndon Baines Johnson | Vice President of the United States |
| 1962 | Adlai E. Stevenson | Politician, Governor of Illinois, Diplomat |
| 1961 | Henri Peyre | Educator, Author |
| 1960 | Hiram L. Fong | U.S. Senator |
| 1959 | Robert Chapman Sprague | Founder, Sprague Electric Company |
| 1958 | Erwin Dain Canham | Editor, Christian Science Monitor |
| 1957 | Henry Bradford Washburn | Explorer, Founder of the Boston Museum of Science |
| 1956 | John Moors Cabot | Diplomat |
| 1955 | Margaret Chase Smith | First Woman Elected to Both Houses of Congress |
| 1954 | Samuel Miller Brownell | Educational Administrator |
| 1953 | William Clyde DeVane | Author, Dean of Yale University |
| 1952 | Henry Chauncey | Educator, Pioneer of Standardized Testing |
| 1951 | Thomas Dudley Cabot | Businessman, Philanthropist |
| 1950 | Samuel Tomlinson Arnold | Provost, Brown University |
| 1949 | Wilhelm Munthe Morgenstierne | Norwegian Diplomat |
| 1948 | John Nicholas Brown | Assistant Secretary, U.S. Navy, Businessman |
| 1947 | Kenneth Charles Morton Sills | President of Bowdoin College |
| 1946 | Luis de Florez | U.S. Navy Admiral, Engineer, Inventor |
| 1945 | Edward Lester Marshall | Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy |
| 1944 | Beardsley Ruml | Economist, Philanthropist, Businessman |
| 1943 | Claude Moore Fuess | Educator, Historian, Author |
| 1942 | Walter Nash | Minister of Finance, Prime Minister, New Zealand |
| 1941 | Jay Pierrepont Moffat | Diplomat, Historian |
| 1940 | Alexander Loudon | Netherlands Ambassador to the U.S. |
| 1930 | George Horace Gallup | Inventor, The Gallup Poll |
| 1938 | Henry Merritt Wriston | Educator |
| 1937 | Van Wyck Brooks | Historian, Author |
| 1936 | Robert Ernest Doherty | Educator |
| 1935 | Carter Glass | Publisher, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator |
| 1934 | Harold L. Ickes | U.S. Secretary of the Interior |
| 1933 | A. Lawrence Lowell | Lawyer, Educator |
| 1932 | Vivian Towse Pomeroy | Minister, Author |
| 1931 | Stanley Calef Wilson | Lawyer, Governor of Vermont, A01 |
| 1930 | (student orator) | |
| 1929 | Frank Gilman Allen | Businessman, U.S. Congressman, Governor of Massachusetts |
| 1928 | Eva Le Gallienne | Actress, Producer, Director |
| 1927 | Edith Nourse Rogers | First U.S. Congresswoman from Massachusetts |
| 1926 | Alvan Tufts Fuller | Lawyer, Businessman, U.S. Congressman |
| 1925 | John Garibaldi Sargent | Lawyer, U.S. Attorney General, A1887, G12 |
| 1924 | James Harvey Robinson | Historian |
| 1923 | Channing H. Cox | Lawyer, Governor of Massachusetts |
| 1922 | William Wallace McClench | Lawyer, President of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance |
| 1921 | (student orator) | |
| 1920 | (student orator) | |
| 1919 | (student orator) | |
| 1918 | S.K. Ratcliffe | English Journalist |
| 1917 | Payson Smith | Educator |
| 1916 | Hamilton Holt | Educator, Editor, Author, Politician |