List of Hofstra University honorary degree recipients
This is a list of notable honorary degree recipients from Hofstra University in New York.
Key[]
denotes Alum of Hofstra |
1940s[]
Recipient | Year | Notability |
---|---|---|
![]() Robert Moses |
1948 | New York Park Commissioner and Chairman of the Long Island State Park Commission |
![]() Trygve Lie |
1949 | United Nations Secretary-General |
![]() Walter Bedell Smith |
1949 | Commander of the First Army and Ambassador to Russia |
1950s[]
Recipient | Year | Notability |
---|---|---|
![]() Robert P. Patterson |
1950 | Former Secretary of War |
![]() Dwight D. Eisenhower |
1950 | President of Columbia University and Former Army Chief of Staff |
Aymar Embury II | 1951 | Architect of the Whitestone and Triborough Bridges |
William Henry Harrison (architect) | 1951 | Head of the National Defense Production Administration |
1951 | Chancellor of New York University | |
1952 | President of the American Council on Education | |
![]() Cornelia Otis Skinner |
1952 | Writer and Actress |
![]() John W. Davis |
1953 | Former United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom |
Carroll Vincent Newsom | 1953 | Associate Commissioner for Higher Education in New York State |
John Mason Brown | 1954 | Author and drama critic |
1954 | Suffolk County Industrialist and civic leader | |
Henry Townley Heald | 1955 | Chancellor of New York University |
Joan Whitney Payson | 1955 | Philanthropist |
Morris Bishop | 1956 | Professor of Romance Literature at Cornell University |
Arthur A. Houghton Jr. | 1956 | President of Corning Glass Works |
Harold Medina | 1957 | Judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals |
Milislav Demerec | 1957 | Director of the Genetics Department of the Carnegie Institution of Washington |
James E. Allen Jr. | 1957 | New York State Education Commissioner |
1957 | Boss of the Continental Air Command | |
![]() Thomas G. Bergin |
1958 | Master of Timothy Dwight College |
![]() Livingston T. Merchant |
1959 | Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs |
1960s[]
Recipient | Year | Notability |
---|---|---|
Eric A. Walker (engineer) | 1960 | President of Pennsylvania State University |
![]() McGeorge Bundy |
1960 | Dean of Faculty at Harvard University |
![]() Arthur H. Dean |
1961 | Chairman of Cornell University Board of Trustees |
George Emlen Roosevelt | 1961 | Trustee of New York University |
![]() Adlai Stevenson II |
1961 | United States Ambassador to the United Nations |
Simon H. Rifkind | 1962 | Judge for the Southern District of New York |
![]() Sir Patrick Dean |
1964 | British Representative to the United Nations |
Louis H. Bauer | 1964 | Former head of the American Medical Association |
John Cranford Adams | 1964 | Hofstra President |
Albert L. Nickerson | 1964 | Board Chairman of the Mobil |
![]() Robert Goheen |
1965 | President of Princeton University |
1965 | Founder and President of Abilities Inc. | |
George L. Cadigan | 1965 | Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri |
![]() Martin Luther King Jr. |
1965 | President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference |
![]() Jacob Javits |
1966 | United States Senator from New York |
Henry Fairfield Osborn Jr. | 1966 | President of the New York Zoological Society |
![]() Stewart Udall |
1966 | United States Secretary of the Interior |
![]() Harry Frank Guggenheim |
1967 | Editor and publisher of Newsday |
August Heckscher II | 1967 | Parks Commissioner of New York City |
James McNaughton Hester | 1967 | 11th President of New York University |
Broadus Mitchell | 1967 | Economics professor at Hofstra |
1967 | Former President of the American Library Association | |
![]() Sidney Dillon Ripley |
1968 | Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution |
1969 | Former Member of Parliament | |
Edward J. Speno | 1969 | Member of the New York State Senate |
1969 | Administrator of the Social and Rehabilitation Service for the US Department of Health, Education and Wellness | |
George H. Williams | 1969 | President of American University |
1970s[]
Recipient | Year | Notability |
---|---|---|
![]() Elizabeth Koontz |
1970 | First African-American President of the National Education Association |
Eugene Nickerson | 1970 | County Executive of Nassau County |
![]() Jacques Piccard |
1970 | Swiss Oceanographer |
James Herman Robinson | 1970 | Founder of Operation Crossroads Africa |
Joan Ganz Cooney |
1971 | Co-Founder of Sesame Workshop |
1971 | Music director of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Hofstra Professor | |
![]() John W. Gardner |
1971 | Former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare |
![]() Nancy Hanks |
1971 | Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts |
![]() Bill Moyers |
1971 | Former White House Press Secretary |
Chiang Yee | 1971 | Professor of Chinese at Columbia University |
Andrew Heiskell | 1972 | Chairman and CEO of Time Inc. |
William J. McGill | 1972 | 16th President of Columbia University |
1972 | Founder of the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine | |
![]() Tom C. Clark |
1973 | Former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States |
![]() Elias James Corey |
1974 | Professor of Organic Chemistry at Harvard University |
Clark Kerr | 1974 | Former President of the University of California |
Cy Leslie | 1974 | Founder and President of MGM/UA Home Entertainment Group |
Robert Nisbet | 1974 | Albert Schweitzer Chair of Humanities at Columbia University |
Alan Pifer | 1974 | President of the Carnegie Corporation |
Alan Schneider | 1974 | Theatre director |
![]() B.F. Skinner |
1974 | Professor of Psychology at Harvard University |
Robert Coles (psychiatrist) | 1975 | Professor at Harvard Medical School |
![]() John Houseman |
1975 | Actor, Producer |
Aryeh Neier | 1975 | Co-Founder of Human Rights Watch |
1975 | Chief of the Department of Medicine at Winthrop University Hospital | |
![]() Joachim Prinz |
1975 | Former President of the American Jewish Congress |
Walter Sullivan | 1975 | Professor of English at Vanderbilt University |
![]() Elie Wiesel |
1975 | Holocaust Survivor, Author of Night |
Frank Zarb | 1975 | Administrator of the Federal Energy Administration |
![]() Daniel Patrick Moynihan |
1976 | United States Ambassador to the United Nations |
![]() James Watson |
1976 | Director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory |
![]() Francis Ford Coppola |
1977 | Film Director |
1978 | Former United States Ambassador to Guinea and Kenya | |
William M. Batten | 1978 | Chairman of the New York Stock Exchange |
![]() Mary Calderone |
1978 | President and Co-Founder of Sex Information and Education Council of the United States |
![]() Robert Abrams |
1979 | Attorney General of New York |
1980s[]
Recipient | Year | Notability |
---|---|---|
![]() Isaac Asimov |
1980 | Professor of Biochemistry at Boston University |
![]() Arthur F. Burns |
1980 | Former Chair of the Federal Reserve |
Bernard S. Meyer | 1980 | Justice on the New York Court of Appeals |
Eugene Odum | 1980 | Professor of Ecology at the University of Georgia |
Tamara Dembo | 1981 | Professor Emerita of Psychology at Clark University |
Malcolm Forbes | 1981 | Publisher of Forbes magazine |
![]() Gerald Ford |
1981 | 38th President of the United States |
1981 | United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development | |
Felix Rohatyn | 1981 | Chairman of the Mutual Assistance Corporation |
![]() Neil Simon |
1981 | Playwright, screenwriter, actor |
Sol Wachtler | 1981 | Justice on the New York Court of Appeals |
![]() Romare Bearden |
1982 | Artist |
Courtney Blackman | 1982 | Governor to the Central Bank of Barbados |
1982 | French painter | |
Jim Jensen | 1982 | Reporter |
Robert Kibbee | 1982 | Chancellor of the City University of New York |
![]() Ray Kurzweil |
1982 | Inventor |
![]() Hugh Carey |
1983 | Former Governor of New York |
1983 | United States Senator from New York | |
![]() A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. |
1983 | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit |
Herbert Kelman | 1983 | Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard University |
![]() James Tobin |
1983 | Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University |
![]() Sanford Weill |
1983 | Founder of the National Academy Foundation |
Siggi Wilzig | 1983 | Holocaust survivor, advisor to Elie Wiesel |
1984 | Judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey | |
![]() Peter Drucker |
1984 | Clarke Professor of Social Science and Management at Claremont Graduate University |
![]() Alan Greenspan |
1984 | Future Chair of the Federal Reserve |
Theodore W. Kheel | 1984 | Attorney and Labor Mediator |
![]() Gloria Steinem |
1984 | Feminist and political activist |
Robert T. Beyer | 1985 | Professor of Physics at Brown University |
Ernest L. Boyer | 1985 | President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching |
Tom Brokaw |
1985 | Anchor of NBC Nightly News |
![]() Raymond E. Brown |
1985 | Auburn Distinguished Professor of Biblical Studies at the Union Theological Seminary |
1985 | Mayor of Philadelphia | |
Maxine Greene | 1985 | William F. Russell Professor for the Foundations of Education at Columbia Teacher's College |
![]() Arthur Levitt |
1985 | Owner of Roll Call |
Carl Sagan |
1985 | American astronomer |
![]() Budd Schulberg |
1985 | American screenwriter |
Arnold Burns | 1986 | United States Deputy Attorney General |
1986 | President of H. J. Kalikow & Co | |
David Laventhol | 1986 | Editor of the Washington Post |
Harold Arthur Poling | 1986 | President of the Ford Motor Company |
Francis T. Purcell | 1986 | Nassau County Executive |
Arnold A. Saltzman | 1986 | American businessman |
![]() Barbara Walters |
1986 | American journalist |
![]() E.O. Wilson |
1986 | Professor of Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University |
1986 | Future Vice President of the People's Republic of China | |
Warren M. Anderson | 1987 | Member of the New York State Senate |
Stephen Jay Gould | 1987 | Professor of Geology at Harvard University |
George C. Pratt | 1987 | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit |
![]() Jehan Sadat |
1987 | Former First Lady of Egypt |
Les Wexner |
1987 | Chairman of Limited Brands |
![]() John Dingell |
1988 | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan |
Elliot Eisner | 1988 | Professor of Art and Education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education |
![]() Galway Kinnell |
1988 | Recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry |
![]() Norman F. Lent |
1988 | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York |
![]() Elliot Richardson |
1988 | Former United States Secretary of Commerce |
Olin Clyde Robison | 1988 | President of Middlebury College |
1988 | American Attorney | |
Whitney North Seymour Jr. | 1988 | Co-Founder of Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
Edward J. Carlough | 1989 | President of the Sheet Metal Workers International Association |
![]() Nelson DeMille |
1989 | American Author |
John R. Dunne | 1989 | Member of the New York Senate from the 6th district |
![]() Marian Wright Edelman |
1989 | President and Founder of Children's Defense Fund |
Christopher Keene | 1989 | General Director of the New York City Opera |
Ralph S. Larsen | 1989 | CEO of Johnson & Johnson |
1989 | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York | |
Tony Rosenthal | 1989 | Abstract Sculptor |
Preston Tisch | 1989 | Chairman of the Loews Corporation |
1990s[]
Recipient | Year | Notability |
---|---|---|
Rand Araskog | 1990 | CEO of the ITT Corporation |
1990 | United States Senator from Georgia | |
Patricia Reilly Giff | 1990 | American author |
![]() Helen Hayes |
1990 | American actress |
![]() Damon Keith |
1990 | Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit |
Gil Noble | 1990 | Television Reporter |
1990 | President of the Stevens Institute of Technology | |
George Vecsey | 1990 | Sports Columnist for The New York Times |
Mimi W. Coleman | 1991 | Trustee Emerita of Hofstra |
Helen Frankenthaler | 1991 | Abstract Expressionist painter |
Robert M. Johnson | 1991 | Publisher of Newsday |
![]() Geoffrey Palmer |
1991 | Former Prime Minister of New Zealand |
![]() Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. |
1991 | Professor of Humanities at CUNY Graduate Center |
![]() Patricia Wald |
1991 | Former Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit |
Owen Bieber | 1992 | President of the United Auto Workers |
Elizabeth Coleman | 1992 | President of Bennington College |
Dolores Cross | 1992 | President of Chicago State University |
1992 | President of Florida State University | |
Jean Dalrymple | 1992 | American theater producer |
Marilyn French | 1992 | American author |
J. Bruce Llewellyn | 1992 | Chairman of the Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Company |
John W. Money | 1992 | Professor of Medical Psychology at Johns Hopkins Hospital |
![]() Thomas R. Pickering |
1992 | United States Ambassador to the United Nations |
1992 | American journalist | |
Susan H. Schulman | 1992 | Theater Director |
Walter Turnbull | 1992 | Founder of the Boys Choir of Harlem |
1992 | President of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America | |
Tom Wicker | 1992 | American Journalist |
![]() David Dinkins |
1993 | Mayor of New York City |
Cynthia Gregory | 1993 | Prima Ballerina |
![]() Shari Lewis |
1993 | Ventriloquist |
Harold McGraw Jr. | 1993 | CEO of Mcgraw-Hill |
Martin Theodore Orne | 1993 | Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at University of Pennsylvania |
![]() L. William Seidman |
1993 | Head of the FDIC |
![]() Gus Tyler |
1993 | American Columnist |
![]() Jack B. Weinstein |
1993 | Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York |
Ellen Futter | 1994 | President of the American Museum of Natural History |
1994 | American journalist | |
Nicholas P. Samios | 1994 | Director of the Brookhaven National Laboratory |
Herbert Stein | 1994 | American economist |
1994 | United States Ambassador to Haiti | |
Robert Van Lierop | 1994 | American lawyer |
![]() Mario Van Peebles |
1994 | Film Director |
![]() Melvin Van Peebles |
1994 | Film Director |
1995 | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit | |
Georgie Anne Geyer | 1995 | American Journalist |
Faith Hubley | 1995 | Animator |
Edward Regan | 1995 | Former Comptroller of New York |
![]() Phil Rizzuto |
1995 | New York Yankees shortstop |
Michael Wigler | 1995 | American microbiologist |
Jerome York | 1995 | CEO of IBM |
![]() Drew S. Days III |
1996 | Solicitor General of the United States |
![]() Charles W. Dryden |
1996 | A Member of the Tuskegee Airmen |
Gloria Foster |
1996 | American Actress |
Frederick Gluck | 1996 | Director at McKinsey & Company |
![]() Deborah Miller |
1996 | Adjunct Professor of Education at New York University |
David Salten | 1996 | Consultant to Hofstra's President |
![]() Frank Stanton |
1996 | Former President of CBS |
Jan D. Timmer | 1996 | |
![]() Gary Becker |
1997 | Professor of Economics and Sociology at University of Chicago |
Eddie Bracken |
1997 | American actor |
![]() Barbara Bush |
1997 | Former First Lady of the United States |
![]() George H.W. Bush |
1997 | Former President of the United States |
Paul G. Hearne | 1997 | President of the Dole Foundation |
![]() Billy Joel |
1997 | American Singer, Songwriter |
![]() Michio Kaku |
1997 | Professor of Theoretical Physics at City College of New York |
Lorraine Monroe | 1997 | |
![]() LeRoy Neiman |
1997 | American Artist |
Edward Packard | 1997 | Author |
Scott Ross | 1997 | Co-Founder of Digital Domain |
1997 | Founder of Martinair | |
![]() Stephen M. Schwebel |
1997 | President of the International Court of Justice |
1997 | Former Manhattan Borough President | |
![]() William vanden Heuvel |
1997 | Chairman of the Roosevelt Institute |
John Bierwirth | 1998 | Former CEO of Grumman |
Horace Hagedorn | 1998 | Founder of Miracle-Gro |
![]() Kitty Carlisle |
1998 | American Actress |
Owen H. Johnson | 1998 | Member of the New York Senate from the 4th district |
1998 | American journalist | |
Judith Livingston | 1998 | First Female Member of the Inner Circle of Advocates |
1998 | Comptroller of the Currency | |
![]() Jonathan D. Moreno |
1998 | David and Lyn Silfen University Professor at University of Pennsylvania |
1998 | Founder of International Campaign to Ban Landmines | |
1998 | Professor of German Literature and Cultural History at Wayne State University | |
Robert L. Bernstein | 1999 | Founding Chair Emeritus of Human Rights Watch |
1999 | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit | |
Schuyler Chapin | 1999 | Cultural Affairs Commissioner of New York City |
Larry Gelbart | 1999 | Creator of M*A*S*H |
John R. McGann | 1999 | Bishop of Rockville Centre |
![]() Chuck Schumer |
1999 | United States Senator from New York |
Muriel Siebert | 1999 | First woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange |
Beatrice Wright | 1999 | American psychologist |
2000s[]
Recipient | Year | Notability |
---|---|---|
![]() Stephen E. Ambrose |
2000 | American Biographer |
Richard C. Casey | 2000 | Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York |
![]() Cy Coleman |
2000 | American Composer |
Maurice R. Greenberg | 2000 | CEO of American International Group |
2000 | Member of the New York Senate from the 6th district | |
Jeffrey Lyons | 2000 | Theater Critic |
![]() John Marburger |
2000 | Director of Brookhaven National Laboratory |
Carl McCall | 2000 | Comptroller of New York |
![]() Margaret Thatcher |
2000 | Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom |
Jonathan Fanton | 2001 | President of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation |
![]() Judith Kaye |
2001 | Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals |
Joseph M. Margiotta | 2001 | Former New York State Assemblyman |
Sharon Oster | 2001 | Frederic D. Wolfe Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship at Yale School of Management |
![]() Bruce William Stillman |
2001 | Director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory |
![]() Susan Sullivan |
2001 | American Actress |
Joseph Bologna |
2002 | American Actor |
![]() Woody Johnson |
2002 | Owner of the New York Jets |
2002 | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 4th district | |
![]() Bernadette Peters |
2002 | American Actress |
Richard Rortyf | 2002 | Professor of Comparative Literature at Stanford University |
![]() Jim Simons |
2002 | Founder of Renaissance Technologies |
2002 | American Actress | |
![]() Mary Jo White |
2002 | United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York |
2003 | United States Senator from Minnesota | |
![]() Brian Dennehy |
2003 | American Actor |
![]() Cokie Roberts |
2003 | American Journalist |
E. L. Doctorow |
2004 | American Novelist |
![]() Lou Dobbs |
2004 | American Television commentator |
Robert Kaufman | 2004 | American Screenwriter |
![]() Eliot Spitzer |
2004 | Attorney General of New York |
2005 | CEO and Chairman of HBO | |
![]() Avi Arad |
2005 | Founder of Marvel Studios |
![]() Bill Clinton |
2005 | Former President of the United States |
Michael J. Dowling | 2005 | President and CEO of North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System |
![]() Michael Oxley |
2006 | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 4th district |
2006 | Member of the New York Senate from the 30th district | |
![]() Morton O. Schapiro |
2006 | President of Williams College |
![]() Sonia Sotomayor |
2006 | Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit |
2007 | CEO of American Express | |
2007 | Chief Justice of the Utah Supreme Court | |
![]() David Neeleman |
2007 | CEO of JetBlue |
Eric Schmertz | 2007 | Former Dean of Hofstra Law School |
Martin J. Sullivan | 2008 | CEO of American International Group |
2009 | New York State Comptroller | |
2009 | Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court | |
![]() Nicholas Negroponte |
2009 | Founder of the MIT Media Lab |
2009 | Former United States Secretary of the Treasury | |
![]() Bob Schieffer |
2009 | Moderator of Face the Nation |
2010s[]
Recipient | Year | Notability |
---|---|---|
![]() Ajaypal Singh Banga |
2010 | President and CEO of Mastercard |
![]() Howard Dean |
2010 | Former Governor of Vermont |
Saul Katz | 2010 | President of the New York Mets |
![]() Jan Peter Balkenende |
2011 | Former Prime Minister of the Netherlands |
Irwin Redlener |
2011 | Founder of the Children's Health Fund |
![]() Philip Rosenthal |
2011 | Creator of Everybody Loves Raymond |
![]() Douglas Brinkley |
2012 | Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities at Rice University |
Jonathan Lippman | 2012 | Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals |
2012 | CEO of CBS Corporation | |
2013 | Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York | |
2013 | Former White House Director of Legislative Affairs | |
![]() Jared Kushner |
2014 | CEO of Kushner Companies |
![]() Pele |
2014[1] | Soccer Legend and Humanitarian |
![]() Peter Baker |
2015 | Chief White House Correspondent for The New York Times |
Herman A. Berliner | 2015 | Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Hofstra |
![]() Vernon Jordan |
2015 | Senior Managing Director of Lazard Frères & Co. LLC |
Sallie Manzanet-Daniels | 2015 | Associate Justice of the First Judicial Department |
2015 | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 4th district | |
2016 | Lieutenant Governor of New York | |
![]() Steve Israel |
2016 | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York |
![]() Kevin J. Tracey |
2016 | CEO of Feinstein Institute for Medical Research |
![]() Jill Biden |
2017 | Second Lady of the United States |
2017 | President of Bennington College | |
Madeline Singas | 2017 | District Attorney of Nassau County |
Janet DiFiore | 2018 | Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals |
2018 | Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Columbia University | |
Scott Rechler | 2018 | CEO and Chairman of RXR Realty |
![]() Wolf Blitzer |
2019 | American Journalist |
2019 | Former Executive Editor of the Washington Post | |
2019 | Former Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve | |
![]() Joe Morton |
2019 | American Actor |
2020s[]
Recipient | Year | Notability |
---|---|---|
Kathryn Marinello | 2021 | President and CEO of PODS |
Notes[]
- ^ Presented during a Conference at not at a Commencement. Ganci, Michael. "Pele' presented with honorary doctorate". LIHerald.com.
References[]
- Honorary degree recipients - official website of Hofstra University
Categories:
- Hofstra University
- Lists of honorary degree recipients
- Lists of people by university or college in New York (state)