Commencement Speakers

Below is a chronological list of previous Commencement speakers.

Year	Name	Details
1888	Daniel Coit Gilman	President, The Johns Hopkins University
1889	Albion Woodbury Small	Professor of History & Political Economy, Colby University
1890	Ira Remsen	Acting President, The Johns Hopkins University
1891	Bishop Randolph of Philadelphia
1893	Daniel Coit Gilman	President, The Johns Hopkins University
1894	Walter H. Page	Editor, “The Forum”
1896	C. Morton Stewart	President of the Johns Hopkins Board of Trustees
1897	Ira Remsen	Professor of Chemistry, Johns Hopkins University
1898	Daniel Coit Gilman	President, The Johns Hopkins University
1899	Herbert Putnam	Librarian of Congress
1900	William Osler	Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University
1901	Henry M. Hurd	Professor of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins University
1902	E.R.L Gould	City Chamberlain of New York
1903	Abram Winegardner Harris	Director, Jacob Tome Institute
1905	Talcott Williams
1906	Bliss Perry	Editor, “The Atlantic Monthly”
1908	Professor Henry T. Bovey	Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
1910	Johann Heinrich von Rernstorff	German Ambassador to the United States
1911	Eugene A. Noble	President, Goucher College
1912	William C. Gorgas	Assistant Surgeon General, U.S. Army
1913	Albert Shaw	Editor, “Review of Reviews”
1914	Robert Latham Owen	Senator from Oklahoma
1917	Newton Baker	Secretary of War
1918	Edward K. Graham	President, University of North Carolina
1920	Albert C. Richie	Governor, Maryland
1927	Joseph Sweetman Ames	Acting President, The Johns Hopkins University
1928	Joseph Sweetman Ames	Acting President, The Johns Hopkins University
1929	Frederick George Donnan	Professor of General Chemistry, University College, London
1930	Joseph Sweetman Ames	President, The Johns Hopkins University
1931	Joseph Sweetman Ames	President, The Johns Hopkins University
1932	Joseph Sweetman Ames	President, The Johns Hopkins University
1933	Joseph Sweetman Ames	President, The Johns Hopkins University
1934	Joseph Sweetman Ames	President, The Johns Hopkins University
1935	Joseph Sweetman Ames	President, The Johns Hopkins University
1936	Isaiah Bowman	President, The Johns Hopkins University
1937	Harry Emerson Fosdick
1938	Lord Stamp	Former Director of the Bank of London
1939	Isaiah Bowman	President, The Johns Hopkins University
1940	Isaiah Bowman	President, The Johns Hopkins University
1941	Isaiah Bowman	President, The Johns Hopkins University
1943	Isaiah Bowman	President, The Johns Hopkins University
1944	Isaiah Bowman	President, The Johns Hopkins University
1946	Isaiah Bowman	President, The Johns Hopkins University
1947	Owen Latimore	Director, Walter Hines Page School of International Relations
1948	Lindsay Rogers	Professor of Public Law & Government, Georgetown University
1949	Vannevar Bush	Head of U.S. Office of Scientific Development & Research
1950	James Hamilton Owens
1951	Detlev Bronk	President, The Johns Hopkins University
1952	John Foster Dulles	Secretary of State
1953	Walter Sherman Gifford	U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom
1954	Joseph Henry Willits	Dean, University of Pennsylvania Law School
1955	Dag Hammarskjold	Secretary General of the United Nations
1956	Devereux Colt Josephs
1957	Nathan M. Pusey	President, Harvard University
1958	Harold Macmillan	Prime Minister, United Kingdom
1959	John Rhyne Killian, Jr.	President, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1960	John William Nason	President, Foreign Policy Association
1961	Edward K. Murrow	Director, United States Information Agency
1962	Julius Adams Stratton	President, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1963	Otto F. Kraushaar	President, Goucher College
1964	Lester Bowles Pearson	Prime Minister, Canada
1965	George Boas	Professor Emeritus, History of Philosophy
1966	Thurgood Marshall	Solicitor General of the United States
1967	Milton Stover Eisenhower	President, The Johns Hopkins University
1968	Pendleton Herring	President, American Political Science Association
1969	Kingman Brewster, Jr.	President, Yale University
1970	Clifton R. Wharton, Jr.	President, Michigan State University
1971	Alexander Heard	Chancellor, Vanderbilt University
1972	Steven Muller	President, The Johns Hopkins University
1973	Earl Warren	Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
1974	Rafael Hernandez Colon	Governor, Puerto Rico
1975	William Scranton	Former Governor, Pennsylvania
1976	Tom Wicker Lewis Thomas	New York Times Columnist President, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute
1977	Isaac Asimov William D. McElroy	Author Chancellor, University of California, San Diego
1978	Hyman Rickover John R. Evans	Retired U.S. Navy Admiral President, University of Toronto
1979	Dick Cavett Rosalyn S. Yalow	Talk Show Host Nobel Prize Winner, Biomedical Researcher, VA Hospital, The Bronx, New York
1980	Roger Stevens Leonard Bernstein	Chairman of the Board, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Composer & Conductor
1981	Franklin D. Murphy	Chairman, Times-Mirror Co.
1982	William Donald Schaefer Ralf G. Dahrendorf	Mayor, Baltimore Director, London School of Economics
1983	Bill Bradley Harry Woolf	U.S. Senator, D-NJ Director, Institute for Advanced Study
1984	William F. Buckley, Jr. Paul Volcker	Journalist & Author Chairman, Federal Reserve Board
1985	John Houseman James W. Rouse	Actor Developer
1986	Roger Revelle Eric R. Kandel	Professor, University of California, San Diego Professor, Columbia University
1987	Howard Cosell M. Vartan Gregorian	Sportscaster President, New York Public Library
1988	Mario Cuomo J. William Fulbright	Governor, New York Former Chairman, Foreign Relations Committee, U.S. Senate
1989	Kenneth M. Duberstein Javier Perez de Cuellar	Former White House Chief of Staff, Reagan administration Secretary General of the United Nations
1990	Garry Trudeau Sol Linowitz	Cartoonist U.S. Diplomat
1991	Tom Clancy Thomas R. Odhiambo	Novelist Founder & Director, Center for Insect Physiology & Ecology
1992	Lee Iaccocca Brian Mulroney	Chairman, Chrysler Corp. Prime Minister, Canada
1993	Barry Levinson Richard von Weizscker	Filmmaker President, Federal Republic of Germany
1994	Benjamin Carson Madeleine K. Albright	Director, Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hopsital U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
1995	Ted Koppel Barbara A. Mikulski	ABC News Nightline Anchor U.S. Senator, D-MD
1996	George H.W. Bush Sadako Ogata	Former U.S. President United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
1997	Timothy Johnson William R. Brody	Medical Editor, ABC News President, The Johns Hopkins University
1998	Elizabeth Dole William R. Brody	President, American Red Cross President, The Johns Hopkins University
1999	John McCain William R. Brody	U.S. Senator, R-Ariz. President, The Johns Hopkins University
2000	George Tenet William R. Brody	CIA Director President, The Johns Hopkins University
2001	Al Hunt William R. Brody	Wall Street Journal Executive Washington Editor President, The Johns Hopkins University
2002	Tom Brokaw William R. Brody	NBC Nightly News Anchor President, The Johns Hopkins University
2003	Michael Bloomberg William R. Brody	Mayor, New York President, The Johns Hopkins University
2004	Bill Cosby William R. Brody	Actor & Comedian President, The Johns Hopkins University
2005	Al Gore William R. Brody	Former U.S. Vice President President, The Johns Hopkins University
2006	Elias Zerhouni William R. Brody	Director, National Institutes of Health President, The Johns Hopkins University
2007	Brian Billick William R. Brody	Baltimore Ravens Head Coach President, The Johns Hopkins University
2008	Bill Nye William R. Brody	The Science Guy President, The Johns Hopkins University
2009	Nancy Pelosi Ronald Daniels	Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives President, The Johns Hopkins University
2010	Michael Bloomberg	Mayor, New York and Johns Hopkins alum
2011	Fareed Zakaria	Host, CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS”and Editor-at-Large, Time magazine
2012	Samuel J. Palmisano	Chairman of the board, IBM, Chair of IBM’s Executive Committee, and Johns Hopkins alum
2013	Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa	Johns Hopkins Neuroscientist & Neurosurgeon
2014	Susan Wojcicki	CEO of YouTube
2015	Edwin E. Catmull	President of Pixar & Walt Disney Animation Studios
2016	Shelton Jackson “Spike” Lee	Film Director, Producer, Writer, and Actor
2017	Frank A. Bruni Jr.	New York Times Columnist
2018	Bryan A. Stevenson	Public interest lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative
2019	Jeffrey Goldberg	Editor-in-chief of The Atlantic
2020	Alexis Ohanian	Co-founder & Managing Partner, Initialized Capital
2021	Michael R. Bloomberg	108^th New York City Mayor and Founder, Bloomberg LP & Bloomberg Philanthropies
2022	Samantha Power	Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author
2023	Volodymyr Zelenskyy	President of Ukraine
2024	Mitt Romney	U.S. Senator, R-Utah

Last updated March 27, 2024