Honorary Degrees

Williams has conferred honorary degrees since 1795. All members of the college community are encouraged to make nominations, from which each year the Honorary Degrees Advisory Committee recommends to the full Board of Trustees a group of potential recipients who have excelled in diverse fields and stand as inspiring examples for our graduating students. Each year one recipient delivers the Commencement address, and one delivers the Baccalaureate address.

We invite your nominations for honorary degree recipients.

First name Last name Degree Year
Rosa L. Parks LLD 1988
Keith Thomas LLD 1988
An Wang DSC 1988
Tenley E. Albright LLD 1987
Roger Gilbert Bannister DSC 1987
Natalie Z. Davis LITTD 1987
Douglas Ensminger LLD 1987
A. Bartlett Giamatti LHD 1987
Meg Greenfield LHD 1987
W.L. Hadley Griffin LLD 1987
Stephen R. Lewis LLD 1987
Koji Nakanishi DSC 1987
Joan Benoit Samuelson LLD 1987
Edgar M. Bronfman LLD 1986
Zbigniew Brzezinski LLD 1986
Harry T. Edwards LLD 1986
Howard M. Goodman DSC 1986
Ved Parkash Mehta LITTD 1986
Charles W. Moore DFA 1986
Robert Morris DFA 1986
Cynthia Ozick LITTD 1986
Ernest L. Boyer LLD 1985
Norman Lord Crowther-Hunt LLD 1985
Blythe Danner DFA 1985
Stephen Jay Gould DSC 1985
Eldred D. Jones LITTD 1985
Arthur Mitchell DFA 1985
Peter R. Pouncey LLD 1985
Eugenie Prendergast LHD 1985
Fred Colson Robinson LITTD 1985
Frederick Rudolph LITTD 1985
Joseph A. Brodsky LITTD 1984
Leo Cherne LHD 1984
Malcolm Coates LHD 1984
Ernest B. Fleishman LHD 1984
Albert R. Gurney, Jr. LITTD 1984
Stephen S. Kaagan LHD 1984
Kyung-Won Kim LLD 1984
Floretta Dukes McKenzie LLD 1984
Thomas W. Payzant LHD 1984
Diane Ravitch LHD 1984
Neil Simon LITTD 1984
Theodore R. Sizer LHD 1984
Seldon V. Whitaker, Jr. LHD 1984
William M. Williams LHD 1984
William J. Bennett LLD 1983
Robert Coles LITTD 1983
William H. Curtiss LLD 1983
Elizabeth Hanford Dole LLD 1983
Mildred Dunnock LHD 1983