The list is long and distinguished. Northeastern’s undergraduate commencement speakers from 1902 to the present

by David Nordman

April 7, 2023

Four years before he was elected president of the United States, Sen. John F. Kennedy took the stage at the old Boston Garden to address the 1,384 members of Northeastern University’s Class of 1956.

The theme of his June 17 commencement speech was “It’s Your America Now,” but the high-energy talk was also very forward-thinking. While terms like artificial intelligence and machine learning were not yet part of Americans’ vocabulary, Kennedy made a prediction.

It could have been made in 2024.

“We stand at the threshold of automation, which will transform an industrialized state such as ours long before other states have even heard of it,” he said. “We are already seeing new industries, new products, new processes.”

History suggests that Kennedy is the biggest name to ever give a Northeastern commencement speech, but the list is long and distinguished. It includes politicians, journalists, scientists, scholars, actors, entrepreneurs, activists and business leaders.

Mariam Naficy, a serial entrepreneur, e-commerce pioneer and innovator in the creator economy, will be the speaker at Northeastern’s 2023 undergraduate commencement on Sunday, May 7, at Fenway Park.

Hamdi Ulukaya, founder and chief executive of Chobani, delivered last year’s undergraduate address.

This story includes only undergraduate speakers, or in the early years, the only speakers. It doesn’t include graduate speakers, or those who spoke at the no-longer-held afternoon or fall commencements (Bruins legend Bobby Orr addressed fall graduates in 1984, for example).

The story also doesn’t include honorary degree recipients (such as former South African President Nelson Mandela in 1988) or speakers at the Law School, CPS, individual college or global campus commencements.

There were no undergraduate commencement speakers from 1972-76.

Josiah H. Quincy, the former Boston mayor and later assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy, addressed the first class of 20 graduates in 1902.

Bill Clinton is the only sitting president to address Northeastern graduates when he gave the commencement speech in 1993. Clinton, who received more than 200 invitations to speak at colleges that year, said he picked Northeastern because of its signature co-op program.

Clinton was accompanied by Sen. Edward Kennedy (Northeastern’s 1965 and 1977 commencement speaker), Sen. John Kerry (Northeastern’s 2016 commencement speaker) and former Gov. Mike Dukakis (Northeastern’s 1984 commencement speaker).

Clinton made a joke about Boston’s infamous traffic jams and compared them to working with Congress.

“That’s the second greatest example of gridlock in the United States,” he said.

Coretta Scott King, the wife of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., was Northeastern’s commencement speaker in 1971, while another civil rights leader, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, addressed graduates in 1978.

Elizabeth Dole, secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation and wife of Sen. Bob Dole, was the 1986 commencement speaker, while First Lady Barbara Bush followed in 1991.

Bush urged Northeastern graduates to practice tolerance, show compassion and lead by example.

“Tolerance is much more than respecting people of a different race,” Bush said. “It’s a constant stream of little acts in our daily lives, big or small choices we make every day in the way we think about, talk about and deal with other human beings.”

Donna Harris Lewis, the widow of former Northeastern and Boston Celtics basketball star Reggie Lewis, wiped away tears as she addressed graduates in 1994.

In 1998, Mikhail Gorbachev, president of the Soviet Union from 1985-91, told 1,600 Northeastern graduates to “be optimists” and work for world peace.

“Please remember one lesson of the 20th century,” he said. “One cannot impose happiness on nations by imposing any kind of enforced utopia.”

“The Russian people paid a great price,” Gorbachev said.

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s commencement speech in 2000 focused on suffering endured by women, including victims of domestic violence.

“Some say this is all cultural and there’s nothing we can do about it,” she said. “I say it’s criminal and we each have an obligation to stop it.”

Actor Ed Asner, who famously played Lou Grant on the Mary Tyler Moore Show, was the 1989 commencement speaker. Asner, whose daughter was among the 4,000 graduates that year, praised Chinese students in their struggle for freedom in the wake of the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.

Colin Powell, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state, addressed Northeastern graduates in 2012. In his speech, he recalled how being in the military as a young man helped shield him from the realities of being Black.

“The Army, in those days, was the most socially progressive institution for Blacks in this country while segregation was still the law of the land,” he said. “I belonged to an institution that was only concerned about your performance and your potential.”

Powell told Northeastern graduates that he skipped his own commencement ceremony from the City College of New York in 1958. He hung out with friends instead.

“You didn’t get to cross the stage and have your name called out so I figured my mother wouldn’t notice that I wasn’t there,” Powell said.

David Nordman is executive editor of Northeastern Global News. Follow him on Twitter @davenordman.

View speakers by decade

2010 – 2024

Photo by James Kegley

David A. Thomas (2024)

President of Morehouse College

Read the Announcement

Courtesy photo

Mariam Naficy (2023)

Global Entrepreneur and Minted founder

Hamdi Ulukaya in Commencement regalia, speaking at the podium — Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

Hamdi Ulukaya (2022)

Founder, CEO of Greek yogurt brand Chobani

Portrait of Rochelle Walensky — Screenshot from Rochelle Walensky’s commencement speech

Rochelle Walensky (2021)

Director of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Ming Tsai at commencement — Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

Ming Tsai (2020)

Celebrity chef

Tara Westover in Commencement regalia, speaking at the podium — Photo by Adam Glanzman/Northeastern University

Tara Westover (2019)

Best-selling author

Aimée Mullins in Commencement regalia, speaking at the podium — Photo by Adam Glanzman/Northeastern University

Aimée Mullins (2018)

Actor, paralympian, trailblazing athlete

Christiane Amanpour in Commencement regalia, speaking at the podium — Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

Christiane Amanpour (2017)

CNN’s chief international correspondent

John F. Kerry in Commencement regalia, speaking at the podium — Photo by Adam Glanzman/Northeastern University

John F. Kerry (2016)

Secretary of state

David Muir in Commencement regalia, speaking at the podium — Photo by Brooks Canaday/Northeastern University

David Muir (2015)

Correspondent and anchor, ABC Evening News

Janet Napolitano in Commencement regalia, speaking at the podium — Photo by Brooks Canaday/Northeastern University

Janet Napolitano (2014)

Secretary of U.S. Homeland Security

Jim Yong Kim in Commencement regalia, speaking at the podium — Photo by Mary Knox Merrill/Northeastern University

Jim Yong Kim (2013)

President, World Bank Group

Colin Powell in Commencement regalia, speaking at the podium — Photo by Dominick Reuter/Northeastern University

Colin Powell (2012)

Secretary of State

Henreri A Termeer in Commencement regalia, speaking at the podium — Photo: Genzyme Corporation

Henri A. Termeer (2011)

Former president and CEO, Genzyme Corp.

Kenneth I. Chenault giving a talk — Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

Kenneth I. Chenault (2010)

Chairman and CEO, American Express Co.

2000 – 2009

Kenneth Cole on the red carpet of the Life Ball July 17, 2010. Source: own. Photo by Manfred Werner. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Kenneth D. Cole (2009)

Founder and CEO, Kenneth Cole Productions

Photo is public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Christopher Cox (2008)

Christopher Cox — Chair, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Photo by Gin Kai, U.S. Naval Academy, Photographic Studio. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 (source).

Nicholas Negroponte (2007)

Founder and chairman, One Laptop Per Child

Photo by WRI Staff, Licensed under CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Jeffrey R. Immelt (2006)

CEO, General Electric

Official portrait of Leon Panetta as United States Secretary of Defense.

Leon E. Panetta (2005)

Co-Director, Leon & Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Richard Henry Carmona (2004)

Surgeon general, U.S. Public Health Service

Official portrait of EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman — Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Christine Todd Whitman (2003)

Director, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Richard J. Egan (2002)

Ambassador to Ireland, co-founder, EMC Corp.

Photo by Jay Godwin. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Bill Richardson (2001)

Secretary of energy, U.S.

Madeleine Albright (center) receives honorary Doctor of Public Service degree from President Freeland — Courtesy photo

Madeleine Korbel Albright (2000)

Secretary of state, U.S

1990 – 1999

Photo by John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Julian Bond (1999)

Civil rights leader

Mikhail Gorbechev stands at a podium with the words 'Northeastern University' on the front — Photo by Northeastern University, Office of University Photography

Mikhail Gorbachev (1998)

President of the Soviet Union from 1985-91

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Max Cleland (1997)

Senator, Georgia

Photo courtesy of NASA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Albert Sacco Jr. (1996)

Astronaut

Photo by John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Helen Thomas (1995)

Reporter, United Press International

Photo by Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images

William Floyd Weld (1995)

Governor, Massachusetts

Photo by Northeastern University, Office of University Photography

Donna Harris Lewis (1994)

Widow of Reggie Lewis

Bill Clinton at the Northeastern University commencement ceremony in 1993 — Photo by Northeastern University, Office of University Photography

William Jefferson Clinton (1993)

President of the United States

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

William H. Gray III (1992)

Representative, 2nd Congressional District, Pennsylvania

Barbara Pierce Bush at the Northeastern University commencement in 1991 — Photo by Jet Commercial Photographers

Barbara Pierce Bush (1991)

First lady

Cropped photo, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Paul Fireman (1990)

Representative, Chair, Reebok International, Ltd.

1980 – 1989

Photo courtesy of CBS Television. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Edward Asner (1989)

Former president, Screen Actors Guild

Erma Louise Bombeck in commencement regalia — Photo/Northeastern University

Erma Louise Bombeck (1988)

Author

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Barney Frank (1987)

Representative, 4th Congressional District, Massachusetts

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Elizabeth Hanford Dole (1986)

Secretary, U.S. Department of Transportation

Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP

Philip Johnston (1985)

Executive director, CARE

Distinguished Professor Michael Dukakis — Photo by Brooks Canaday/Northeastern University

Michael S. Dukakis (1984)

Governor, Massachusetts

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Terrel Howard Bell (1983)

Secretary, U.S. Department of Education

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Thomas P. O’Neill Jr. (1982)

Speaker of the House, U.S. House of Representatives

Photo by Robert L. Knudsen. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (1981)

Professor of Humanities, City University New York

Photo by Brooks Canaday/Northeastern University

Gary Goshgarian (1980)

Professor, English, Northeastern University

1970 – 1979

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Paul E. Tsongas (1979)

Senator, Massachusetts

Photo by Jet Commercial Photographers

Rev. Jesse L. Jackson (1978)

Civil rights leader

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Edward M. Kennedy (1977)

Senator, Massachusetts

Photo by Northeastern University Office of University Photography

Coretta Scott King (1971)

Civil rights leader

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Michael Collins (1970)

Astronaut, NASA

1960 – 1969

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Edmund Sixtus Muskie (1969)

Senator, Maine

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Robert C. Weaver (1968)

Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing Urban Development

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

F. Bradford Morse (1967)

Representative, 5th Congressional District, Massachusetts

Photo by Yoichi R. Okamoto, White House Press Office. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Nicholas Katzenbach (1966)

Attorney general, U.S. Department of Justice

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Edward M. Kennedy (1965)

Senator, Massachusetts

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Margaret Chase Smith (1964)

Senator, Maine

Courtesy photo

Orville Ellsworth Beal (1963)

President, Prudential Insurance Corp.

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

James Edwin Webb (1962)

Administrator, NASA

Photo courtesy of Sonoma State University.

Fred Lawrence Whipple (1961)

Director, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Walter Consuelo Langsam (1960)

President, University of Cincinnati

1950 – 1959

Photo/Homer Research Labs

Arthur Bartlett Homer (1959)

President and CEO, Bethlehem Steel Corp.

Perry Miller (1958)

Professor of American Literature, Harvard University

Courtesy photo

John Lawrence Burns (1957)

President, Radio Corp. of America

John Fitzgerald Kennedy in Commencement regalia — Northeastern University Press Bureau

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1956)

Senator, Massachusetts

Courtesy photo

Charles Newton Kimball (1955)

President, Midwest Research Institute

Courtesy photo

John L. McCaffrey (1954)

President, International Harvester Co.

Courtesy photo

Robert Chapman Sprague (1953)

Chairman of the board, Sprague Electric Co.

UNH library, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons (cropped photo)

Arthur Stanton Adams (1952)

President, American Council on Education

Courtesy photo

John Christian Warner (1951)

President, Carnegie Institute of Technology

Photo/Dickinson College

Frank W. Abrams (1950)

Chairman, Standard Oil

1940 – 1949

Courtesy photo

Richard Lyon Bowditch (1949)

Coal, oil and transportation pioneer

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Sinclair Weeks (1948)

Secretary of Commerce, U.S.

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Christian A. Herter (1948)

Governor, Massachusetts

Courtesy photo

Eliot Wadsworth (1947)

Massachusetts legislator

Underwood & Underwood, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Richard Evelyn Byrd (1947)

Rear admiral, U.S. Navy

Courtesy photo

William McNear Rand (1946)

Olympic track and field athlete

Courtesy photo

William Crombie White (1945)

Director, Day College, Northeastern University

US Navy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Wat Tyler Cluverius (1944)

Rear admiral, U.S. Navy

Photo courtesy of IBM, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Thomas John Watson (1944)

Chairman and CEO of IBM

Photo by Eric Koch for Anefo, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Henry Cabot Lodge (1943)

Senator, Massachusetts

Portrait of William Pearson Tolley — Photo courtesy of Allegheny College

William Pearson Tolley (1943)

Chancellor, Syracuse University

Channing Pollock leaning on a railing outside — Photo by Bain News Service, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Channing Pollock (1942)

Playwright, critic and screenwriter

Harold Glenn Moulton reviewing some documents — Photo by Harris & Ewing, photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Harold Glenn Moulton (1941)

President, Brookings Institution

Courtesy photo

Joseph Warren Barker (1940)

Dean, School of Engineering, Columbia University

1930 – 1939

Photo courtesy of University of Iowa Libraries

Ralph Washington Sockman (1939)

Clergyman

Photo by Harris & Ewing, photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Henry Styles Bridges (1938)

Senator, New Hampshire

Clyde Everett Wildman at a formal event with a partner — Photo courtesy of DePauw University

Clyde Everett Wildman (1937)

President, DePauw University

Photo courtesy of Lehigh University

Clement Clarence Williams (1936)

President, Lehigh University

Courtesy photo

Harry Stanley Rogers (1935)

President, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn

Courtesy photo

Payson Smith (1934)

Commissioner of education, Massachusetts

Photo Courtesy of Middlebury History Online

Paul Dwight Moody (1933)

Evangelical minister

Courtesy photo

Russell Henry Stafford (1932)

Clergyman

Courtesy photo

Arthur Atwood Ballantine (1931)

First solicitor of the Internal Revenue Service

Photo courtesy of University of Iowa Libraries

Ralph Washington Sockman (1930)

Pastor, radio host

1920 – 1929

Francis John McConnell (1929)

Bishop, Methodist Episcopal Church

Courtesy photo

Payson Smith (1928)

Commissioner of education, Massachusetts

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

James L. McConaughy (1927)

President, Wesleyan University

Courtesy photo

Augustus O. Thomas (1926)

Education commissioner, Maine

Skull and Bones Club of Yale photo, 1884, A group of men posing for a photo in front of a clock, with a skull on a table. — Ashley Day Leavitt (second from left). Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Ashley Day Leavitt (1925)

Minister, Harvard Church, Brookline, Massachusetts

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

George Barton Cutten (1924)

President, Colgate University

Courtesy photo

Payson Smith (1923)

Commissioner of Education, Massachusetts

Courtesy photo

Charles Reynolds Brown (1922)

Congregational clergyman

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Robert Judson Aley (1921)

President, University of Maine

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Frederick Perry Fish (1920)

Ex-chair, Massachusetts State Board of Education

1910 – 1919

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Channing Harris Cox (1919)

Lieutenant governor, Massachusetts

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Grafton Dulany Cushing (1918)

Ex-lieutenant governor, Massachusetts

Courtesy photo

Payson Smith (1917)

Commissioner of education, Massachusetts

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Herbert W. Parker (1916)

Former attorney general, Massachusetts

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Samuel L. Powers (1915)

Former congressman

Courtesy photo

Henry F. Hurlburt (1914)

Lawyer, author

Courtesy photo

George H. Martin (1913)

Author

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Granville Stanley Hall (1912)

Pioneering American psychologist

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Louis Adams Frothingham (1911)

Lieutenant governor, Massachusetts

Photo is in the public domain per PD-US-expired, via Wikimedia Commons

Curtis Guild Jr. (1910)

Former governor of Massachusetts

1902 – 1909

Photo/Town on Winchester, Massachusetts

Charles Zueblin (1909)

Sociologist and promoter of civic reform

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

John Davis Long (1908)

Former governor, Massachusetts

Henry Newton Sheldon in Commencement regalia — Courtesy photo

Henry Newton Sheldon (1907)

Former justice, Superior Court of Massachusetts

View Henry Newton Sheldon’s bio on Mass.gov

Courtesy photo

Franklin G. Fessenden (1906)

Judge, Superior Court, Massachusetts

Illustration of James B. Richardson — Illustration/The Boston Globe

James B. Richardson (1905)

Associate justice, Superior Court, Massachusetts

Courtesy photo

John Wilkes Hammond (1904)

Associate justice, Supreme Judicial Court, Massachusetts

View John Wilkes Hammond’s bio on Mass.gov

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Herbert W. Parker (1903)

Attorney general, Massachusetts

Photo is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Josiah H. Quincy (1902)

Former Boston mayor, assistant secretary of U.S. Navy

*The speakers on this list were the only, or primary speaker(s), that year. The list doesn’t include speakers at the no-longer-held afternoon or fall commencements, honorary degree recipients, or speakers at the more recent graduate, Law School, CPS, individual college and global campus commencements.

by David Nordman

April 7, 2023