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ND Quick Facts > Commencement Speakers
Information compiled through 2002 from Go Forth and Do Good: Memorable Notre Dame Commencement Addresses, selected, edited and introduced by Wilson D. Miscamble. University Archivists have added to the list since then.
Year |
Speaker |
Position |
| 1844-1869 | Speakers can be identified only for certain years | |
| 1861 | Rev. Dr. John McMullen | Priest and teacher from Chicago |
| 1865 | William Tecumseh Sherman | Union General |
| 1867 | Corcoran | Editor of The Cincinnati Telegraph |
| 1870 | Paul Broder | Professor from Beloit College, Wisconsin |
| 1871 | Hon. A. C. Dodge | U.S. Senator from Iowa |
| 1872 | Rt. Rev. Joseph Dwenger | Bishop of Fort Wayne, Indiana |
| 1873 | John J. Fitzgibbon | Editor of The Western Catholic |
| 1874 | Hon. S. S. Hayes | Comptroller from City of Chicago |
| 1875 | Hon. J. S. Morris | from Vicksburg, Mississippi |
| 1876 | William J. Onahan | Chicago Catholic activist and businessman |
| 1877 | Hon. Frank H. Hurd | Former U.S. Congressman |
| 1878 | Rt. Rev. John Lancaster Spalding | Bishop of Peoria, Illinois |
| 1879 | No commencement exercises | |
| 1880 | Hon. Edmund F. Dunne | Former Chief Justice of Arizona |
| 1881 | Hon. W. W. Cleary | from Covington, Kentucky |
| 1882 | Rt. Rev. Francis S. Chatard | Bishop of Vincennes, Indiana |
| 1883 | Rt. Rev. John A. Watterson | Bishop of Columbus, Ohio |
| 1884 | Rt. Rev. Ignacio Montes De Oca y Obregon | Bishop of Linares, Mexico |
| 1885 | The scheduled speaker Major General William S. Rosecrans canceled his commitment due to duties in Washington, D.C. | |
| 1886 | Rt. Rev. John Lancaster Spalding | Bishop of Peoria, Illinois |
| 1887 | Wm. H. Johnston | Alumnus from East Townsend, Ohio |
| 1888 | Rev. P. F. Carr | from Denver, Colorado |
| 1889 | William P. Breen | Alumnus from Fort Wayne, Indiana |
| 1890 | Rt. Rev. John Lancaster Spalding | Bishop of Peoria, Illinois |
| 1891 | Rt. Rev. John Lancaster Spalding | Bishop of Peoria, Illinois |
| 1892 | Rt. Rev. J. S. Foley | Bishop of Detroit, Michigan |
| 1893 | Rev. Msgr. Robert Seton | Priest from the diocese of Newark, N.J. |
| 1894 | Rt. Rev. John A. Watterson | Bishop of Columbus, Ohio |
| 1895 | Rt. Rev. John Lancaster Spalding | Bishop of Peoria, Illinois |
| 1896 | Hon. Thomas A. Moran | Judge from Chicago |
| 1897 | Rev. Msgr. Joseph F. Mooney | Priest from the Archdiocese of New York |
| 1898 | Rt. Rev. Maurice F. Burke | Bishop of St. Joseph, Missouri |
| 1899 | Rt. Rev. John Lancaster Spalding | Bishop of Peoria, Illinois |
| 1900 | Rt. Rev. John J. Glennon | Bishop of Kansas City, Missouri |
| 1901 | Rt. Rev. John Shanley | Bishop of Fargo, North Dakota |
| 1902 | Hon. William P. Breen | A.B. ’77,A.M. ’80 from Fort Wayne, Indiana |
| 1903 | Hon. John M. Gearin | Attorney from Portland, Oregon |
| 1904 | Hon. Charles Joseph Bonaparte | Attorney, Progressive reformer, member of the Board of Indian Commissioners |
| 1905 | Hon. Marcus A. Kavanagh | Judge from Chicago |
| 1906 | Rev. D. J. Stafford | Priest and lecturer from Washington, D.C. |
| 1907 | Rev. John Talbot Smith | Priest, author, lecturer from New York City |
| 1908 | Hon. Charles P. Neill | U.S. Commissioner of Labor |
| 1909 | Hon. Hannis Taylor | Former U.S. Minister to Spain, authority on international law |
| 1910 | Hon. Thomas Riley Marshall | Governor of Indiana |
| 1911 | Sir Charles Fitzpatrick | Chief Justice of the Domination of Canada |
| 1912 | Rt. Rev. Thomas F. Hickey | Bishop of Rochester, New York |
| 1913 | Hon. James M. Cox | Governor of Ohio |
| 1914 | Hon. Joseph E. Ransdell | U.S. Senator from Louisiana |
| 1915 | John F. Fitzgerald | Former Mayor of Boston |
| 1916 | Hon. Martin Joseph Wade | Judge of the United States District Court of Iowa |
| 1917 | Rt. Rev. Joseph Chartrand | Coadjutor, Bishop of Indianapolis |
| 1918 | Edward N. Hurley | Chairman of the U.S. Shipping Board |
| 1919 | Monsignor F. B. D. Bickerstaffe-Drew | English was chaplain and novelist |
| 1920 | Hon. Morgan Joseph O’Brien | New York City |
| 1921 | Hon. David I. Walsh | U.S. Senator from Massachusetts |
| 1922 | Kickham Scanlan | Chief Justice of the Criminal Court, Chicago |
| 1923 | Thomas Lindsey Blayney | Rice Institute, Huston |
| 1924 | Hon. Woodbridge Nathan Ferris | U.S. Senator from Michigan |
| 1925 | Edmond H. Moore | Democratic National Committee member and attorney from Youngstown, Ohio |
| 1926 | Judge Dudley G. Wooten | Professor of Law in Hoynes College of Law, Notre Dame |
| 1927 | Alfred J. Talley | Judge, New York City |
| 1928 | Francis O’Shaughnessy | Attorney, Chicago |
| 1929 | Col. W. Donovan | Former Assistant Attorney General of the United States and war hero from Buffalo, New York |
| 1930 | Claude G. Bowers | Author, editor, orator |
| 1931 | Angus D. McDonald | Treasurer of the United States Railroad Commission |
| 1932 | Owen D. Young | New York City financier |
| 1933 | Hon. Paul V. McNutt | Governor of Indiana |
| 1934 | Hon. Frank C. Walker | Chairman of the Council on Emergency Relief |
| 1935 | Shane Leslie | Essayist, dramatist, lecturer |
| 1936 | Dr. William J. Mayo | Cofounder of Mayo Clinic |
| 1937 | Dennis F. Kelly | President of The Fair, a Chicago department store |
| 1938 | Hon. Terence Byrne Cosgrove | Attorney, San Fransico |
| 1939 | William Henry Harrison | Vice-President and Chief Engineer of AT&T |
| 1940 | Hon. David Worth Clark | U.S. Senator from Idaho |
| 1941 | Joseph P. Kennedy | Former Ambassador to England |
| 1942 | J. Edgar Hoover | Director of the F.B.I. |
| 1942 Winter | William F. Jeffers | |
| 1943 | Rev. Arthur J. Hope, CSC | Author and editor |
| 1943 Winter | Hon. Harry F. Kelly | Former Governor of Michigan (1917) |
| 1944 | Rev. Thomas J. Brennan, CSC | Notre Dame Professor of Philosophy |
| 1945 | Rev. Phillip S. Moore, CSC | Dean of the Notre Dame Graduate School |
| 1946 | George Sokolsky | Columnist |
| 1947 | General George C. Kenney | Chief of the Strategic Air Command |
| 1948 | Paul G. Hoffman | Director of Economic Cooperation Administration, Washington, D.C. |
| 1949 | John Stephen Burke | President of B. Allman & Company, New York City |
| 1950 Winter | John F. Kennedy | Congressman |
| 1950 | John J. Hearne | Ambassador of Ireland to the U.S. |
| 1951 | Hon. Francis Patrick Matthews | Secretary of the Navy |
| 1952 | Dr. Charles Malik | Minister of Lebanon to the U.S. |
| 1953 | Dr. Detlev W. Bronk | President of the Johns Hopkins University |
| 1954 | James R. Killian | President of M.I.T. |
| 1955 | Herbert Brownell | Attorney General of the United States |
| 1956 | Admiral Arleigh A. Burke | Chief of Naval Operations, U.S. Navy |
| 1957 | Hon. Earl Warren | Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court |
| 1958 | Hon. James P. Mitchell | Secretary of Labor |
| 1959 | John McCone | Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission |
| 1960 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | President of the United States |
| 1961 | Robert Sargent Shriver Jr. | Director of the Peace Corps |
| 1962 | Henry Cabot Lodge | Former Ambassador to the United Nations |
| 1963 | Hon. Lester B. Pearson | Prime Minister of Canada |
| 1964 | Hon. Thomas C. Mann | Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs |
| 1965 | McGeorge Bundy | Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs |
| 1966 | Lady Jackson (Barbara Ward) | Economist, London, England |
| 1967 | Eugene J. McCarthy | U.S. Senator from Minnesota |
| 1968 | Dr. James A. Perkins | President of Cornell University |
| 1969 | Dr. Daniel P. Moynihan | Assistant to the President for Urban Affairs |
| 1970 | Hon. James E. Allen Jr. | U.S. Commissioner of Education |
| 1971 | Dr. Kenneth Keniston | Yale Medical School |
| 1972 | Dr. Kingman Brewster Jr. | President of Yale University |
| 1973 | Dr. Malcolm C. Moos | President of the University of Minnesota |
| 1974 | Dr. Rosemary Park | Professor of Education, UCLA |
| 1975 | Alan J. Pifer | President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching |
| 1976 | Vernon E. Jordan Jr. | Executive Director of the National Urban League |
| 1977 | Jimmy Carter | President of the United States |
| 1978 | William F. Buckley Jr. | Editor of The National Review |
| 1979 | Joseph A. Califano Jr. | Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare |
| 1980 | Benjamin Civiletti | Attorney General of the United States |
| 1981 | Ronald Reagan | President of the United States |
| 1982 | Pierre Trudeau | Prime Minister of Canada |
| 1983 | Joseph Cardinal Bernadin | Archbishop of Chicago |
| 1984 | Loret Miller Ruppe | Director of the Peace Corps |
| 1985 | Jose Napoleon Duarte Fuentes | President of El Salvador |
| 1986 | Bishop James W. Malone | Bishop of Youngstown and President, United States Catholic Conference |
| 1987 | Derek Bok | President of Harvard University |
| 1988 | Andrew Jackson Young | Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia |
| 1989 | Peter Ueberroth | Commissioner of Major League Baseball |
| 1990 | Bill Cosby | Actor and producer |
| 1991 | Margaret O'Brien Steinfels | Editor of Commonweal |
| 1992 | George H.W. Bush | President of the United States |
| 1993 | Tom Brokaw | NBC News Anchor |
| 1994 | Albert Reynolds | Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland |
| 1995 | Condoleezza Rice | Provost of Stanford University |
| 1996 | Mary Ann Glendon | Learned Hand Professor of Law, Harvard University |
| 1997 | Mark Shields | Political Commentator and columnist |
| 1998 | Joseph F. Kernan | Indiana Lieutenant Governor |
| 1999 | Elizabeth Dole | Former President of the American Red Cross |
| 2000 | Kofi Annan | Secretary of the United Nations |
| 2001 | George W. Bush | President of the United States |
| 2002 | Tim Russert | Host of NBC's Meet the Press |
| 2003 | Richard Lugar | U.S. Senator from Indiana |
| 2004 | Alan Page | Associate Justice, Minnesota Supreme Court |
| 2005 | Vartan Gregorian | President of the Carnegie Corporation |
| 2006 | Mary McAleese | President of Ireland |
| 2007 | Jeffrey Immelt | CEO of General Electric |
| 2008 | Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick | Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, D.C. |
| 2009 | Barack Obama | President of the United States |
| 2010 | Brian Williams | Anchor of NBC Nightly News |
| 2011 | Robert Gates | Secretary of Defense |
| 2012 | Haley Scott DeMaria | Alumna and Motivational Speaker |
| 2013 | Cardinal Timothy Dolan | Archbishop of New York |
| 2014 | Reverend Ray Hammond II | Founder of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church |
| 2015 | Christopher Patten (Lord Patten of Barnes) | Chancellor of the University of Oxford |
| 2016 | General Martin E. Dempsey | Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff |
| 2017 | Mike Pence | Vice-President of the United States |
| 2018 | Judge Sérgio Moro | Judge from Curitiba, Brazil |
| 2019 | Peggy Noonan | Columnist, speechwriter |
| 2020 - cancelled due to Covid | Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew | Orthodox Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch |
| 2020 - delivered in 2022 | John Crowley | Advocate, entrepreneur |
| 2021 | Jimmy Dunne | Notre Dame Trustee |
| 2022 | Archbishop Borys Gudziak | President of Ukrainian Catholic University |
| 2023 | Juan Manuel Santos | Former President of Colombia |
| 2024 | Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. | 17th President of the University of Notre Dame |
| 2025 | Adm. Christopher Grady | Vice Chairman and Acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff |
| 2026 | ||
