The 2012 Commencement Ceremonies have ended.
Honorary Degree Recipients
2012
- Undergraduate ceremony
- Roxana Saberi / Undergraduate Commencement speaker / Journalist, activist
- Hubert E. Jones / Doctor of Humane Letters / Civic entrepreneur
- Gil Santos / Doctor of Humane Letters / Broadcaster
- Barney Frank / Chancellor's Distinguished Service Medal / Congressman
- Graduate ceremony
- Susan K. Avery / Doctor of Science / President and Director, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
- Elizabeth O'Neill LaStaiti / Chancellor's Distinguished Service Medal / First Justice of the Bristol County Probate and Family Court (Ret.)
2011
- Undergraduate ceremony
- Outgoing UMass President Jack Wilson
- New Bedford Symphony conductor David MacKenzie
- Late Charlton College of Business Dean Richard Ward
- Sustainability innovator Janine Benyus
- Graduate ceremony
- Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Roderick Ireland
- Outgoing SMAST Dean John Farrington
Previous Honorary Degree Recipients
2010
- Undergraduate Ceremony
- Graduate Ceremony
2009
- Undergraduate Ceremony:
- Graduate Ceremony:
2008
- Undergraduate Ceremony:
- Graduate Ceremony:
- Dr.Onesky Aupont
- Yong Zhang
- Jennifer Ling Datchuk, Master of Fine Arts candidate ( Read her remarks)
2007
- Senator John F. Kerry (commencement speaker)
- Teresa Heinz Kerry
- Edmund Barry Gaither
- Robert P. Lawrence
- Julie Moir Messervy
2006
- Janet L. Robinson, President, New York Times Company
- William Giblin '57, President and CEO, Tweave Incorporated, Former Trustee, 1994 - 2004, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
- William Hayden '62, Senior Managing Director and partner, Bear Stearns, Co-Head, Bear Stearns Public Finance Division
- Harold Holzer, Senior Vice President, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Leading authority on Abraham Lincoln and Civil War era political culture
2005
- Brian Helgeland, '83, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Diane Wood Middlebrook, Doctor of Human Letters
- Luis Pedroso, Doctor of Business Administration
2004
- Commencement Speaker Dr. Rita L. Colwell, Doctor of Science
- Daniel E. Bogan, '59 BS, Doctor of Business Administration
- Anthony F. Andrade, Doctor of Humane Letters
2003
- Joseph H. Feitelberg, BA, Doctor of Business Administration
- Juda Folkman, BA, MD, Doctor of Science
- William T. Kennedy, BA, Doctor of Humane Letters
2002
- Dr. G. Timothy Johnson, Doctor of Science
- William J. LeMessurier, P.E., Doctor of Engineering
- John W. Rowe, Doctor of Business Administration
- Robert A. Watkins, Jr., Doctor of Humane Letters
- Dr. Adrian Tinsley, Chancellor's Distinguished Service Award
2001
- Janet Reno, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Michael Beach, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Mary, Viscountess Eccles, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Joseph Abboud, Doctor of Fine Arts
- Julia Child, Doctor of Humane Letters
- James J. Karam, Doctor of Business Administration
2000
- Dr. Helen Hennessy Vendler, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Dr. Margaret Geller, Doctor of Science
- Bishop Sean Patrick O'Malley, Doctor of Humane Letters
- Frank B. Sousa Jr., Doctor of Business Administration
