Our commencement speakers embody the creative intellect of the Simon’s Rock community. They have embraced the challenge of forging an innovative path in their lives and careers.
Year | Speaker | Background | Speech |
---|---|---|---|
2019 | Jamaica Kincaid |
Author and Harvard Professor |
Article |
2018 | April Ryan |
White House correspondent, author, and CNN political analyst |
Text |
2017 | Lauren Duca |
Award-winning writer and Teen Vogue contributing editor |
Text |
2016 | Paul Krugman P’13 | Economist, author, columnist for The New York Times | Text |
2015 | Henry Alford ’80 | Humorist, journalist, contributor for The New Yorker | |
2014 | Nina Perales ’82 |
Civil rights attorney, vice president of litigation at |
|
2013 | Ben Bernanke P’00 | Former chairman of the Federal Reserve | |
2012 | Philip Levine | Former U.S. poet laureate | |
2011 | Ronan Farrow ’99 | Journalist, lawyer, diplomat, writer for The New Yorker | Text |
2010 | Christa Brelsford ’01 | Oak Ridge National Laboratory fellow, humanitarian | |
2009 | John McWhorter ’83 | Linguist, author, associate professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University |
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2008 | Blenda Wilson | Former president of California State University, Northridge | |
2007 | Robert Greifeld | Former chairman of NASDAQ | |
2006 | Doug Ahlers, ’77 | Online advertising and e-commerce pioneer | |
2005 | Eli Pariser ’96 | CEO of Upworthy, former executive director of MoveOn.org | Text |
2004 | Bernie Rodgers | Retired faculty in literature at Simon’s Rock and former dean of the College |
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2003 | Benjamin Barber | Political theorist and adviser, author | |
2002 | William Ferris | Author, scholar, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities |
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2001 | Peter Hedges | Novelist, playwright, film director, Academy Award-nominated screenwriter |
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2000 | John H. D’Arms | Former president of the American Council of Learned Societies; Roman scholar |
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1999 | Aryeh Neier | Co-founder of Human Rights Watch | |
1998 | Carol Gilligan | Feminist, psychologist, ethics of care founder | |
1997 | Tina Packer and Kristin Linklater |
Co-founders of Shakespeare and Company | |
1996 | Joshua Lederberg | Molecular biologist and 1958 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine winner |
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1995 | William Durden | Former president of Dickinson College | |
1994 | David Levering Lewis | Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of W.E.B. Du Bois | |
1993 | Edward “Ted” Kennedy | Massachusetts senator | |
1992 | Mike McGraw | Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter | |
1991 | Chinua Achebe | Author, 2007 Man Booker International Prize winner | |
1990 | Miklos Haraszti | Journalist and human rights activist; | |
1989 | William Schaufele | Diplomat, U.S. Department of State official | |
1988 | Carolyn Heilbrun | Author and first woman to receive tenure at Columbia University | |
1987 | Grace Paley | Award-winning short story author, poet, political activist, named first official New York State Writer |
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1986 | Francine du Plessix Gray | Pulitzer Prize-nominated author, contributor for The New Yorker | |
1985 | John Ashbery | Pulitzer Prize-winning poet | |
1984 | Joseph Murphy | Former chancellor at the City University of New York | |
1983 | Victor Gotbaum | Former president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees District Council 37 |
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1982 | Joseph Duffey | Former chancellor of UMass Amherst | |
1981 | Marian Wright Edelman | Founder of the Children’s Defense Fund | |
1980 | James Shannon | Former Massachusetts congressman and attorney general | |
1979 | G. Alexander Heard | Former chancellor at Vanderbilt University and presidential advisor | |
1978 | Hans Morgenthau | Political scientist, classical realist | |
1977 | Adele Smith Simmons | First female president of Hampshire College | |
1976 | Leroy Keith Jr. | Former chancellor of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education |
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1975 | Richard Dyer-Bennet | Folk singer | |
1974 | Anne Richardson | Former chairwoman of Reading Is Fundamental, the nation's largest organization promoting children’s literacy | |
1973 | Baird Whitlock | Former president of Bard College at Simon’s Rock | |
1972 | Baird Whitlock | Former president of Bard College at Simon’s Rock | |
1971 | George Cabot Lodge P’67 | Former Harvard Business School professor, politician | |
1970 | Franklin Patterson | First president of Hampshire College |