RPI Commencement Speakers

NO.	DATE	CLASS	SPEAKER
1-35	1826-1861		No formal commencement speakers
36	July 9, 1862	1862	Nathan S.S. Beman, RPI President
37	July 8, 1863	1863	Nathan S.S. Beman, RPI President
38	June 29, 1864	1864	George Gould, Judge
39	July 6, 1865	1865	John F. Winslow, RPI President
40	July 3, 1866	1866	John F. Winslow, RPI President
41	July 2, 1867	1867	John F. Winslow, RPI President
42	June 30, 1868	1868	Thomas C. Brinsmade, RPI President
43	June 23, 1869	1869	William J. McAlpine
44	June 21, 1870	1870	R. W. Raymond, Commissioner of Mines
45	June 28, 1871	1871	James Forsyth, RPI President
46	June 26, 1872	1872	James Forsyth, RPI President
47	June 17, 1873	1873	James Forsyth, RPI President
48	June 17, 1874	1874	James Forsyth, RPI President
49	June 16, 1875	1875	James Forsyth, RPI President
50	June 14, 1876	1876	James Forsyth, RPI President
51	June 13, 1877	1877	Alfred P. Boller ’61, AMCE
52	June 12, 1878	1878	James Forsyth, RPI President
53	June 18, 1879	1879
54	June 16, 1880	1880	Francis Collingwood ‘55, C.E.
55	June 15, 1881	1881	Clarkson N. Potter ’43
56	June 14, 1882	1882	C. E. Patterson
57	June 13, 1883	1883
58	June 18, 1884	1884	Rev. Charles Wood
59	June 17, 1885	1885
60	June 16, 1886	1886	Capt. Robert Woolston Hunt
61	June 15, 1887	1887	Henry R. Pierson, NYS Regent
62	June 13, 1888	1888	B. F. Isherwood, Chief Engineer, US Navy
63	June 19, 1889	1889	Rt. Rev. Henry C. Potter, Bishop of NY
64	June 18, 1890	1890	Matthew Hale, LL.D. & Chauncey M. Depew, LL.D.
65	June 17, 1891	1891	Charles Macdonald ‘57, C.E.
66	June 15, 1892	1892	William Metcalf ’58, C.E.
67	June 14, 1893	1893	Joseph H. Mullin ’69, C.E.
68	June 13, 1894	1894	Joseph M. Wilson ’58, C.E.
69	June 12, 1895	1895	Othniel F. Nichols ’68, C.E.
70	June 10, 1896	1896	Theodore Voorhees ‘69, C.E.
71	June 16, 1897	1897	G. S. Morison
72	June 15, 1898	1898	Alfred T. White ’65, C.E.
73	June 14, 1899	1899	Capt. Henry C. Taylor, Commander U. S. Battleship Indiana, US Navy
74	June 13, 1900	1900	Rear Admiral Mordecai T. Endicott ’68, Chief of Yards & Docks, US Navy
75	June 19, 1901	1901	Col. Henry G. Prout, Editor, Railroad Gazette
76	June 18, 1902	1902	Capt. Robert Woolston Hunt
77	June 19, 1903	1903	George W. Plympton ’47, Director, Cooper Institute
78	June 20, 1904	1904	Foster Crowell
79	June 14, 1905	1905	Nelson P. Lewis ’79, Chief Engineer, Board of Estimate and Apportionment, NY City
80	June 13, 1906	1906	Rev. Charles Wood
81	June 12, 1907	1907	W. Harvey Wiley, Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry
82	June 17, 1908	1908	Walter C. Kerr, President, Westinghouse, Church, Kerr & Co.
83	June 16, 1909	1909	Onward Bates ‘75, President, ASCE
84	June 15, 1910	1910	Frank C. Osborn ’80, Osborn Engineering Co.
85	June 14, 1911	1911	Admiral Robert E. Peary, Civil Engineer Corp, US Navy
86	June 12, 1912	1912	Henry W. Hodge ’85, Consulting Engineer, NY City
87	June 18, 1913	1913	John Sterling Deans, Chief Engineer, Phoenix Bridge Co.
88	June 17, 1914	1914	John Houston Finley, LL.D., President, University of the State of NY
89	June 16, 1915	1915	Hiram F. Mills ’56, Hydraulic Engineer
90	June 14, 1916	1916	Alfred Tredway White ‘65, C.E.
91	June 13, 1917	1917	Charles Whiting Baker, Consulting Editor, Engineering News-Record
92	May 1, 1918	1918	Edwin Wilbur Rice, Jr., President General Electric
93	Dec. 21, 1918	1919	Rev. Dr. Joseph H. Odell
94	May 31, 1919	1919	no commencement ceremony degrees conferred to returning Veterans
95	June 16, 1920	1920	Rev. Dr. Joseph H. Odell Col. Ransom H. Gillett
96	June 17, 1921	1921	Frederick B. Smith
97	June 16, 1922	1922	Dallis L. Sharp, Prof. of English Literature, Boston University
98	June 15, 1923	1923	Rear Admiral Harry H. Rousseau ‘91
99	June 13, 1924	1924	George S. Davison, President ‘78, Gulf Refining Co.
100	June 19, 1925	1925	John Van Wicheren Reynders ’86, Consulting Engineer
101	June 14, 1926	1926	Ralph Earle, President, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
102	June 10, 1927	1927	Philip W. Henry ‘87
103	June 11, 1928	1928	Percival M. Sax ’90, Consulting Engineer
104	June 15, 1929	1929	Morris R. Sherrerd ’86, Consulting Engineer
105	June 14, 1930	1930	John N. Shannahan, President, Omaha & Council Bluffs Street Railway Co.
106	June 13, 1931	1931	Charles Butler, Architect, New York City
107	June 11, 1932	1932	Clarence F. Hirshfeld, Detroit Edison Company
108	June 17, 1933	1933	Leonor F. Loree, President, D & H Railroad Co.
109	June 16, 1934	1934	Rt. Hon. R. B. Bennett, Prime Minister of Canada
110	June 15, 1935	1935	Major General Edward Murphy Markham, Chief Engineers, USA
111	June 13, 1936	1936	Samuel Ferguson, Chairman of the Board, Hartford Electric Light and Power Co.
112	June 14, 1937	1937	Homer L. Ferguson, President, Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co.
113	June 13, 1938	1938	Rear Admiral Luther E. Gregory Civil Engineer Corps, Retired
114	June 12, 1939	1939	Stephen F. Voorhees, Architect, Voorhees, Walker, Foley and Smith
115	June 17, 1940	1940	Clark H. Minor, President, International General Electric Co.
116	June 16, 1941	1941	Philip D. Reed, Chairman of the Board, General Electric Co.
117	May 17, 1942	1942	Albert N. Williams, President, Western Union Telegraph Co.
118	July 7, 1942	1942
	Dec. 23, 1942	1943	Alexander Loudon, Netherlands Ambassador to US
	June 19, 1943	1943
	Dec. 23, 1943	1944	Eugene E. Wilson, Vice Chairman of the Board, United Aircraft Corp., Hartford, CT
	Feb. 26, 1944	1944
	June 21, 1944	1945	Philip W. Henry
	Aug. 20, 1944	1945	Allen B. Du Mont ’24, President, Allen B. Du Mont Laboratories, Inc.
	Oct. 21, 1944	1945	Maj. Gen. William Henry Harrison, Chief, Procurement and Distribution Service, US Army
	Feb. 22, 1945	1946	Percival M. Sax ’90, Consulting Engineer
	April 22, 1945	1946	James H. McGraw, Jr., President, McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., Inc.
	June 22 1945	1946	Malcolm Pirnie, C.E.
	Oct. 24, 1945	1947	Rear Admiral Lewis B. Combs ‘16, Asst. Chief, Bureau of Yards & Docks, US Navy
	Feb. 22, 1946	1947	Rear Admiral John J. Manning ‘15, Chief, Bureau of Yards & Docks, US Navy
	June 24, 1946	1947	Maj. Gen. Edmond H. Leavey, Chief of Transportation, Army Service Forces
134	Feb. 1, 1947	1947	Arthur S. Adams, Provost, Cornell University
135	June 16, 1947	1947	Harry A. Winne, Vice President of Engineering Policy, General Electric Co.
136	Aug. 30, 1947	1947	Francis E. Gallagher, President, Behr-Manning Corp.
137	Jan. 24, 1948	1948	Frank W. Abrams, Chairman of the Board, Standard Oil Company
138	June 11, 1948	1948	Charles Erwin Wilson, President, GM Corp.
139	Sept. 4, 1948	1948	Robert Paxton, Manager, GE Corp.
140	Jan. 29, 1949	1949	Harvey N. Davis, President, Stevens Institute of Technology
141	June 10, 1949	1949	Ben Moreell, President, Jones, & Laughline Steel Corp.
142	Jan. 27, 1950	1950	Gen. Omar N. Bradley, Chairman, Joint Chief of Staff, Department of Defense
143	June 9, 1950	1950	Harry Stanley Rogers, President, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn
144	Jan. 26, 1951	1951	Brehon Burke Somervell, General President, Koppers Company, Inc.
145	June 8, 1951	1951	Earl James McGrath, U.S. Commissioner of Ed.
146	June 6, 1952	1952	Barry Truman Leithead, President, Cluett, Peabody & Company, Inc.
147	June 5, 1953	1953	David Barnard Steinman, Consulting Engineer
148	June 11, 1954	1954	Emil H. Praeger ’15, Consulting Engineer
149	June 10, 1955	1955	Lewis A. Wilson, President, NYS Commissioner of Education
150	June 8, 1956	1956	John P. Myers, Chancellor, Board of Regents
151	June 7, 1957	1957	Bertram D. Tallamy ’25, Federal Highway Administrator, U.S. Bureau of Public Roads
152	June 6, 1958	1958	Robert Paxton ’23, President, General Electric
153	June 5, 1959	1959	Samuel C. Waugh, President, Export-Import Bank
154	June 10, 1960	1960	John A. McCone, Chairman, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
155	June 9, 1961	1961	Frederick Russell Kappel, President, American Telephone & Telegraph Co.
156	June 8, 1962	1962	Warren Weaver, President, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
157	June 7, 1963	1963	Courtlandt Sherrington Gross, Chairman of the Board, Lockheed Aircraft Corporation
158	June 12, 1964	1964	Chauncey Starr ’32, President, Atomics International Division of North American Aviation, Inc.
159	June 11, 1965	1965	Augustus Braun Kinzel, Vice President, Research, Union Carbide Corp.
160	June 10, 1966	1966	John Herbert Hollomon, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Science and Technology
161	June 9, 1967	1967	Emilio Quincy Daddario, Congressman, U.S. House of Representatives
162	June 7, 1968	1968	No speaker
163	June 13, 1969	1969	Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, NYS Governor
164	June 12, 1970	1970	Lee Alvin DuBridge, Science Advisor to the President of the United States
165	June 11, 1971	1971	Isaac Asimov, Science Writer
166	June 9, 1972	1972	Alvin Toffler, Social Historian
167	May 25, 1973	1973	Walter Joseph Hickel, Environmentalist
168	May 31, 1974	1974	Ivar Giaever, Research Physicist, GE Co.
169	June 6, 1975	1975	Carl Edward Sagan, Director, Laboratory for Planetary Studies, Cornell University
170	May 14, 1976	1976	Walter Cronkite, CBS News Anchor
171	May 20, 1977	1977	Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Explorer and Environmentalist
172	May 26, 1978	1978	Dixy Lee Ray, Governor of Washington State
173	May 18, 1979	1979	Harry Andrew Blackmun, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
174	May 16, 1980	1980	Theodore Martin Hesburgh, President, Notre Dame University
175	May 15, 1981	1981	Harrison Hagen Schmitt, U.S. Senator, New Mexico
176	May 21, 1982	1982	George A. Keyworth II, Director, Office of Science & Technology Policy, Executive Office of the U.S. President
177	May 20, 1983	1983	Daniel Patrick Moynihan, U.S. Senator, NY
178	May 18, 1984	1984	Lt. General James A. Abrahamson, Director of Strategic Defense Initiatives, US Dept. of Defense
179	May 17, 1985	1985	Dr. Richard L. Garwin, Fellow, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center
180	May 16, 1986	1986	Garry B. Trudeau, Cartoonist and Author
181	May 15, 1987	1987	John F. Akers, Chairman of the Board, IBM
182	May 20, 1988	1988	Hon. James B. Hunt, Jr., Senior Partner, Poyner & Spruill Law Firm, Former Governer of North Carolina
183	May 19, 1989	1989	Walter E. Massey, VP for Research for Argonne National Laboratory & Professor of Physics, Univ. of Chicago
184	May 18, 1990	1990	D. Allan Bromley, Assistant to the President of the United States for Science and Technology
185	May 17, 1991	1991	Peter V. Ueberroth, Investor and Entrepreneur
186	May 15, 1992	1992	Thomas L. Clancy, Jr., Author
187	May 14, 1993	1993	Robert Resnick, Professor Physics
188	May 20, 1994	1994	Dr. William C. W. Mow ’59, Chairman & CEO, Bugle Boy Industries
189	May 19, 1995	1995	G. David Low, Astronaut, NASA
190	May 17, 1996	1996	Peter Eio, President, Lego Systems, Inc.
191	May 16, 1997	1997	Roland Schmidt, former president of RPI
192	May 15, 1998	1998	Michael E. Herman ’62, President, Kansas City Royals
193	May 14, 1999	1999	William S. Nye aka Bill Nye the Science Guy, Scientist/Inventor/Comedian/Author
194	May 13, 2000	2000	Rodney E. Slater, Secretary, U.S. Dept. of Transportation
195	May 12, 2001	2001	William H. Cosby Jr., Actor/Comedian/Educator
196	May 18, 2002	2002	Dennis A. Tito ’64, Civilian Space Traveller
197	May 17, 2003	2003	Dr. Benjamin S. Carson, Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
198	May 15, 2004	2004	Robert Metcalfe, Internet Pioneer, Polaris Venture Partners
199	May 20, 2005	2005	Hillary Rodham Clinton, Senator, New York; former First Lady of the U.S.
200	May 21, 2006	2006	Gen. Wesley K. Clark, CEO, Wesley K. Clark & Associates
201	May 19, 2007	2007	Thomas Friedman, Best-selling Author; Pulitzer Prize winning columnist, New York Times
202	May 17, 2008	2008	David Gergen, Political Analyst, Editor, Best-selling Author, and Harvard Professor