Connecticut College has awarded honorary degrees to distinguished persons since 1981. View the list of Honorary Degree recipients.
Spring 2024
Laura Coates
Spring 2023
Sally Susman '84
Spring 2022
Deborah Bial
Linda Lear '62
Spring 2021
Ethan Brown '94
Spring 2020
Patrick Awuah *(awarded in 2022)
Spring 2019
Martin Chalfie
Tulle Inger Hazelrigg
Spring 2018
Jazmine Hughes '12
Spring 2017
Colson Whitehead
Spring 2016
Rukmini Callimachi
Bryan Stevenson
Spring 2015
Eric Schlosser
Spring 2014
Noah Feldman
Leo I. Higdon Jr.
Spring 2013
Howard Gordon
Spring 2012
Louis B. Susman P’84
Spring 2011
Cynthia Enloe ’60
Spring 2010
Mary Ellen Jukoski
Jeffrey D. Sachs
Spring 2009
Barbara Shattuck Kohn ’72
Martha C. Nussbaum
Spring 2008
Tavis Smiley
Spring 2007
Robert D. Ballard
Richard S. Kennedy
Spring 2006
Wangari Maathai
Spring 2005
Alphonse “Buddy” Fletcher
Estelle Parsons '49
Vandana Shiva
Spring 2004
Anita L. DeFrantz ’74
Fall 2003
Benjamin R. Barber
Spring 2003
Wally Lamb
Fall 2001
Harold Hongju Koh
Spring 2001
Joseph Lieberman
Wynton Marsalis
Robert A. G. Monks
W. C. Montagnier
Vilayanur S. Ramachandran
Rachel Robinson
Craig J. Venter
Fall 2000
Rev. Johnny Youngblood
Spring 2000
John Gardner
Arthur Gelb
Barbara Gelb
Cesar Pelli
Arn Chorn Pond
Jonathan Spence
Edward O. Wilson
Fall 1999
David Kessler
Paul Volcker
Charles Wadsworth
Jeffrey Wigand
Spring 1999
Michael Brown
Howard Gardner
Theodore Hesburgh
Frank McCourt
Ellen Stewart
Fall 1998
Glenn Andreotta
Pierre Boulez
Lawrence Colburn
Hugh Thompson
Spring 1998
Antoinette Dupont
Charles Gill
Mario Molina
Michael Price
Morris Wessel
Andrew Young
Fall 1997
Ric Burns
Judy Crichton
Spring 1997
James Comer
Arthur Danto
Catherine Kennedy
Paul Kennedy
Susan St. James
William Steere
Harris Wofford
Fall 1996
Miep Gies
William Gray
Adam Michnik
Grace Mirabella
Spring 1996
Tom Brokaw
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Glen and Mildred Let
Patrick McCaughey
Hugh B. Price
Fall 1995
Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Robert Coles
Francis Fukuyama
Ruby Bridges Hall
Marvin Minsky
Morris Wessel
Andrew Young
Spring 1995
Alvin P. Adams, Jr.
Russell P. Baker
Sir Gordon Beveridge
Drew S. Days, III
Margaret J. Geller
Wendy Kopp
Colm O’Heocha
Edward R. Tufte
Fall 1994
Cornel West
Spring 1994
Jewell Plummer Cobb
Amitai Etzioni
Roger Fisher
Juan Somavia
George White
Kimba Wood ’66
Fall 1993
Carlos Fuentes
Sigmund Strochlitz
Louis W. Sullivan
Spring 1993
Annie Dillard
Peter Dyvig
Jack F. Matlock, Jr.
Fall 1992
Barry Bloom
Barry Commoner
Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.
Spring 1992
David A. Hays
William K. Reilly
Rosalyn S. Yalow
Fall 1991
William Cronon
Mark Salzman
Mario Vargas Llosa
Spring 1991
Jacques d'Amboise
Fred Hechinger
Grace Hechinger
Alvin Poussaint
Fall 1990
Sidney Altman
Stephen Jay Gould
Elie Wiesel
Spring 1990
Colin G. Campbell
William J. Crowe, Jr.
Joycelyn Elders
Mark Lamos
Spring 1989
Tadashi Hara
Leonard A. Lauder
Margaret Lawrence
Sara Lawrence Lightfoot
Glegg Watson
Spring 1988
Louise Ames
Oakes Ames
Guido Calabresi
William Meredith
Spring 1987
Ernest Boyer
Marian W. Edelman
Alice Rivlin
Fall 1986
Leon Sullivan
Spring 1986
Dorothy C. Goodwin
Gerald D. Laubach
Lloyd George Richards
Fall 1985
Vartan Gregorian
Spring 1985
Ellen Ash Peters
Roger Tory Peterson
Frazar Bullard Wilde
Fall 1984
Barbara Wertheim Tuchman
Spring 1984
Helen Lehman Buttenwieser '27
Charlayne Hunter-Gault
Theodore Ryland Sizer
Spring 1983
Paul B. Taylor
Lewis Thomas
Spring 1982
Susanne K. Langer
Chase Going Woodhouse
Spring 1981
Ella T. Grasso (Posthumous)