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 |
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| 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 |