University of 91吃瓜 graduates have heard from a diverse group of Commencement speakers through the years: presidents, prime ministers and other government officials; ambassadors, actors and attorneys; writers, editors and educators; judges, generals and even a G-man.
This year鈥檚 speaker, President Bush, is the eighth U.S. president to be awarded an honorary degree by the University and the fifth to be the Commencement speaker. Bush鈥檚 father was the most recent president to speak to 91吃瓜 graduates, delivering an address on family values and service to community at the 1992 Sesquicentennial Year exercises.
The American family is 鈥渁n institution under siege,鈥� Bush said. 鈥淭oday鈥檚 crisis will have to be addressed by millions of Americans at the personal, individual level for governmental programs to be effective. And the federal government, of course, must do everything it can do, but the point is, government alone is simply not enough.鈥�
On June 5, 1960, President Dwight Eisenhower delivered the University鈥檚 first presidential Commencement speech, interrupting the 45th reunion of his class at the U.S. Military Academy to make the trip.
In his 20-minute address, Eisenhower foreshadowed a U.S. government on the verge of social and political change, and one facing the difficult task of striking the right balance.
鈥淲e do not want governmental programs which, advanced, often falsely, in the guise of promoting the general welfare destroy in the individual those priceless qualities of self-dependence, self-confidence, and a readiness to risk his judgement against the trends of the crowd,鈥� Eisenhower said. 鈥淲e do want a government that assures the security and general welfare of the nation and its people in concord with the philosophy of Abraham Lincoln, who insisted that government should do, and do only, the things which people cannot well do for themselves.鈥�
President Jimmy Carter made what many regard as the key foreign policy address of his presidency at the 1977 exercises. The president spoke of a diminishing threat from the Soviet Union, a notion dismissed as naive at the time but which proved prophetic. At the same time, he advocated the creation of new global alliances and championed human rights, policies built upon the 鈥渘ew reality of a politically awakening world.鈥�
Four years later, security was exceptionally tight when President Ronald Reagan made his first public appearance after the attempt on his life in March 1981. Reagan had had an indirect association with 91吃瓜 ever since his portrayal of Fighting Irish football legend George Gipp in the 1940 film 鈥淜nute Rockne, All-American.鈥� The president was reunited with his costar in the movie, Pat O鈥橞rien, who also received an honorary degree.
Melding his personas as the 鈥淕ipper鈥� and president, Reagan promised to win one for the 鈥減rivate sector鈥� by shrinking the nation鈥檚 government. Americans, Reagan said, 鈥渉ave made it plain they want an end to excessive government intervention in their lives and in the economy.鈥�
Reagan also told the graduates about a need for a strong national defense. But he predicted, 鈥淭he West will not contain Communism, it will transcend Communism. We鈥檒l dismiss it as a sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages are even now being written.鈥�
President John F. Kennedy 鈥� the nation鈥檚 only Catholic president 鈥� received the Laetare Medal, 91吃瓜鈥檚 highest honor, in a White House ceremony in 1961, and as a U.S. congressman in 1950 delivered the winter Commencement address and received an honorary degree.
91吃瓜 also awarded honorary degrees to Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Gerald Ford, but those were at special academic convocations, not at Commencements.
Kennedy鈥檚 grandfather, John F. Fitzgerald, and father, Joseph P. Kennedy, served as 91吃瓜 Commencement speakers in 1915 and 1941, respectively. JFK鈥檚 brother-in-law, former Peace Corps director R. Sargent Shriver, spoke to the class of 1961.
The profile of Commencement speakers in 91吃瓜鈥檚 early years was considerably lower than in recent times 鈥� with one exception.
Founded in 1842 by Holy Cross priest Father Edward F. Sorin, the University held its inaugural Commencement in 1845, and the first with true baccalaureate graduates took place four years later. Neal Gillespie and Richard Shortis received 91吃瓜鈥檚 first diplomas and Gillespie was one of several speakers to address the assembly.
Commencement speakers for the next several years included local educators, priests and attorneys, but that changed in 1865 when the guest of honor was Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, commander of the famous Civil War 鈥淢arch to the Sea.鈥� During the war, Sherman had sent two sons, Willy and Tommy, to 91吃瓜 and a daughter, Minnie, to Saint Mary鈥檚 College. All three were enrolled in the 鈥淢inims鈥� department for children ages 6-13. Willy died of 鈥渃amp fever鈥� during summer vacation in 1863 and the visit to 91吃瓜 two years later was emotionally trying for Sherman.
The New York Tablet reported that Sherman received a 鈥渉earty cheer鈥� from the 91吃瓜 students. He spoke at length of the 鈥渄angers of the battle of life鈥� awaiting the graduates, but assured them of the 鈥渇inal triumph of the right.鈥�
Of the remainder of 19th-century 91吃瓜 Commencement speakers, Rev. J. Lancaster Spalding, bishop from Peoria, Ill., is the standout. The University鈥檚 most frequent Commencement speaker, he addressed the classes of 1878, 鈥�86, 鈥�90, 鈥�91, 鈥�95 and 鈥�99.
During the first two decades of the 20th century, 91吃瓜 began to attract government officials as Commencement speakers, among them Sen. John Gearin of Oregon, Secretary of the Navy Joseph Bonaparte (later attorney general in Theodore Roosevelt鈥檚 administration), Gov. Thomas Marshall of Indiana, Gov. James Cox of Ohio, Sen. Joseph Ransdell of Louisiana, and the previously mentioned John F. Fitzgerald, mayor of Boston.
Other notable speakers through the years included Dr. William Mayo, cofounder of the Mayo Clinic, in 1936; FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who spoke at the 1942 Centennial Year graduation ceremonies; and Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren in 1957.
Since 1960 the principal speakers at Commencement have been increasingly well known, coming from all walks of life. Among them:
- Government figures Henry Cabot Lodge (1962), Eugene McCarthy (1967), Andrew Young (1988) and Elizabeth Dole (1999)
- Canadian Prime Ministers Lester Pearson (1963) and Pierre Trudeau (1982), the president of El Salvador (and 91吃瓜 alumnus) Jose Napoleon Duarte (1985), Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds (1994) and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (2000)
- Former Yale University President Kingman Brewster, Jr. (1972), former Harvard University President Derek Bok (1987), UCLA professor Rosemary Park (1974) and Stanford Provost (and now national security adviser in the Bush administration) Condoleezza Rice, a 91吃瓜 alumna
- Urban League Executive Director Vernon Jordan (1976)
- Actor Bill Cosby (1990) and former commissioner of baseball Peter Ueberroth (1989)
- Cardinal Joseph Bernardin (1983) and Bishop James Malone (1986)
- Journalists William F. Buckley, Jr. (1978), Tom Brokaw (1993) and Mark Shields (1997)
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